Post Mix Machine As Chiller?

[TerritoryBrew]

Hi all,

I have recently acquired a post mix machine (Cornellius/Wilshire Brand) which is about 20 years old but in very good condition.

I have opened it up and there is a pump which circulates water from and external source through an alloy coil which is immersed in an bath of water which is refrigerated by the machine and then spits it into what looks to be some sort of apparatus to mix the water and CO2.

I don't want to make post mix when I could convert this into a piece of fine brewery bling. :super:

What I want to do is cut the alloy near the CO2 mixing thing and then place a tube (1/4inch) and then have it go into my March puump, then use the freshly boiled wort to circulate inside this alloy. The bit from the other pump (which won't be used) to the kettle return is not dramas, I have that sorted.

Will there be any problem with the pressure if I scale it down to 1/4 inch from 1/2inch? Also the aluminium seems to be metric, the OD is about 8mm and is very thin (1mm tops). Is there a better way to go from 8mm to half inch?

Can anyone envisage any problems with this set-up?

Sorry I don't have pics at the moment, but am at the office. Pics perhaps after work...

Cheers, :beer:

TB

 

[MHB]

Sounds like a great score
This or similar has been done in the past and can work really well.

I would think of going from the kettle to the pump then through the coil.
You will get better flow and control if you just throttle the outlet. Just pushing a piece of tube over the pipe and fitting a clamp should see you right.

If the unit is an ice bank (which I suspect it is); remember to give it overnight to develop a good block of ice bit of a surprise to see alloy coils in one tho.

Sounds like you got lucky
MHB

 

[TerritoryBrew]

I have included some pictures now. It isn't an ice bath one, it is a water one with a stirrer. So this is my new wort chiller...

Stirrer in action

One one pass it dropped the temp by 14 degrees. It is going to be awesome.

I have made it so that the end (brass hose) can connect to my new brew rig... More pictures coming soon.

 

[MHB]

TB thats an Ice Bank, they all have stirrers to stop the water in the middle freezing and to move the heat around faster.

Youre lucky to have 4 coils there to play with so you have lots of options, you can use 1 as you have it set up, or more, going into the first and then through the next up to 4 times, this could pretty much give you zero degree wort depending on your flow rate.
The other option being to split the wort into multiple slower moving streams so you are doing one pass through multiple coils. Or even two parallel paths

If you choose to make multiple paths, just watch the pick up order so you get even flow through each coil.
Excuse the doodle but this gets the idea across faster, its called an equal or balanced flow manifold.
View attachment 23999

Any which way, great way to cool wort, just work out how much cooling you need to get the wort down to pitching temperatures as quickly as the pump can spit it out.

The compressors in Ice Banks are smaller than those in Glycol units, so it will be important to give it a couple of hours to build up a good reserve of ice because there is no way that the unit will keep up without the energy reserved in the ice.

MHB

 

[scooterism]

Just to dig up an old thread..

But how did this turn out?