Cooling suggestions for 600 gallons of grain-on mash

[Sterling1840]

We have a 600 gallon mash tun with a heat jacket and a 10 ton cooling tower.  Any suggestions for cooling grain-on mash? We are leaning towards tube in shell system.  

[Kindred Spirits]

Tube in shell works great, if you need additional cooling.

I also like to to have clients mash in "thicker" if their equipment can handle it and then add cool water to help crash down the temp to where you want to pitch at. 

[Southernhighlander]

We have tube in shell mash coolers in stock.  Call 417-778-6100 and ask for Susan or email susan@distillery-equipment.com

[Golden Beaver Distillery]

5 hours ago, Southernhighlander said:

We have tube in shell mash coolers in stock.  Call 417-778-6100 and ask for Susan or email susan@distillery-equipment.com

We use one every day to cool our mashes. Works as advertised.

[kelbor]

Hi!

I mash in with half the water. I mash in under temp, about 120F, then increase heat with high temp enzymes already added. I was mashing in with real hot water but it gets way thicker way faster and I was fighting dough balls that way even with enzymes. Once my starch is converted, I add the second half of the water as cold as I can get it and this drops my temps significantly making it much easier to cool to pitching temps.  This works for me with a 2lbs/1 gallon mash. My grain is ground to flour as I ferment and distill on the grain. 

[MG Thermal Consulting]

Option with a energy and water saving would be a hybrid glycol cooler as pictured as my logo which would use no water outside summer months and could be used to boost the chilled water loop for the still.

I would offer a wide gap plate and frame heat exchanger.for the mash cooling.

I have both drycoolers and hybrid coolers in operation.

I have a hybrid cooler being installed in MD as a booster on the high temp side of the process, a single fan unit, approximate 20 ton output in summer, double that in fall and winter.

Mike Gronski

678-773-2794

[whiskeytango]

On 2/14/2024 at 7:40 AM, Kindred Spirits said:

Tube in shell works great, if you need additional cooling.

I also like to to have clients mash in "thicker" if their equipment can handle it and then add cool water to help crash down the temp to where you want to pitch at. 

This its my work flow as well.  We add water to the fermenters ahead of time and set the glycol really cold so we are transferring in a thicker mash into really cool water then we re cycle through the shell in tube if necessary 

 

 

[Kindred Spirits]

9 minutes ago, whiskeytango said:

This its my work flow as well.  We add water to the fermenters ahead of time and set the glycol really cold so we are transferring in a thicker mash into really cool water then we re cycle through the shell in tube if necessary 

 

 

Yup its a great way to do things, drops the temp quick to ensure you can pitch yeast right away.

[MG Thermal Consulting]

I am having a hybrid glycol cooler (can work either as a drycooler in winter or similarly like a tower in summer).

When everything gets running, I hope to write up an energy saving paper about it.

What the Hybrid does that a tower doesn’t is cool fluid below 32F.  
Coupled to a isolation plate exchanger lets you “charge” your water reservoir at twice the rated capacity, thus eliminating the use of a chiller in the winter months, so if you had a 10 ton chiller running in the winter, you’d be saving the KWh for the compressor all winter. 
 

Handy energy saver for the Northern installations..

Mike