Keep cool and keep on brewing Contributed by IWC In a brewery , rapidly cooling wort from boiling to room-temperature or lower , is no small task .
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Keep cool and keep on brewing Contributed by IWC In a brewery , rapidly cooling wort from boiling to room-temperature or lower , is no small task .
Images supplied by IWC
IWC ’ s ‘ plug and play ’ closed circuit cooling system is perfect for chilling the wort to maintain the ideal fermentation temperature to turn out excellent lagers from microbreweries to craft breweries .
HOW TO MAINTAIN THE IDEAL FERMENTATION TEMPERATURE TO TURN OUT EXCELLENT LAGERS
Rapidly cooling wort from boiling down to room temperature or lower is no small task . But it ’ s a very important one . A fast temperature drop is critical for several reasons :
• Risk of contamination : There are plenty of airborne yeasts and bacteria that would love to feast on your freshly boiled wort when it ’ s in the range of 80 – 160 ° F ( 27 – 71 ° C ). You want to be in this zone as briefly as possible .
• Protein coagulation : A rapid cool-down knocks proteins out of suspension and results in clearer beer in your glass .
• More predictable hops utilisation : Hops continue to contribute bitterness even at sub-boiling temperatures . Letting wort remain too hot for too long extracts additional bitterness you may not want .
Our closed-circuit cooling tower system includes a separate plate heat exchanger
A cooling solution to complete the current still which has three main components : a boiler , a reflux column and a condenser . and an open circuit cooling tower . A heat exchanger is a piece of brewery equipment designed to quickly raise or lower the temperature of wort or beer . Heat exchangers in breweries are often referred to as ‘ plate heat exchangers ’ because they are built as a series of plates ; a hot liquid ( wort ) flows along one side of the plate and cold liquid ( water ) flows along the other side . The heat exchange takes place across the plates .
Depending on your beer style , the wort can be cooled quickly to 7 – 35 ° C as it passes through the heat exchanger .
Hot wort at approximately 95 ° C flows through a heat exchanger , where it is cooled by cold water and / or a refrigerant coming along the reverse side of the plates in the opposite direction . The wort becomes cool ( e . g . to 12 ° C ) and ready for fermentation .
On average , heat exchangers will be sized so that the entire contents of the kettle can be cooled to fermentation temperature in 45 minutes or less . A heat exchanger is highly energy efficient because the heat originally used to bring wort to the boil is partially reused to heat cold water flowing into the brewery . Using refrigerants such as glycol , plate heat exchangers can also be used to cool beer to low temperatures after fermentation , say from 12 ° C to – 1 ° C , for cold maturation . Heat exchangers may be used in many aspects of the brewing process to heat and cool beer , and to heat or cool liquids such as water .
Our closed-circuit cooling system is ideal for breweries and has many benefits which include minimal process water contamination , reduced water treatment requirements and most importantly , a
EWK324 cooling tower with PHE and pump .
lower process maintenance cost since uncontaminated water is used in the process . CLA
HELDEN DISTILLERY , PARYS ( BLOEMFONTEIN )
This is another brewery project completed by IWC :
• Requirement : A cooling solution to complete the current still which has three main components , a boiler , a reflux column and a condenser .
• Solution : EWK064 package cooling tower complete with pump , piping , installation and instrumentation for the still ’ s condenser cooling system . The water from the cooling tower is used to remove the heat in the condensers ensuring maximum processing efficiency . The EWK range of package cooling towers is ideally suited to smaller processing plants in the food and beverage industries .
COLD LINK AFRICA • June 2024 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za 25