Original SS Brewtech Chronical 1/2 Barrel Coiling Coils and modifications

[homebrewdude76]

I have a new to me SS Brewtech Chronical.

It has 2 cooling coils mounted in the lid, one has extensions and the other doesn't.

I brewed a batch with one coil connected no issues - Ale at 65F rooms was 72F
I now have a lager going with two coils connected in parallel, one coil feeds the other coil. 55F 70F room.
I think it would work fine with 1 coil.

Is it normal to have 2 coils?

I am thinking it is worth the effort to mount the coil on the side of the fermentor? Or is that a bad idea?
If I mount in the side wall, I could get the dome lid and possible make CIP easier.

I purchased leg extensions and the stabilizer plate from SSBrew.

I am thinking I also need some robust castors, Not sure the quality of the SSbrew tech ones? Any comments?

 

[shoengine]

For that half barrel dual coils might be normal, although I'm not sure if they intended each set to be plumbed seperately for efficency. I have a single set on the 7 gal. Installation on the side of the Chronical is a fairly typical modification. I thought of doing it myself but have held off so far.

 

[bike2brew]

I have their casters installed on my svbs aio and they are plenty robust.

 

[homebrewdude76]

I ended up getting leg extensions, wheels and the stabalizer plate. Its much better. Not high enough to rack direct into a corny.

Looking at the coiling coils I have in the lid.
I bought the tool to drill them in the side.
I am wondering if I really need 2 coils..

Mostly ales in this one at the basement is 73F in the summer and 68F in the winter.

I am thinking I need 1 coil only to ferment at 65F

My spike 14gal as the coil, I can get it to 48F no issues.
And I had this 17gal Chronical down to 50F no issues with dual coil

 

[Deadalus]

Why are you so interested in having the coils through the side?

In your first post, you mentioned that the coils were in parallel but that you feed them one after the other. That would be in series as far as coolant. Positionally they are parallel in that they are both pointing down in the same direction. A picture of the actual coils would be helpful.

Why not disconnect one coil and see how well it cools before drilling things?

I also think you might be better off feeding these in parallel if using two coils. One way to do this would be to have a trunk line feeding the flow to a tee at the first coil then the trunk line going to the second coil. Then join both returns into one line back to the chiller. This is how the radiators in my house work. If you keep both coils in series, the second coil is getting hotter fluid from the first coil instead of chilled coolant from the chiller. You could keep one temperature controller for the two coils this way. It's like having a "zone" in your house. In a house, the trunk line sizing would be important as you can't feed infinitely many radiators off the same size pipes. Example, I use a 3/4" pex line to feed 3 radiators, each is fed by 1/2" pex off the trunk line. This is because the 3/4" is needed to handle the total capacity of the three radiators. I think you are most probably fine though feeding the two off the same size line (3/8"?) as these aren't particularly large coils. Otherwise you could bump up the trunk line size one notch.

 

[norrismj]

The number of coils is not as important as your glycol temperature and insulation. I have a the CF15 ~18 gallon/ 1/2 bbl Spike with one coil and can get it down to high 30’s - low 40’s fairly easily. But I also have it insulated with neoprene sleeve and have it wrapped in a hot water heater insulation blanket custom fit to conical. This works great. But I also have it hooked it up to a glycol unit that has glycol at <20 deg F. My glycol unit is an old air conditioner and igloo cooler filled with glycoil (food grade).

 

[cfrazier77]

I second trying it reconfigured to parallel. Now you are in series. Why would you want this? To cold crash to a 30s if possible to greet clearer beer.