Greetings!
So I am using my home-built glycol chiller for cooling wort to pitch temperature, temperature control during fermentation, and now for the first time, cold-crashing before transfer to the keg.
It is a 5,000BTU window A/C unit with a cooler that is holding 7.5G of solution, 5G distilled H2O and 2.5G Food-Grade Glycol.
Normally, the A/C runs seldomly, as I keep it at 50F in order to keep an ale at 65F for pitch and fermentation.
Yesterday, I set it up for the cold crash at 40F. The A/C ran off and on all night, the pump for cooling ran all night, and the temp on the beer was only down to 45F.
For those of you more technically astute than I, is 40F a pipe dream? Is it not feasible given the equipment that I am using? Is there something else I should be doing to drop the temperature more between the glycol temp setup and the fermenter itself? The garage itself dropped to about 50F overnight.
I am hoping to run 3 fermenters in the 60F's regularly, maybe one lager at 50F on occasion, but was still hoping to cold-crash/lager at 40F or below.
Any advice or help is appreciated.
Here is the fermenter with the CO2-filled balloon as the beer cold crashes. I had to refill it at 50F, and it still has some pressure in it still. The second picture is the glycol system.
So I am using my home-built glycol chiller for cooling wort to pitch temperature, temperature control during fermentation, and now for the first time, cold-crashing before transfer to the keg.
It is a 5,000BTU window A/C unit with a cooler that is holding 7.5G of solution, 5G distilled H2O and 2.5G Food-Grade Glycol.
Normally, the A/C runs seldomly, as I keep it at 50F in order to keep an ale at 65F for pitch and fermentation.
Yesterday, I set it up for the cold crash at 40F. The A/C ran off and on all night, the pump for cooling ran all night, and the temp on the beer was only down to 45F.
For those of you more technically astute than I, is 40F a pipe dream? Is it not feasible given the equipment that I am using? Is there something else I should be doing to drop the temperature more between the glycol temp setup and the fermenter itself? The garage itself dropped to about 50F overnight.
I am hoping to run 3 fermenters in the 60F's regularly, maybe one lager at 50F on occasion, but was still hoping to cold-crash/lager at 40F or below.
Any advice or help is appreciated.
Here is the fermenter with the CO2-filled balloon as the beer cold crashes. I had to refill it at 50F, and it still has some pressure in it still. The second picture is the glycol system.