EnglishViews: 76 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-10-31 Origin: Site
Can I cool down the wort with only city water?
There are some of the brewers planned to cool down the wort with only city water, it is available, but we do not suggest to do so.
For wort cooling with only city water, a single stage heat exchanger will be needed. In our standard, we suggest to use cold water at about 3~5 Celsius for the single stage cooling. But to honest, they city water in mostly of countries cannot reach such low temperature all the year, saying between 10 and 20 Celsius depending on the season...
So the wort maybe cooled down to 30 Celsius firstly and the rest could be chilled via the cooling jacket before pitching the yeast. It works, but not ideal as the jacket cooling efficiency is not as high as the heat exchanger.
So if it is allowed, we still suggest to use cold water (cooled city water) with single stage heat exchanger; Or Cold water and Glycol water with double stage heat exchanger.
Tips for Controlling the Cooling Process in a Reasonable Time
We advise that the city -water-flow-rate should be as same flow-rate as the wort flow rate inside the heat exchanger. And normally we advise 2 bars pressure of the city water source. So if you are using inline- filtered-city water from (RO machine or water softener etc.), it is often that the water flow at the first stage is not enough. So the wort temperature can not be catch down to expected temp.through the first stage.
We normally set the temperature of the glycol water tank as 23-26F(-2℃ to -5℃).
（1）The glycol concentration should be no less than 30% if you set the temperature at 23-26F, or the compressor of the chiller will easily freeze and damage. Normally this ratio of glycol water can keep around 2 years, after two years, please check and add the new glycol into the GWT.
（2）Besides, when in winter, please make a cover around the chiller to avoid the drop of the snow& cold rain, if the snow& water come into the chiller, they will cover around the compressor and chiller heat exchanger and freeze. Freeze is dangerous for chiller.