Wort Cooling

After saccharification, the wort must be cooled to fermentation temperature (10-20°C) within 30-40 minutes. To facilitate your choice, we have designed two options for cooling wort.

The first option.
It requires a two-stage plate heat exchanger (PHE), a glycol tank and a cooler.
First stage plate heat exchanger Second stage plate heat exchanger
(95℃-98℃)→→→→→→(40℃-50℃)→→→→→→(10℃-20℃)
Cooled by city water Cooled by glycol water in glycol tank

The second solution.
It requires a two-stage or single-stage plate heat exchanger (PHE), a glycol tank, a cold liquid tank and a cooler.

In case of a two-stage heat exchanger, the procedure would be.
First stage in the PHE Second stage in the PHE
(95℃-98℃)→→→→→→40℃-50℃)→→→→→→(10℃-20℃)
Cooled by city water, cooled by cold water in the cold liquid tank.

In case of a single-stage heat exchanger, the procedure is.
Single stage in PHE
(95℃-98℃)_00 (10℃-20℃)
Chilled by cold water in the cold liquid tank

Comparison.
Regarding the first option, it doesn’t need a cold liquid tank, so it can save budget better. And it is better for the brewer to use a two-stage heat exchanger. If a single-stage heat exchanger is used, the wort will need more glycol water for cooling. In this case, it is necessary to increase the capacity of the glycol tank and the chiller. Accordingly, the cost would be higher. Therefore, two heat exchangers are a better option.

Regarding the second solution, some winemakers prefer a single-stage heat exchanger. As we all know, cold water is much cooler than city water, so it can speed up the cooling of the wort. Of course, both two-stage and single-stage heat exchangers work better than the first solution. On the one hand, the cold liquid tank can be pre-stored with cold water, so the work load of the cooler can be more or less reduced. On the other hand, in case of accidental damage of the heat exchanger, the wort is exposed to city water/chilled water instead of glycol water. Therefore, it prevents the wort from being contaminated and the design is safer.
In addition, the city water and cold water after heat exchange can be recycled to the hot wort tank for the next batch.