Temperature Limitations on Jacketed Fermentation Vessel

[Opera House]

I have a small 3-Barrel system and am wondering if it is a good idea to transfer hot wort (190 degree) from the boil kettle into a jacketed FV. From there I would cool it down through a heat exchanger to fermentation temperature. An advantage would be that it would add another level of protection against any unwanted bacteria. But I'm concerned that jacketed FVs are not engineered to withstand high temps such as this. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this.

Opera House

[briangaylor]

I'm confused - if there is a heat exchanger available, why not cool it on the way down to the FV? Or are you talking about using the glycol as the 'heat exchanger' to cool the liquid down to pitching temperatures? I think that would 1) take a very long time and 2) tax your cooling machinery to the point of warming up other vessels in the same loop.

Or are you transferring the hot liquid into the FV in order to kill any bugs that were missed by previous cleaning? Seems like an unnecessary step to me - but to answer the most basic question - I would not expect a stainless FV to have a negative reaction to heat in that temp range. I imagine it is built to a similar spec as a HLT which could see that temp all day and not flinch.




Brian

[TiminOz]

Do not put the hot wort in your Jacketed FV, it is not built like and HLT which does not have glycol jackets and a different type of insulation for hot. Also if you have glycol in your jackets you will stand a good chance of creating extra pressure and causing jacket leaks. Use the heat ex!

[TGTimm]

No!

Definitely not. The insulation in your FV is almost certainly styrene foam, or similar, which will begin to scorch well below 190F. The gasses released are pretty nasty, possibly toxic (formaldehyde, etc.), and you won't have any effective insulation left.

[thelorax121]

While I would agree that this is probably a more inefficient process and you should be 100% sure of your cleaning and sanitation before you let wort touch a fermenter (aka this would allow for sub-standard SOPs), you should check with your manufacturer in regards to temperature ratings. I know that our specific hot and cold side tanks are manufactured with the same jacketing and insulation, the only difference is the liquid/steam we put through on our end, so we could theoretically do this with OUR equipment.

Another issue I see with this process is that you are essentially going to be pulling a vacuum on your tank which is a much more serious issue. Even if your prv is dual purpose (pressure and vacuum relief) you are going to be pulling unsanitary air into you fermenter negating your reason for doing this in the first place. I suppose you could put co2 pressure on top to compensate but it seems to me chilling enroute to the fermenter is a much safer and more efficient procedure. Just my 2c

[Junkyard]

What I would do instead, which is what we do with our plastic conicals:

use your spray ball and CIP pump to SIP with hot water, if you used near boiling water for a small cycle you would most likely kill everything left in there and you wouldn't have to worry about heating the insulation up too much or pulling vacuum inside your jacket.

[TiminOz]

While I would agree that this is probably a more inefficient process and you should be 100% sure of your cleaning and sanitation before you let wort touch a fermenter (aka this would allow for sub-standard SOPs), you should check with your manufacturer in regards to temperature ratings. I know that our specific hot and cold side tanks are manufactured with the same jacketing and insulation, the only difference is the liquid/steam we put through on our end, so we could theoretically do this with OUR equipment.

Another issue I see with this process is that you are essentially going to be pulling a vacuum on your tank which is a much more serious issue. Even if your prv is dual purpose (pressure and vacuum relief) you are going to be pulling unsanitary air into you fermenter negating your reason for doing this in the first place. I suppose you could put co2 pressure on top to compensate but it seems to me chilling enroute to the fermenter is a much safer and more efficient procedure. Just my 2c

I really doubt that your hot and cold side tanks have the same insulation. I would check your designs. Glycol jackets and steam jackets are not the same.