Chiller sizing

[Gilligan]

I'm trying to determine what size chiller I'm going to need for a very small brewery. The brew tanks are 2BBL and I want to size the chiller for 2 single wall fermenters (probably only brewing with ale yeast though) and 1 insulated bright tank. I was planning on using ramco temp controllers and pumps for each tank. I'm not sure how many BTUs or HP I would need for this. Does anyone know of an easy to way to calculate this? Thanks!
- Gilligan

[jimvgjr]

Hello Gilligan,

What I try to do is come up with an average/high load condition. For example it might be that you will have 1 of the fermenters in active fermentation, the other crash cooling from 70 to 36 in 24 hrs, and your Brite tank holding at 36. I have formulas we've developed over the years to come up with a BTU load. I'd be happy to run the above scenario and let you know what I come up with. I can tell you it will be a very small system, likely a 1 to 2 Hp, but let me run the numbers and see what we come up with.

Thanks,
Jim
Pro Refrigeration Inc.

[jimvgjr]

Hi Gilligan. Using the load scenario in my previous post, I estimate a load of just under 2,000 BTU/HR- very small, in fact smaller than any system we build (we have built 2 HP systems with capacities in the 12,000-15,000 BTU/HR range). I think I'd probably recommend looking at a tap-line chiller for this duty.

If you have any questions, please contact me. Good Luck.

Thanks,

Jim