TopChiller Brewery Chiller & Craft Brewery Chiller Manufacturer

Brewery Chiller–An Ultimate Buying Guide by TopChiller

Brewery Chiller is used by many large industrial-grade brewery industries to provide cooling for brewery applications.

A Brewery Chiller is useful in cooling the brewery process such as wort cooling, brite tank temperature control, fermentation processes, product storage, prepackaging, and crash cooling, etc.

You can use an air-cooled or water-cooled Brewery Chiller to meet the cooling requirements of your brewery Applications.

An air-cooled Brewery Chiller uses an ambient air or heat removal process. While water-cooled requires an additional cooling tower for cooling your application.

The main purpose of using a Brewery Chiller is to provide cooling in brewery applications; it performs best for low-temperature requirements.

Let’s know more about it.

What is a Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller is a type of process chiller. It is a refrigeration system that provides cooling services in various brewery applications.

Mostly it requires glycol as a coolant because a Brewery Chiller that uses glycol as a coolant operates at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are two main types of Brewery Chiller the modular and the split Brewery Chiller.

The modular Brewery Chiller acts as a booster chiller.

In case, the brewery has a pump and a tank already if the existing refrigeration system is not functioning properly to fulfill the needs of the brewery application. It has no tank or pumps available.

You can use a split Brewery Chiller if the refrigeration system is on the roof because a split Brewery Chiller is used when the tank, pump, or heat exchanger of the system is placed in separate locations.

It is indoor, easily accessible, easy to maintain and it is an outdoor condensing unit.

Generally, it comes with a remote control panel for easy functioning and indoor installation.

It has a variety of configurations; some manufacturers offer a complete package system and others as separate components and units.

Brewery Chiller Designed by TopChiller

What is the Working Principle of a Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller for brewery applications circulates the super-chilled coolant around a closed circuit.

This closed circuit is composed of tubing that provides a connection to the inlet and outlet section of the Brewery Chiller and the heat exchanger being used for cooling purposes.

To provide cooling, the coolant circulates through the heat exchanger and cools the vessels.

An Air-cooled or water-cooled condensation process can be held to dissipate the unwanted heat from the system.

A mixture of water and glycol is suggested for efficient cooling.

The thermal expansion valve of a Brewery Chiller expands the volume of the refrigerant gas and removes the unwanted heat into the air.

The process continues until it reaches the required temperature limit.

What are the Main Components of a Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller is composed of the following main components that work together to provide cooling for brewery applications.

1. Evaporator

There are three main types of evaporators that include coil, shell and tube, and brazed plate evaporators.

The main function of the evaporator in the Brewery Chiller is to absorb heat, when the cooling process starts the coolant enters the evaporator from the process.

The heat boils the refrigerant fluid to convert it from a low-pressure liquid to a gas.

2. Compressor

The compressor used in a Brewery Chiller compresses the low-pressure gas or vapor from the evaporator and converts it into high-pressure gas.

It can be a scroll, screw, or semi-hermetic compressor.

3. Condenser

Brewery Chiller condenser is a specialized heat exchanger that is used to condense hot air or water, from a high-pressure gas to a liquid.

It is located between the compressor and the expansion valve. It can be cooled or water-cooled and you can configure it in a split arrangement.

4. Expansion Valve

The expansion valve controls the amount of coolant that flows between the evaporator and condenser.

There are three common types of expansion valves; a thermostatic expansion valve, thermal expansion valve, and an electronic expansion valve.

5. Control Unit

The control unit of a Brewery Chiller is used to control the overall functioning of a refrigeration system and keeps it safe from any damage.

6. Power Panel

This unit is used to supply electric current all over the system with the help of cables. It is usually mounted on the Brewery Chiller.

Brewery Chiller Compressor

What are the Features of a Brewery Chiller?

Some important features of Brewery Chiller are listed below:

• The high fluid flow of the Brewery Chiller tends to the maximum heat transfer for quick and durable product cooling.
• The Brewery Chiller is specially designed to provide a temperature from 20 degrees Fahrenheit to 30 degrees Fahrenheit coolant that helps to fulfill all cooling requirements of your application.
• It is specially built for the brewery environment, Its rugged design reduces the worries of maintenance cost to provide maximum output.
• It is made up of reliable and heavy-duty stainless steel with a powder coat finish.
• It offers the refrigerant receiver and suction side accumulator to dissipate the refrigerant slugging in its compressor.
• The Brewery Chiller has a weatherproof electric power supply with a single-point power connection.
• It has a remote control panel for indoor installation that provides on/off lights switches and a digital thermostat.
• The Brewery Chiller has interlocks safety that locks out the compressors during low flow conditions.
• It has the excellent feature of filter dryer and sight glass.

Brewery Chiller Filter Dryer

What are the Advantages of a Brewery Chiller for your Brewery Applications?

There are many advantages of Brewery Chiller for your application. Some of them are given below.

• A Brewery Chiller provides full or partial redundancy options. You can easily choose the cooling capacity that you desire to keep your brewery application working smoothly.

