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MG Thermal Consulting

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Posts posted by MG Thermal Consulting

  1. Hey Corey!

    I advise and consult on cooling systems-  chillers, evap coolers, mash coolers, clear liquid heat exchangers, etc.  

    Closest systems I have worked on to you are located in Milwaukee and another in N Chicago area.

    I can get referrals if you would like to get ideas for system configurations.  

    Mike G

  2. Good luck on your new position.  I have worked with many start ups and there are many details and pitfalls that come up. I work with the cooling equipment sizing and general layout for distilleries, so if you have questions that pop up, give me a shout and I can give you advice to that part of your distilling.  Mike G.

     

  3. I have supplied glycol chillers to distilleries that use the chiller to cold chill product in a CLT  such that it can be canned by a mobile canning company which saves on spillage and such.

    You need a glycol chiller to be able to chill the product to near 32F before canning, so if you are using city or well water cooling for your still, it won’t be cold enough to cold chill product.

    If you are looking to purchase a canning setup, you would still be looking at adding a CLT and glycol chiller.

    If you have any questions, contact me anytime.

    Mike Gronski

    MG Thermal

    678-773-2794

  4. On 6/9/2023 at 12:26 PM, Old Glory Distilling Co. said:

    Do you know if the jacketed portion is baffled in any way? Or is it just a 2" tube inside of an empty 3" tube?

    You normally wouldn’t see baffling on HX this size.  You generally adjust your flows by the amount of temperature drop on either side, bothe the mash and coolant sides.  If you know the manufacturer, they may be able help. You shouldn’t want more than 10 degree delta TD on the coolant side.  If you do not control the coolant TD , it can become more than the chiller can handle and will overheat.  
     

    Mike

  5. On 5/17/2023 at 10:38 AM, TwentySevenBrewing said:

    We are looking to get one. Are you chilling with chilled water or gylcol, or both? From what I understand you don't want to send higher temps back to the gylcol chiller, so is common practice to drop temp with water first, then switch to gylcol if further cooling is needed.

    Also how long is the chilling taking from mash temps to pitching temps? Thanks for any info.

    To make the glycol chiller as small as possible, you add an intermediate plate exchanger, a water pump and water reservoir as the primary coolant to your mash exchanger.  I generally use a water reservoir twice the volume of the mash tun, but the size I reservoir is dependent also on the size of your glycol chiller. Your water reservoir is used for the still condenser, so most distillers do not run both loads at once, but alternate days of use so reservoir water temperature can recover. 

    Let me know if I can be of further help.

    Mike

  6. I have done it using an underground tank of water pumped through a plate exchanger from where the cooling is transferred via a plate exchanger using a process or recirculating pump from the chiller loop.

    If you are located up North, I use radiator type coolers with circulating pump as well. Using a chiller as last step if need in summer.

    I has photos of a typical installation.

  7. If you use a chiller to chill the water, chlorine will damage the evaporator, even if it’s stainless because off the shelf brazed plate evaporators brazing will corrode from chlorine- you would need a nickel brazed a special order.

  8. I just sent Mark some photos of a distillery with the typical setup- glycol chiller, reservoir, isolation exchanger and process pump along with a winter glycol cooler.  He runs the chiller from April to August, the wintercooler the rest of the time, saving 15 HP of electricity for the 8-10 hrs.

    The location is in the Berkshire Mnts. in W. CT. 

    Tank size of course depends on the load profile and how that matches up to the chiller and you are sure you have enough time overnight to cool the tank. If you make more than one run per day, you will run out of chilled water unless that is taken into account.

    Everyone have a nice Spring!

  9. For the internal coil application- I am really careful about the residual heat from the mash tun itself.

    Also, i like to use a 2 stage cooling- first stage cools mash to 150F, then use a chiller and reservoir for second stage.

    Pictured is evaporative glycol cooler that I have used on large apps for first stage- expensive now, but for multiple mash runs per week, helps on power usage using a fan to do the work rather than a refrigeration system, but the first cost is a doozey for a 3-5 year payback.

    Typical for a Northern  climate, a chiller and drycooler each with its own circulator attached to an internal plate exchanger to make cold water for the cold water reservoir.  Customer uses the drycooler alone from September to March up in the Western CT mountains.  Chiller is 10 Ton, Drycooler is 6 Ton nominal (12 ton, at least, in winter).

    Who knows what KW cost will be in the next year.

    Mike

     

    Distillery Chiller and Glycooler Circuit.jpg

  10. 54 minutes ago, SteelB said:

    I am interested in crash cooling either a 500 gallon or 1000 gallon still

    The stand alone Hybrid Cooler and shell and tube exchanger start out at amount $20k. This will get the mash down to 105F in summer, colder from Fall thru Spring. Additional cooling would need to be done in the fermenters by a chiller if needed.

    You can reduce the size of the hybrid cooler by setting up a two stage cooling by cutting in the chiller sooner running with with a chilled water reservoir. It all depends how much chiller you need during summer. The Hybrid Cooler will get nearly triple the cooling in off seasons, so if you are not running a chiller 24/7, it may be cost effective to integrate the chiller in the crash cooling, but only when needed, so you can keep your power consumption at a minimum. For a 1000 Gal system, this is a sizable savings which we can determine for you. The Hybrid Cooler will pay for itself in a few years from power savings.

    Mike G 678-773-2794

     

  11. On 4/20/2021 at 5:33 PM, Southernhighlander said:

     Thatch,

    I hear you.

     

    Navanjohnson,

    Propane is not considered a green house gas. https://www.diversifiedenergy.com/news/how-does-propane-gas-affect-the-environment/  So it is a green solution.

    One of my customers has a 2,500 gallon still, 2,500 gallon mash tun, 800 gallon still, two 800 gallon mash tuns, 300 gallon still and a 300 gallon mash tun that are all fired with the steam from a 10,000,000 BTU, propane fired, low pressure steam boiler.  His propane tanks are huge but everything works great.  He uses well water for his condenser cooling.  His well also supplies the water for the town that is near his facility.  He never hired an engineer.  He didn't need to.  I sold him the equipment and gave him all of the specs and cut sheets and his contractors used the spec sheets for the build out.  He probably saved over $1,000,000.00 by not hiring an engineer.  Most likely an engineer would have suggested that he use chillers instead of his well water which is one reason why he saved so much.  However this is not to say that engineers are not needed for building distilleries.  Some situations require an engineer. 

       

    How does he cool the mash- he must have a heckuva well!

  12. Naven, 

    I didin’t see where in the US You will  be located. I have shell and tube htx’s available for around $2;500 that will cover your pond/process water plus if you can filter the mash ,using only the wort one can be used to crash cool the mash too. if your pond water gets too warm, I have a few reconditioned chillers that are 230-3-60 that would work to trim the coolin loop, but you need to buy a phase converter to make 3 phase power ( I assume you only have single phase).

    Mike

    Email me if you need specs or call 678-773-2794.

  13. Hi, I’m fromCorning and have providedd cooling system nationwide including Buffalo and Hammondsport. New is cooling system for crashing wort or mash, in case you need some extra . Your product seems interesting! I thought I read somewhere there was a fermented whey that farmers used to drink for stomach ailments- . My grandparts were dairy and egg farmers and there were all kinds of recipes that they used to talk about from “the old country”.


     

  14. We are now finalizing  a large capacity crash cooling system design for whiskey mash with a closed loop glycol cooler and vertical shell and tube heat exchanger. Anyone interested in the concept, let me know.

    Mike G 678-773-2794

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