MG Thermal Consulting

Welcome, I have some clients doing the same as you- where are you located?

Howdy, I went to college across the border in IN at  Angola about a zillion years ago.

If you have any questions on cooling systems, give a shout- Mike, 678-773-2794.

Good luck! My roomie’s Dad was a tugboat captain out of Morgan City and is a honorary Cajun, LOL.

If you have any questions about chiller systems, give me a shout.

Mike G. 678-773-2794

welcome- do you know Jack Baker at Litchfield Distillery?

I supplied him his cooling system.

Mike

Hi, I can assist you on the coolinhg syste design, selections and strategies on energy savings.

Give me a call any time.

Mike G 678-773-2794

Good luck!

If you need some mash cooling ideas, I will be coming out with an air-cooled mash cooler, a closed loop glycol cooler coupled to a shell and coil heat exchanger.

Mike G

Hi, l believe we exchanged emails a couple years back when you had some coolin questions.  Glad to hear you’redoing

mike gwell.

On 11/7/2018 at 12:04 AM, Mr_Whiskey said:

Most folks out there making great whiskey reach a point fast where they realize their distillery is not making enough whiskey to meet future anticipated demand.

The vast majority of us have all started on batch or pot stills, which are difficult to grow production with as demand increases.

Any folks out there considering adding a single pass continuous column to their operation?

If your distillery and whiskey sales are growing is a continuous still and option you have considered?

As you know, expansion on the distilling end will also require the extra crash cooling of the mash.

On 11/7/2018 at 12:04 AM, Mr_Whiskey said:

Most folks out there making great whiskey reach a point fast where they realize their distillery is not making enough whiskey to meet future anticipated demand.

The vast majority of us have all started on batch or pot stills, which are difficult to grow production with as demand increases.

Any folks out there considering adding a single pass continuous column to their operation?

If your distillery and whiskey sales are growing is a continuous still and option you have considered?

The new system design I propose uses a hybrid cooler (with cooling tower -like performance) with matching shell and coil as exchange. This system has several installationswhich Iwill have data to match photos. Call me anytime for thumbnail sketch of the system. Mike 

I have a reconditioned 10 hp. W/ 2-5compressors (one new), one new fan motor an a one year old circulating pump.  Rest of unit is original 2017.

CCost would be $11,000 plus freight. One month warranty on parts dicluding refrigerant.  You could tie it in to a well water circuit with a plate exchanger, too. Mike G. 678-773-2794

On 2/16/2021 at 4:51 PM, Pour Decisions said:

@Southernhighlander Care to share your recommended setup for cooling without a chiller? I'm in Northern Pa, cold mountain spring water! I'm looking ahead and this post caught my interest.

You need to get to 60F of chilled water for the still. Hybrid chillers like the one pictured will get glycol down to around 80-85 in summer, so here is where you need refrigerated devices.I have chillers in Buffalo and on the Finger Lakes,NY, if you are interested?

I have supplied chillers for canning for a couple years.  Usually a small glycol chiller will do the trick to chill product to temp for use on the canning line.

Going back to avoiding too warm glycol return on chiller-  

1. I used a two stage heat exchanger for crash cool, stg 1 uses hybrid cooler, stg 2 uses chiller with large reservoir.

2. Another case I am using a bypass to bleed chiller cold glycol to the chiller return until return temp is acceptable.

Next proposed distillery will use a large hybrid cooler plus chiller but will have enough winter temps to run hybrid dry, saving 115 HP in winter use. Mash tun is 2500 Gal with two still runs per day.

If you need information on the HYbrid Cooler, email me for engineering data.

Yes to the reservoir for crashing. If your run calculates 30,000 Btu/hr, you can go up to a 2.5 or 3 HP.  If you stretched out the run time by lowering heat, you could get it done with a 2 HP, there is a different style for most chillers, 2 HP being the cut off for the smaller sizes and 3HP for larger sizes which are for sure more hefty. Cost difference could be as much as 3 thousand dollars.

10 ton chiller way to large- more like a 2 HP.

