Chilling FV with Glycol etc. successes and failures ?

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Brett74

Brett74

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I am considering the SS brewtech Chronicle 64liter with Glycol circulation loop in the FV for Temp control. No ways I am shelling 1000usd for a Glycol chiller though ! I have some ideas about modding a chest freezer to cool the glycol for circultaion, have googled it up and down and seen a few ideas there.....
Anyone here ever tried something similar ? Would love to here either your success or failure stories so I don't have to make the same mistakes myself !

My idea is to build a "dam" around the cooling element inside the freezer and fill it with glycol, the pump for the circ. would be in there and returns from the FV would create some flow through my little "dam". Think it will work ? Main use will be to cool ales during primary, but cold crashing and lagering are definitely things that would be nice to be able to do....
Tell me your stories guys!
 
Have just started looking at those, do they have there own Glycol reservoir ? I need to be able to put different pumps into the glycol to be able to have multiple FVs running on the same system at different temps.
Perhaps a Maxi chiller for dummy explanation would be good for me?
 
I can't comment on the chillers workings I am afraid as I don't have one. From what I've read you get different models and depending on how many fermenters you have depends on plumbing and pumps.

Off the top of my head you would perhaps be looking at some sort of header where you would connect each coil/ fermenter to. Then perhaps a pump controlled via a thermostat and a fitting that could be controlled by a solenoid. This would be me approach but others may have a better solution.

Also different models have more than one input and output.

Iam considering using a maxi when the time comes due to the small size and availability of parts etc.

Best to do some searches on some forums as a starting point.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
On the different temperatures question you could run each bath at a different temperature( would need more moding and stats). If using a common cooling bath at one temperature then the FV thermostat would keep pumping the coolant until your fermenter gets down to the right temperature and stop. So in theory you don't need lots of different temperatures just a bath that's big enough to to cope with the volume of cooling you need at any one time.

Hope that helps.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
A time when different baths might be better would be when lagering due to the large difference in temperatures. As you could end up actually heating up the fermenter if the coolant wasn't cold enought.

The Maxi 210 have 2 outputs I understand.


Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
I believe it is possible to get "Maxi"s that take glycol, but the common ones are for water. And why not use water?

Shelf coolers like "Maxi"s will have product coils to cool beer (2-4 depending on model) and a "python" cooler that circulates its own coolant bath (which is used to cool kegs, beer lines, taps, etc. and can be put into service cooling fermenters).
 
indeed shelf chillers intended for glycol use do exist but generally dont appear on ebay for £20. But it may be worth lodging a perpetual search ;)

the reason its a bad idea to use glycol in a standard shelf chiller is that the glycol solution will thicken if you mod the thermostat to allow it to drop to sub 0 temps, and the thicker more viscous medium is then going to labour the recirculation pump and eventually kill it prematurely.

Anyway you dont need such a steep temperature gradient as provided by glycol if you use a suitable internal Hex coil, i use a maxi 210 equivalent unbranded shelf chiller with a water feature pump with a 2m head replacing its agitator (no recirc fitted..) to chill either a 50l conical(external copper coil) or an 80l thermopot FV(internal square hex).

Also jacketing up and insulating all the huge lumps of metal heat sinks (valves) helps retain the cold.

Yes the steeper temp gradient a glycol chiller offers will effect change quicker, but big deal if a crash chill takes 24 hours or 12 to achieve target. if running a commercial brewery it may well be worth the extra investment, and as such its not suprising thats what they suggest as its all top flight kit they sell.
 
A friend of mine in South Africa made one out of a freezer compressor, he recons it wasn't that hard but he did have a refrigeration technician work out the amount of coolant etc. to work with the coil he had made...Think I am gonna give it a bash.
The reason I am going to use Glycol is due to the differential, should just make it more effective for chilling a big FV down 1 degree. But I suppose the first tests will be with water...I will report back when I have started....
 
Two things to consider when using glycol are:

1. Glycol tastes sweet and is poisonous. On average, I read about three articles per year where people have been poisoned as a result of glycol in wine or beer. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning )

2. Water/Glycol mixtures form a eutectic. Although water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and glycol freezes at -10 degrees Celsius the optimum mixture (Water 45% / Glycol 55% *) won't freeze before it reaches +/- -40 degrees Celsius.

Enjoy! :thumb:

* This is from memory. I'm knocking on a bit so the percentages may very well be wrong! :whistle:
 
Go for it ;) and post all the build pics on the way ;)

iirc barneey over on jims beerkit detailed a water to glycol shelf chiller mod with suitable pump and a few pitfalls..
 
I have used a maxi 110 (the smallest) to chill a 200L fermenter down to 6C no problem with water and though there not they may as well be designed for what you want.
 
Ended up ordering a glycoø converted maxi 310 with Glycol conversion and adjusteble stat. The glycol circ. Pump can be controled by an inkbird with a probe in the fv thermowell. There are also two product coils I can use but these will not be as effective as the glycol loop.
 
Just out of interest what does the glycol conversion do, can't you just fill with glycol instead of water?
 
The glycol conversion lets you chill the glycol/water bath down to minus degrees, they say as low as -10, this in turn makes it easier and more effective to cold crash your FV.
 

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