Glycol chiller on a budget?

[BSBRick]

What is the most cost effective way to chill a 1-3BBL and 2-5BBL uni-tanks for my tight budget? I can't afford $6500 for shiny new system. Is it possible to get away with a draft line chiller? According to my tank vendor total combined jacket volume is 75 liters.

Any assistance/ideas are appreciated.

Thanks!

[515Dave]

You could try a bigger draft line chiller. The problem you're going to run into is crashing on the 5bbls is going to take a while, even doing one at a time, especially depending on what else you're trying to do at the same time.

The jacket capacity isn't all that important, but can be an issue when you first start crashing a beer when your chiller has a small resivour and all that warm glycol goes into the system, including through any tanks you've got crashed and holding (this actually helps as those tanks will cool the glycol, but they will experience a temperature spike until the chiller catches back up).

You could also go super ghetto and put a 55 gallon drum in your walk in and use that (I know places that do this) but I doubt you'd be very happy with the performance, and you'd probably not get things much below 40 ever.

My recommendation is to find the right # btus and buy something properly sized. You will regret it if you don't.


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[Garrick]

Budget Chiller

We use a pre-chiller (50 feet coiled copper in 15 gallon reservoir filled with ice) to cool the glycol down before it returns to the chiller's tank. Reduces the strain on the system while crash cooling our 7 barrel FMs. Also use it to chill the bright beer prior to canning.
Works well for us. . .

Garrick