Wort cooling

[Birster74]

Hi we are elaborating our setup for a near project.

We will have a 240 gallons setup and want to cool the thick mash before to ferment. Is it possible to cool it in the jacketed fermenter (with agitator) or its better to have a tube in tube heat exchanger? If tube in tube is better, could we use glycol from our FV chilling system to cool it down or we need to have a independent ice water tank?

Thank you

[Southernhighlander]

In my opinion the tube in tube heat exchanger would be better.  We have them in stock.  If you would like a quote please email paul@distillery-equipment.com

 

Thank you.

[Birster74]

Ok for the tube in tube, from wich source come your cold water? Ice water tank cool by a chiller or from tap water? Maybe its a begining question.

Thank you for your reply

[kleclerc77]

36 minutes ago, Birster74 said:

Ok for the tube in tube, from wich source come your cold water? Ice water tank cool by a chiller or from tap water? Maybe its a begining question.

Thank you for your reply

We use a closed loop system with an oversized water reservoir which is cooled by a glycol chiller. You can also use tap water and collect the hot water for cleaning.

[Birster74]

What is the recommended water tank size to cool 240 gallons mash tun?

Thank you

[kleclerc77]

I would talk to whoever is going to be supplying your chiller. G&D was very helpful for us. I'm paranoid about running out of cooling water so went oversized. I've had a severely undersized chiller/reservoir setup in the past and it was awful. Off the top of my head for that size, depending on the size of your chiller, I'd say somewhere between a 750 to 1,250 gallon reservoir. 

[Birster74]

Thank kleclerc77, 

Other maybe stupid question, do you use your cold water tank to cool your deph/cond also?

[Southernhighlander]

21 hours ago, Birster74 said:

What is the recommended water tank size to cool 240 gallons mash tun?

Thank you

Give Mike at MG Thermal Consulting a call.  He can help you size your tank etc.  http://mgthermalconsultingco.com/Home_Page.html

 

[Birster74]

Thank you.

[kleclerc77]

3 hours ago, Birster74 said:

Thank kleclerc77, 

Other maybe stupid question, do you use your cold water tank to cool your deph/cond also?

Yep. Glycol chills the water reservoir and fermenters.

[MG Thermal Consulting]

The sizing of the reservoir depends on the mash cooling time plus the fermenter cooling as well, so if you had a 250 Gal mash load, a 500 Gal reservoir for that plus extraneous loads like fermenters.  Recovery time should get done before you are ready to make a still run, so get the reservoir back down to around 50-55F before use again.  

If you are doing stripping runs, you'll have to upsize the chiller in some cases, especially if the tank starts to overheat- creeping above 70F before you're not close to the end of the strip run is not a good sign and you should adjust technique so you don't overheat the chiller.

I am adding a 2-stage cooling technique for larger mash runs by adding a hybrid adiabatic glycol cooler which will give you performance of a cooling tower with a closed loop system, so I can run it along with the chiller to take the high heat out of the mash run which reduces the chiller size and overall KW.  On a recently completed system, the savings winds up being 20 HP per hour of usage compared to cooling with a chiller.

Hope to have pictures posted soon!

[Steve Beck]

On 8/2/2019 at 9:18 PM, Southernhighlander said:

Give Mike at MG Thermal Consulting a call.  He can help you size your tank etc.  http://mgthermalconsultingco.com/Home_Page.html

 

Exactly.✌️✌️

[MG Thermal Consulting]

On 8/1/2019 at 2:36 PM, Birster74 said:

What is the recommended water tank size to cool 240 gallons mash tun?

Thank you

For just the mash cooling, near a 500 Gal. You should be near 65-70 tank temperature when done, so then let the chiller to continue running until the tank is around 55F, and then you're ready  for still action!  If you're cooling fermenters too, you want to upsize the reservoir so it finishes up a little cooler since you want decent temperature going to the fermenter jackets. I would tap off the return line back to the tank from the chiller so you have coldest water going to the fermenters and then return that back to the tank.

I tend to use a hybrid cooler now (not a dry cooler, but similar) that gives you 85F glycol in summer and colder all other seasons. I use a chiller for the still and fermenters when I need to- this is my current high efficiency design.

This design also allows smaller reservoir tanks and much less KW used for cooling during off season. I have a 40 ton hybrid cooler and 60 ton chiller used for a quick mash cool in a large distillery where they are mashing every day.  They would have had to use 100 ton chiller if they did this with a large reservoir. I am saving 20 HP for the cooling in the summer and probably more like 40 HP in the winter season.

Cost savings is immediate as well.