The redundancy option includes full capacity, full electrical isolation, and autochanger over pumps, dual or multi-circuit units.

• It provides custom program control for you to control and manage your brewery processes like fermenter crashing.
• It also provides the option of micro-controllers that allow you to adjust and check different settings with the mouse.
• A chiller guard is also a useful feature that helps you to send email or text messages in case of any alarming situation.
• A Brewery Chiller provides high-efficiency options such as electronic expansion valves, glycol economizer for free-cooling, heat reclaim options, floating head pressure, pump variable frequency drive, etc.

What are the Industrial Applications of Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller can be applied in brewery applications and processes to overcome unwanted heat problems.

Some of the industrial applications of a Brewery Chiller are given below:

• It can be used in the processing and extracting of wort to provide cooling.
• It can be applied with a brite tank for the beer packaging.
• A fermenter requires a Brewery Chiller during the fermentation process.
• It is used in a two-step heat exchanger.

Some examples for industry-specific Brewery Chiller are as follow:

• Nano Brewery Chiller.
• Brewing counterflow.
• Brew House.

What type of Coolant is used in Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller is a cooling system that uses propylene glycol or mixing of water and propylene glycol, to dissipate a large amount of heat from brewery machinery or brewing processes.

Propylene glycol is an organic antifreeze agent and of food-grade type.

In brewery applications, glycol is an essential part of daily work.

It is used in Brewery Chiller that is going to pass through the fermentation tanks and conditioning for regulating the temperature during the fermentation reactions.

It is also used in maintaining the temperature of draft beer dispensing.

The purpose of using only propylene glycol is that It comes with USP-Grade certification assures quality and is safe for food and beverage industries.

Brewery Chiller Propylene glycol

What should be the Temperature of the Coolant for the Brewery Chiller?

The proper temperature of coolant for the Brewery Chiller is an important factor.

If you want to achieve the desired temperature, you must utilize the proper ratio of glycol to water in the Brewery Chiller for efficient cooling.

Adding too much amount of glycol will be a more expensive way and it will limit the efficiency of a Brewery Chiller.

On the other hand, a very small amount of glycol in the mixture can cause freezing of coolant in the pipes and it can badly damage the Brewery Chiller in case of negligence.

The average ratio is 35% of glycol to 65% of water mixture. This ratio can vary according to the ambient temperature of your application and the type of product in fermentation.

Some temperature variations according to the amount of glycol used in Brewery Chiller are as follow:

• 0% glycol = 32 Degrees Fahrenheit freezing point
• 10% glycol = 26 Degrees Fahrenheit freezing point
• 20% glycol = 18 Degrees Fahrenheit freezing point
• 30% glycol = 7 Degrees Fahrenheit freezing point
• 40% glycol = 8 Degrees Fahrenheit freezing point

How to Select Right Brewery Chiller for your Brewery Application?

It is very important to choose the right Brewery Chiller for your brewery application if you want proper and durable cooling.

You can choose the right Brewery Chiller for your application by considering the following key points.

• First of all, determine the heat load of your brewery application and match it according to your desired model of Brewery Chiller.
• Secondly, determine the coolant type, temperature, and flow rate that a Brewery Chiller must provide your application.
• Now inspect the installation environment for your Brewery Chiller that if you want it to install indoors or outdoor.
• Use and inspect performance curves and pump performance curves for the selection of the Brewery Chiller model for your application.
• Don’t forget to check, if a water-cooled Brewery Chiller is suitable for your application or an air-cooled Brewery Chiller.
• At last, finalized the desired model according to the above-given steps and other needs of your application.

Portable Brewery Chiller

How to Size a Brewery Chiller for your Brewery Application?

If you want to determine the size of your Brewery Chiller according to your requirements, some important calculations must be calculated.

The method begins with the number of barrels (bbl) that your brewery application can produce.

If your application is capable of producing 10 barrels at a time, it means you have a 10 barrel system (bbl).

Secondly, it is important to calculate the pull-down that occurs when the vessel temperature drops excluding the wort cold crash.

These two things greatly affect the size of your required Brewery Chiller.

Other than these two factors, you must know about the following:

1. The size of your tanks.
2. Period to reach the desired temperature.
3. Temperature differential.

Then calculate the heat load for active fermentation and cool downloads to correctly size your Brewery Chiller.

How to Install your Brewery Chiller?

After choosing and correctly sizing your Brewery Chiller next step is the installation of your Brewery Chiller.

When the time comes for installation make sure to install your Brewery Chiller closer to your tank.

Use minimum piping restrictions and connections to prevent any damage in case of high-pressure fluid flow.

The pipe sizing for your brewery application will be according to the size of your Brewery Chiller.

Place all the components according to the instructions given in the manufacturer’s manual.

After installing all mechanical and electrical components, recheck thoroughly if all the components and connections are installed properly.

Install your Brewery Chiller properly according to the instructions of experts, technicians, and electricians.

Leave the surroundings space for maintenance services. Don’t place your Brewery Chiller near the fireplace.

Pin the safety and precautions note along with the fire extinguisher.

