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system needed for two stage wort chilling

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  • system needed for two stage wort chilling

    I know a similar question was in another post but I need more specific answers.

    In the summer it takes forever (and wastes water & would like to make hotter water to clean with) to knock out our 8.5bbl system's 280 +/- gallons of wort

    We'd like to speed things up by adding another heat exchanger and a small glycol system - be nice to have when doing lagers too.

    Anyway here are my calculations bases on a formula posted here somewhere..

    say we have 300 gallons knocking out....

    Dreamy summer speed- in 45 minutes (6.6 GPM)
    want to take it from 85 to 72 degrees (-13 F)
    GPM X temp Change X 500 = 42,900 btu
    OR...
    Decent summer speed- 60 minutes (5GPM)
    = 32,500 btu


    ?1- should we use the glycol to chill down the 55F city water (to what temp should we chill the h2o?) with a second heat exchanger before it cools the wort
    OR the wort - passing it through an exchanger with the glycol- as it comes out of the primary water chiller at about 85F?
    Remember... I want to produce about 150- up to 200 gallons of piping hot water for our HLT.

    ?2- could we use a 'portable' 1 ton chiller for this application (the idea appeals to me) - since we'd only be using it once or twice a week & we don't need it running all the time?
    if not... what would be the smallest size to handle this short but intense application?

    ?3 what size heat exchanger would we need?

    ?4How do BTUs needed relate to the size (tons) we need & HP? Any other ideas to save us time & produce less but hotter water?

    (No- we don't have room in our walk in to pre chill water for knock out & fyi we use cold water in an old grundy tank -with a coil of Freon inside- in our cold room to chill our 4 FVs - at any one time only one calls for cooling - usually- does the job)

    Thank you!
    Heather McNabb

  • #2
    CLT or two stage HX

    Hi Heather

    Nice post that outlines very well the decision you face.

    You can get by with small chiller, or possibly your current system, to cool a Cold Liquor Tank down between batches, typically this vessel is 2 to 3 X your brew size, so 600 to 900 gallons. Brewers will cool this tank of water from 75-80 entering city water down to around 35 F - 40 F final temp. They'll then circulate this to single stage Wort HX at an even flow rate to match your wort flow. As the heat is exchanged to the CL, the warmed water is then fed to your HLT, preheated for next batch.

    If a CLT isn't feasible due to space or other constraints, a two stage HX can be utilized and connected to your chiller system. Some Brewers will simply dedicate all of their available chiller capacity for this 45-60 minute period by isolating the rest of the brewery from the chiller, after wort is processed and the chiller recovers, they then bring the cellar load back online. But you'll need to make sure your chiller system is rated for the wort cooling loads that you calculated. 12,000 BTU equals one Refrigeration Ton, so you'd need a 3-4 ton (5-7.5 HP)system for your estimated loads.

    Id suggest contacting Thermaline, a HX manufactuer, they can provide a quote for a two stage HX. www.thermaline.com

    Hope this is helpful, I'm confident some of your fellow brewers can advise further on the pros and cons of the different wort cooling methods.

    Best regards

    Jim VanderGiessen Jr.
    Pro Chiller Systems
    Last edited by jimvgjr; 12-01-2014, 08:50 AM.

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