We built our own glycol chilling system and wrapped two, non-jacketed, 800L (6.5BBL) Brite tanks with tubing around two years ago. We measured our glycol solution with a borrowed glycol reader at the time of building (it was a very expensive reader borrowed from a local airport a friend worked at). We had never had much issue with cooling. If anything, we had the opposite problem. The chiller was an 8000btu A/C, the glycol was mixed adequately (although we added more glycol over time). It seemed to be a very efficient system and within the first few months we accidentally froze the beer on both of the Brites (at separate times) when the pump sending the glycol into the tank had a probe issue. But it would cool 65º beer down into the 30ºs in less than 24 hours.
But a few months ago, we suddenly had a lot of cooling issues. Thinking it was related to when a line ruptured we pulled the two wrapped tanks apart and rewrapped them. When that didn't help, we looked at the cooling unit and decided to replace the 8000btu A/C with a 10k and 8k dual A/C setup. That didn't do anything either. At this point, we started thinking our glycol was the cause, and after looking at this chart http://www.probrewer.com/library/ref...-about-glycol/ we replaced all the glycol in the system. We cut 100% pure glycol with water. We used two of our brix refractometers to measure and it's reading 23º Brix. The thing is, I am pretty sure the ratio of glycol to water is off compared to what the chart is telling us. I believe it's closer to a 45/55 or 40/60 solution (I lost my notes from when we added the glycol & water, so I'm going off of memory).
We're still not able to get either of the tanks below 38ºF, and that takes several days, while the glycol gets down around 18º and stops. If we turn off the recirculation to the tanks, the glycol gets colder (although it warms back up to the same temp after we put it back on Brites). The glycol solution is *not* freezing in there though. I would add more water, but I don't want to introduce more issues at this point. Can someone give me some advice?
Note: With recirculation on, I pulled the glycol from about 6" deep with a turkey baster.
Thanks!
But a few months ago, we suddenly had a lot of cooling issues. Thinking it was related to when a line ruptured we pulled the two wrapped tanks apart and rewrapped them. When that didn't help, we looked at the cooling unit and decided to replace the 8000btu A/C with a 10k and 8k dual A/C setup. That didn't do anything either. At this point, we started thinking our glycol was the cause, and after looking at this chart http://www.probrewer.com/library/ref...-about-glycol/ we replaced all the glycol in the system. We cut 100% pure glycol with water. We used two of our brix refractometers to measure and it's reading 23º Brix. The thing is, I am pretty sure the ratio of glycol to water is off compared to what the chart is telling us. I believe it's closer to a 45/55 or 40/60 solution (I lost my notes from when we added the glycol & water, so I'm going off of memory).
We're still not able to get either of the tanks below 38ºF, and that takes several days, while the glycol gets down around 18º and stops. If we turn off the recirculation to the tanks, the glycol gets colder (although it warms back up to the same temp after we put it back on Brites). The glycol solution is *not* freezing in there though. I would add more water, but I don't want to introduce more issues at this point. Can someone give me some advice?
Note: With recirculation on, I pulled the glycol from about 6" deep with a turkey baster.
Thanks!
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