Plumbing for Brewery Chiller

What Safety Measures can be taken for the Proper Working and Protection of your Brewery Chiller?

A Brewery Chiller used in brewery applications must be working properly and safely to avoid problems.

The brewing process can be very dangerous if proper care or protection is not taken.

For proper working and protection of your Brewery Chiller, it is necessary to take some safety measures.

Carefully read the given safety concerns that can be used in a brewery application for a Brewery Chiller.

• Every employee is a brewery industry to taste or to test the beer, but only a few people have the role of testing the beer.

The brewery application must have an alcohol consumption policy (ACP) to make sure that when and where drinking is valid.

• Another important factor is heat and fire safety, different applications of Brewery Chiller need a huge amount of water to boil when starting the brewing process.

It means there must be a bigger heating source present in the environment. You need to take standard safety precautions. During the process, stay away from the burners.

• Use confined spaces for the brewing process. Space must be cleaned after every batch of brewed beer. As it can impact the next process.
• Use a comprehensive pipe labeling strategy to keep everyone safe from serious burns.
• Use anti-slip floor tape to avoid slip and fall hazards.

Safety is a big concern for a Brewery Chiller in a brewery industry, so don’t compromise on safety measures while using a Brewery Chiller.

How to Increase the Efficiency of your Brewery Chiller?

By considering the following tips, you can improve the efficiency of your Brewing Chiller.

• If Water Cooled Brewery Chiller Maintain a daily log. All the events must be recorded in a daily logbook.
• Proper and timely preventive maintenance. It contains greasing and lubrication.
• Use of efficient and accurate micro-processer to precisely control the Brewery Chiller.
• Brewery Chiller should not be run in full load condition; it will be more efficient below the full load.
• Keep tubes and pipes clean.
• Increase thermal resistance of the room, where your Brewery Chiller is being used.
• Maintain the approach temperature; an increase in approach temperature causes the efficiency to decrease.
• Always try to use treated water.
• A proper water ratio must be used.
• Lowering the temperature of the water entering the condenser can increase the efficiency of your Brewery Chiller.
• The water flow rate should not be too high or too low.

Brewery Chiller Temp Adjustment

How to Troubleshoot your Brewery Chiller?

1. Fault

The low Discharge pressure sounds.

Probable causes: 

1. The refrigerant discharge pressure is too low and it may be due to leakage of refrigerant Condenser tubing blockage
2. Undercharging of refrigerant
3. Low ambient temperature.

Corrective action:

Performing regular inspection and preventive maintenance may reduce this problem.

2. Fault

High-pressure discharge alarm sounds.

Probable causes:

1. The alarm will sound if the discharge pressure is too high.
2. It may be caused by a dirty air filter
3. Dirty condenser
4. Cooling fan failure at high ambient temperature.

Corrective action:

Performing regular inspection and preventive maintenance may reduce this problem.

4. Fault

Freeze alarm sounds

Probable cause:

It may be caused due to compressor or Evaporator failure, must be investigated

Quickly as the alarm sounded.

Corrective action:

Expert engineers may consult for further opinions or part replacement.

Brewery Chiller Troubleshooting

FAQs of Brewery Chiller

Can Glycol Chiller be used as a Brewery Chiller?

Yes, glycol chiller with propylene type of glycol can be used as Brewery Chiller, because propylene is food standard glycol and no corrosive and is not harmful.

Why Brewery Chiller is used Instead of Refrigerator?

Use of refrigerator for cooling the brewery product, the brewery product may taste like water or bitter taste, to develop the taste of brewery products, Brewery Chiller is essential.

What is meant by Tripping in Brewery Chiller?

Due to any fault in the Brewery Chiller, it will go to off position, it is called tripping for example overloading of Brewery Chiller system may cause it to trip.

What is meant by the Flow rate of Brewery Chiller?

In a Brewery Chiller system, the flow rate is the mass of coolant flowing through the system or its pipes; it is measured in volume per unit time.

What is a Chiller Economizer?

It is a device used in some Centrifugal Brewery Chiller with two stages compressor to reduce the electrical power consumption.

What are the steps involved in the Brewing Process?

It includes:

2. Sparging.
3. Cooling.
4. Cooling wort.
5. Fermentation.

What is the Use of a Brewery Chiller in the Cooling Stage?

In the cooling stage hot wort is cooled rapidly to avoid the production of microorganisms, and at this stage, the wort is chilled very quickly.

What does the Brewery Chiller do on the Wort Cooling stage?

On the wort cooling stage, the coolant is circulated through the hot wort in the spiral pipes that emerged in hot wort; this coolant absorbs heat through it to the atmosphere.

How Fast a Brewery Chiller Chills the Wort?

By using a Brewery Chiller, you can use to drop the temperature of 5 gallons of wort from 212 degrees to 70 degrees within 20 minutes depending on ambient and water temperature.

Why it is Essential to Cool Wort Quickly using Brewery Chiller?

We need to cool the wort quickly to ensure the survival of yeast and avoid contamination to grow.

100% Quality Tested Brewery Chiller