Chiller for 110 gallon pot still?

[Chris Lewis]

Hi everyone,

I am starting a small distillery in southern Ohio.

We are starting out with a 110 gallon pot still.

What size of chiller should I use? Any recommendations of where to buy one?

Thanks!

 

Chris

[Silk City Distillers]

At that scale, an interesting option would be to oversize your product condenser (to run a slower flow rate, higher exit temperature), and reclaim the hot water in a stainless IBC tote - reuse the hot water for mashing and cleaning.  Less expensive up-front outlay, more economical.  Even with a chiller you'll need a large storage tank, and IBC totes are very convenient.  On the plus side, having bulk hot water on tap will reduce your mash times.

 

[MG Thermal Consulting]

Chillers for small batches will run between $5 to 6 K.

If you go with non-ferrous for water passages, you can get it a little cheaper and use city water pump/pressure and dump into a chilled water tank.

[captnKB]

@Chris Lewiswill you be mashing as well or just need a chiller for distilling?

 

[Mechengineer_81]

I have been planning on a similar sized still to start out and I think if you have the space a large poly tank, preferably buried or in the basement, could very well be a big enough heat sink to run your condenser and not need a chiller.  if you assume a running load of around 15,000 watts (51,150 BTU/Hr) for 8 hours a day that is 409,200 BTU per day.  if you had a 5,000 gallon tank for a heat sink that would only be roughly a 10 ºF rise in 8 hours. then you have all night for it to cool back down.  add some heat exchangers at night to expel heat to the air and you could decrease the tank size if needed quite drastically and probably still alot cheaper to run than a traditional refrigerant based chiller.

 

 

 

[Cosmic.Distiller]

QTS is a great resource, they make all the equipment, but they also properly size and install chillers. We used them for our brewery and will use them for our distillery as well. 

262.264.7615 is their number.