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Using ground water to cool tanks?

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  • Using ground water to cool tanks?

    Has anyone used ground water (well) to cool their tanks instead of a closed system. This is something I might experiment with and wondering if anyone is already doing this. Our ground water is about 54 F. I would be dumping the warmed water into barrels outside which would then be used to water our trees and fill sprayer tanks. Temperature control would be done with a temperature actuated solenoid on the cold water line leading to the tank.

    We make cider, so the temperature consistency is not as critical as beer, but we would like to ferment in the summer when it reaches 80 degrees inside and near 100 degrees outside.

  • #2
    It's doable, would be less efficient because the water temperatures are closer to your desired ferment temperatures. The way I see it here, and I have all sorts of water restrictions, is that it would be the last ditch effort if my chiller failed and I could not get it back online soon enough. I think you will find that you use a lot more water than you think.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by jebzter View Post
      It's doable, would be less efficient because the water temperatures are closer to your desired ferment temperatures. The way I see it here, and I have all sorts of water restrictions, is that it would be the last ditch effort if my chiller failed and I could not get it back online soon enough. I think you will find that you use a lot more water than you think.
      Fermentation temperatures are in the 68-80 degree range with the yeast strain I am using. Our tanks are 240L spiedel jacketed tanks. I know its quite a different setup than beer. How cold do you want the glycol in a closed loop system?

      I am trying to get our operation going and then eventually upgrade to a real chiller, but these were just some thoughts I had to ponder about since we need the water anyways.

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      • #4
        Typically breweries run in the 28-30 range. We have to get lower at the end of fermentation, but the bigger delta T means the tanks cool faster. And that fermentation range is about the same for breweries.

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        • #5
          If you do decide to go this way, and from my experience of admittedly large cider units, I would also used chilled liquid - glycol probably, allow for cleaning the cooling circuits internally on a fairly regular basis to minimise fouling, both biological and mineral. I was surprised in one brewery using fresh water cooling just how quickly the gunk built up and affected cooling efficiency
          dick

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          • #6
            Ya know, every time I see somebody else post "hey, do this DIY duct-tape-and-bailing-wire kludge, it worked great!" I kinda shake my head, so, take the following with a 10BBL batch's water treatment worth of salt (and, I wouldn't even open my mouth if you hadn't said this was a stop-gap; don't plan to run like this for ever!) but:

            I've successfully chilled much bigger tanks (500G variable-capacity wine fermenters filled darn near the brim) using a cooler, a chugger pump, a homebrewing temp controller, various fittings/hoses, and a friendly relationship with the local ice supplier. This was at a meadery, so, we're talking 22°-30° brix "wort," fermented out to 13% or 14% ABV, and we'd be able to maintain temp control with about $100 worth of big bags of cubed ice. I expect, between the smaller volume and less actual sugars fermented per liter, you should have no problem getting that under $50, probably under $25.

            ...and, listen to Mr. Murton on the regular cleaning if you do go this route, "fouling" is an excellent description of the state of our system after cranking out a couple of batches.

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            • #7
              Do you have walk in storage? How about a 55 gallon drum in a walk in cooler feeding the loop and dumping back into the drum?

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