I use 10 HP for a 500 Gal pot, then add if I have fermenter loads, plus reservoir if I have mash cooling.

If you run with a complete open system (no isolation exchanger to separate indoor/outdoor flows, then the minimum PG is 30% or else bacteria will actually grow faster.  Maximum % is either the ambient outdoor low temp or the operating low temp of the chiller minus 15 degrees to account for refrigerant passing through the chiller which has to be colder than the glycol operating temp in order for the chiller to do its job.  In the South,  I use 30-35% and up North 40-45%-  mainly for cost reasons.

If you have a question in particular, give me a call.

Mike G 678-773-2794

I can get you a quick ship on a chiller for your cooling needs as well. Either 230/3/60 or 460/3/60 new, some factory reconditioned with partial warranty.

I have drycoolers and hybrid coolers if all you are looking for is crash cooling. these are built from scratch. 

Mike G 678-773-2794

If it is an atmospheric tank, you need treatment unless you transfer it to another closed tank tor storage and reuse (here you make up with city water).

Easiest way to cut down on amount of glycol is to install a plate exchanger (have photos of this example) to reduce amount of glycol. I run chiller at 45F to store water at 50F in the tank.

You either add treatment (from the guy you are getting your DI water from) or I can hook you up with an ozone treatment where you inject ozone in the "dead space" in your tank- this treats the air which is adding bacteria to the water. Up to you how to do it, but I can give you some material on it.

You have to aware that the pump motor is non-overloading throughout the "operational range" you intend on using it.

Otherwise you could go off on motor overloads.

14 hours ago, SteelB said:

didnt see any pics but if you PM me i can give you my email addy and we can get it moving forward, because hauling 6 barrels of ice up a ladder every week is getting old lol

i meant the photo on  my ID. lol.  Requests for literature can be emailed to me at mikegronski@gmail.com.

Just how many degrees is the hot tank going to be cooled to overnite. With a 5 ton chiller, you'll be looking at a little imbalance there, especially if you are stripping with the 300 Gal tank.

See the photo to the left, an example of a closed loop glycol hybrid cooler which needs city water in summer to augment cooling .  This one is similar to a project just finished  that I'll have photos from a 1,000 Gal setup of next week.  If I have your zip code and how many hours to want it cooled by, I can get one on about 4 weeks for you that would pump right in through a heat exchanger and back until reaching the set point desired. Large reservoir not needed

Add a water to glycol heat exchanger and you can make cold water during winter and off seasons for the still cooling.

I have done small and large systems similar to this scenario.

When you are crashing, you'll have a lot of hot water depending on the output water off the heat exchanger, cooling still not as warm but easier to figure.

I am offering outdoor hybrid water/glycol coolers to crash which matches up really well to a reclaim clean water like you describe. I am getting reading to ship one of these to San Francisco for a smaller distillery and a large 60 ton unit for a distillery in Charleston who uses a separate chiller and stainless tank to chill city water for their still and saves all their warm water similar to what you describe.

I can send you information on the Virga cooler if you want.

AZ getting to be a busy place for distilleries, you guys should be putting together you own group soon!

Does this still have the Chiller ( I think I supplied it)? Is it for sale?

On 4/18/2020 at 7:07 PM, Columbia County Distillery said:

Hi.  My name is Ann and my daughter and I inherited a Distillery in Columbia County, NY.  The Distillery is 95% complete with a TTB license, but we did not apply for the NYS license (after receiving conditional approval) because the Distillery was not and still isn't ready to go online.  We haven't had any luck with finding a consultant to come in, see what we've got, and help us make the decision as to go ahead with distilling, or sell.  We own the land, building and stills and are in the heart of New York State's craft distilling area.  If you know of someone we can contact to guide us, we'd truly appreciate it!

I left a message on the other posting- did you see it?  I just talked to the consultant who happened to call me- he lives close to you!  His name is Colin Coan, phone 413-212-4022.  He's a great guy and will help you out finish your set-up.  I have supplied both distillery and brewery projects the cooling equipment to him in the past.