Advice on cold crashing conical via glycol chiller

[logdrum]

Ok, so first ferment in a Spike CF-10 & I think the cooling coil is icing up. Went (tried to at least) from 80ºF to 36ºF but stalled at around 48ºF. Penguin 1/3hp chiller, 60:40 water to glycol ratio set to 36ºF. Do I need to step it down in stages? Raise the reservoir temp? BTW this is with OYL200, so the high ferment temp is intentional. TIA.

 

[CodeSection]

Your water/glycol ratio seems more than enough as can be seen here and on various places on the internet https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/propylene-glycol-d_363.html. Since there is generally a 10F delta in tempt, you need to set the temperature on the Penguin unit to 26F and the fermenter's controller to 36F.

 

[logdrum]

Your water/glycol ratio seems more than enough as can be seen here and on various places on the internet https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/propylene-glycol-d_363.html. Since there is generally a 10F delta in tempt, you need to set the temperature on the Penguin unit to 26F and the fermenter's controller to 36F.

Thanks, Penguin recommends a 50:50 mix & I went a bit leaner, I suppose I could try & dilute it a bit more.

 

[mongoose33]

I wouldn't go below 28 degrees.....beer freezes about .8 degrees lower for each percent of ABV. So, with a 5 percent beer....28 degrees. Otherwise, you risk ice on the cooling coils.

If it's a bigger beer, you can go lower. All my beers have higher ABV than 5 percent, so I use 28 degrees.

BTW: when I'm trying to maintain ferm temps in my CF10, I've found I need to set the chiller at about 50 degrees or so, unless I want the beer to ping-pong back and forth between too high and too low. When it's time to crash, I crank that down to 28 degrees and let it go.

 

[logdrum]

I wouldn't go below 28 degrees.....beer freezes about .8 degrees lower for each percent of ABV. So, with a 5 percent beer....28 degrees. Otherwise, you risk ice on the cooling coils.

If it's a bigger beer, you can go lower. All my beers have higher ABV than 5 percent, so I use 28 degrees.

BTW: when I'm trying to maintain ferm temps in my CF10, I've found I need to set the chiller at about 50 degrees or so, unless I want the beer to ping-pong back and forth between too high and too low. When it's time to crash, I crank that down to 28 degrees and let it go.

And to what temp are you able to drop a typical batch with the chiller @28*F?

 

[mongoose33]

And to what temp are you able to drop a typical batch with the chiller @28*F?

Typically about 38-40 degrees. I've got a huge thread on here somewhere talking about how to crash down to 32 degrees....and I've not been able to do it, but I know why.

All that stuff sticking out of the fermenter--the racking valve, sampling valve, thermowell, handles, legs, lid, huge band clamp, pressure manifold, etc. act as heat sinks. Unless you can isolate from ambient, you can't get below about 10 degrees above what the chiller is set at.

But the 38-40 works. I want 32, but until and unless I can get an insulated space around the fermenter that's just impossible. I suppose if the garage dropped to 40 degrees in the winter, I could do it.

 

[logdrum]

That’s where I’m at as well.

 

[logdrum]

I wonder if pointing a small fan at the appurtenances would help? I'll try tonight.

 

[augiedoggy]

And to what temp are you able to drop a typical batch with the chiller @28*F?

40 degrees here is as low as ive gone with my 1/3hp chiller and 4 conicals hooked up. at the brewpub we use a single 1/3hp chiller too for 4 110gallon plastic conicals with 50 ft of stainless coil in each... I "cold crash" them to 50 before the beer is transferred to a brite in a walkin and crashed further.
chiller set at 30

What kind of insulation do you have around the conical? the neoprene jackets some sell are more for looks than function.

 

[augiedoggy]

I wonder if pointing a small fan at the appurtenances would help? I'll try tonight.

if whatever your pointing the fan at is sticking off the conical, the fan blowing room temp air will just aid in warming it faster and making it sweat more.

 

[logdrum]

if whatever your pointing the fan at is sticking off the conical, the fan blowing room temp air will just aid in warming it faster and making it sweat more.

You’re right, raised the temp a couple degrees.

 

[Jtvann]

I use a 14 gallon ss brewtech unitank and a DIY 6.5k btu glycol chiller. Glycol chiller has a 10 gallon reservoir. I set my chiller to 29 degrees with a 5 degree variance and my unitank to 35 degrees. I'm not concerned about the pump running a lot, that only helps to circulate the glycol.

When my chiller stops running, the liquid can continue to cool down to about 26 degrees if the other pump isn't running. The radiator submerged does ice up if not circulating. That's doesn't happen much as my tolerances are tight and the pump runs quite a bit.

I had no problem crashing to 35 and holding it within 1 degree in 90 degree ambient temps.

To me, small changes and maintenance is a lot easier to hold than big temp swings.