How to Choose a Glycol Chiller for Your Craft Brewery?
Concerned about the quality of your craft beer and want to control every process of making it? How to achieve the right fermentation temperature and what to use for this? You will agree, there are a lot of questions, but there is one answer to all these questions – the glycol chiller. It allows you to get full control over the fermentation process and work according to a set program.
In fact, this is probably one of the most important moments in making high-quality beer. In our article, you will learn the secret of how to get the taste and quality of beer that you want, rather than settling for what comes out.
Glycol Chiller Explained
The glycol chiller is the youngest and most popular type of equipment for cooling a beer drink. It is ideal for long lines and individual columns, it helps to reduce the reproduction of microorganisms in the bottling equipment.
How Many Different Types of Glycol Chillers Are There?
In general, there are only two varieties of glycol chiller. The first type is propylene glycol, the second is ethylene glycol.
Propylene glycol is widely used because of its low toxicity. It is safe to use and is therefore considered a food-grade antifreeze.
Ethylene glycol is a more toxic chemical and can be dangerous. If there is a leak somewhere in production, then it can cause many people to be poisoned.
How to Size a Glycol Chiller?
To understand what size you need, it is not necessary to go to a fortune-teller, just a few mathematical calculations.
- The first thing to do is to find out how many barrels your brewery can make.
- Next, determine the meaning of the term pull down. This is the process that occurs while the temperature in the tank is dropping, and it is the key factor in choosing the size.
- You should also pay attention to the size of the beer tanks themselves.
- Finally, calculate the temperature drop in the tanks.