Conical Chiller Details and Pics

I have been promising to post material on my chilling set-up for my conicals and so here it is.

I have two 25 gallon stainless conicals. Each of these has an internal 25 foot copper coil that serves as an immersion chiller. Glycol is circulated through these for chilling.


My chilling unit is a glycol beer line chiller, designed to circulate glycol along long runs of beer lines in a draught situation. The unit has a compressor, reservoir, pump, plate heat exchanger and various controls, thermostats and pressure switches. Depending on the glycol mix (which is basically food grade radiator fluid) this unit can chill the glycol well below 0 degrees F. The units pump is what circulates the fluid through whatever loop is constructed, via inlet and outlet ports.



Because I also use glycol for a second stage coolant in my wort chiller (water is the first stage coolant) I wanted a larger reservoir of chilled glycol, so that I would always have enough chilled glycol to keep up with the demand.

For this purpose I have an Igloo cooler with inlet and outlet manifolds added. Basically the larger chilling unit simply keeps the reservoir chilled. (continued on the next post...)

Again, the fermenters are chilled with glycol that is pumped through the immersion coils. I have two inline pumps, one for each fermenter. These pumps are controlled by a Ranco thermostat that has a probe in a cold well in the fermenter. This unit is set to the temperature desired and will cycle the pumps, turning them on and off depending on cooling needs.

The rest is just the plumping to get this all done. There are three basic PVC lines/manifolds. The top one is the glycol return from the fermenters which connects to the bottom manifold which has a one way valve and is another part of the glycol return/glycol in end of the chiller loop. This manifold is connected to the inlet pipe at the top of the Igloo cooler. The middle PVC live is the pump line and the outlet side of the cooling loop. It is connected to the lower, outlet manifold on the Igloo cooler. The beer line/glycol chiller’s outlet is tied into the lower PVC manifold on the wall and flows into the Igloo cooler through the Igloo’s top inlet. It Glycol chiller is fed through its inlet which is connected to the outlet manifold on the Igloo’s base.



I hope that is some what clear. It took me a bit to get it all worked out myself. Basically just remember that there are two cooling loops – one from the chiller to the cooler, the other from the cooler through the fermenters.

....aannnddd...I'm done. Looks for kleenexes...

Baron von BeeGee said:

....aannnddd...I'm done. Looks for kleenexes...

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LOL: I think we arrived together this time, honey.

Baron von BeeGee said:

....aannnddd...I'm done. Looks for kleenexes...

Click to expand...

wipe it on your socks. if you have long pants on, no one will see it.

-walker

Imperial Walker said:

wipe it on your socks. if you have long pants on, no one will see it.

-walker

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SWMBO told me to quit blowing my nose on my socks.

Again, damn good set-up BrewPastor.

One thing that I noticed on all this, is the lack of insulation of the lines and the conicals. Have you tought about this already? You live in New Mexico and I expect it to be rather warm there during the summer.

Kai

I have thought about insulation and one of these days I will get to it. It is that whole time thing! Same with the fermenters... The nice thing is that the wall behind them isbelow grade up to about the top of the cynder blocks. So it stays relatively consistent but insulation is going to be useful.

My issue right now is a way to heat the glycol so I can brew when it is too cold. Ideas?

They look to be similar in size to a hot water heater...maybe one of those tie-on jackets would fit your fermentors, around the legs and all? You'd have to cut a hole for the drain, and it would make dumping the trub a pain.

Is your hot-water heater in your garage? Just port it and run the glycol through there!

Brewpastor said:

My issue right now is a way to heat the glycol so I can brew when it is too cold. Ideas?

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a heated water bath like some brewers use for their HERMS seems to be a good approach if you don't want to put a heater into the cooler filled with glycol.

But If you use an auqarium heating system for the clycol cooler, you shoul be pretty safe.

Kai

I like the aquarium heater idea. I have utilized electric water heater elements in the past for other "spirit"-ual work. That might be another way to go. I do love projects!

Any aquarium heater input?

Brewpastor said:

Any aquarium heater input?

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I don't have one myself. But you should be able to get one with a thermostat at the pet store. If it works for large Aquariums, it should work for your cooler .

Kai

That was my hope, but I haven't heard or seen anything about using them that way. It was sort of, "well, of course it will work, right?"

I will report on the results as they appear.

With everything else going on in that setup, the cheap $1 bubbler airlock looks pretty funny. I'm sure it works as well as anything. Just looks funny.