Two-Stage Heat Exchanger

[volsherdeers]

Thought I'd share my results after tweaking my first two-stage setup.
I decided to eliminate the second chill water tank that relied on gravity flow from an elevated kettle (PITA to regulate flow), to a single chill vessel. I chilled from 210F to 45F with a flow rate of .8GPM with ground water @ 60F (could have got lower temp with slower flow). I even went WOT a couple of times to see how much the temp would raise and to my surprise, it still remained in the mid to upper 50's. I also noticed that the ice bath remained intact with plenty of ice left to knock the wort down to lager pitching temp! I'm sure it will be more challenging in the summer months when ground water is in the 70-80 degree range. Cheers!

Two-Stage Heat Exchange: You'll need two chillers & two pumps.(make sure second chiller is sanitized)

Stage-One: Pump wort from BK thru 1st Chiller using ground water 60F-80F. (this is your knock down stage)

Adjust flow rate. (slow flow rate for maximum heat exchange)

Stage-Two: Setup a 15-20 gallon ice bath, using MT . (recirculate @ WOT),

Continue pumping thru second Chiller monitoring temp and adjusting flow rate.

Option B: glycol chiller, second stage only!

 

[jcav]

I am basically going to do the same thing. I currently only have one counter flow chiller that I have had for years now. I am welding up a stand to hold two chillers and I will buy an additional chiller very soon. This way my ground water will take it down to 90 degrees and then the ice in the mash tun will go through the second chiller and then right into the fermenter. The way I do it now is after I get it down to 90 degrees with ground water and recirculating back into the boil kettle, I have to then hook up the mash tun with ice and water and re-route the tubing to my single chiller, to get it down the rest of the way and then into the fermenter. Takes longer than I want to chill after a long brew day, so I am excited to do it the new way once I get the second chiller!

Cheers,

John

 

[volsherdeers]

I am basically going to do the same thing. I currently only have one counter flow chiller that I have had for years now. I am welding up a stand to hold two chillers and I will buy an additional chiller very soon. This way my ground water will take it down to 90 degrees and then the ice in the mash tun will go through the second chiller and then right into the fermenter. The way I do it now is after I get it down to 90 degrees with ground water and recirculating back into the boil kettle, I have to then hook up the mash tun with ice and water and re-route the tubing to my single chiller, to get it down the rest of the way and then into the fermenter. Takes longer than I want to chill after a long brew day, so I am excited to do it the new way once I get the second chiller!

Cheers,

John

An added bonus since you end up with a lot of wort in the areas between the BK and fermenter is to close the valve at the fermenter end then hook up the BK end to a CO2 bottle with a quick disconnect, turn on a couple #'s of gas, open the valve at the fermenter and purge just about all of the lines and chillers clean!

Cheers!

 

[BrunDog]

I live in South FL and use two inline chillers to single pass to the fermenter... the first uses tap water and the second an ice bath. I can get two lager temps easily with a 20 lb bag of ice for a 5 gal batch. Can’t get much better than about 80 with the first stage alone.

 

[volsherdeers]

I live in South FL and use two inline chillers to single pass to the fermenter... the first uses tap water and the second an ice bath. I can get two lager temps easily with a 20 lb bag of ice for a 5 gal batch. Can’t get much better than about 80 with the first stage alone.

Think I'll try and freeze some small blocks of ice next batch.

 

[jcav]

I live in South FL and use two inline chillers to single pass to the fermenter... the first uses tap water and the second an ice bath. I can get two lager temps easily with a 20 lb bag of ice for a 5 gal batch. Can’t get much better than about 80 with the first stage alone.

That is what I am hoping to accomplish with the two chillers. One pass right into the fermenter like the lucky people up North can do with their ground water. I think it will work just fine. Glad to see you are doing this and it works for you!

John

 

[volsherdeers]

Edit

 

[apache_brew]

I do the same, except use a modified 25' copper immersion chiller for the second stage and only need 1 pump. Run wort through the immersion chiller, and have it sit in the ice bath and shake it for the hole duration of the transfer to keep things turbulent and maximize heat transfer. This allowed me to repurpose my immersion chiller that I stopped using when I upgraded to a counterflow.

 

[volsherdeers]