Archives for July 2019

Biotech Cooling Chambers

Brooke Loeffler · Jul 20, 2019 ·

Where Test Tubes Chill Out

Biotech laboratories rely on precise temperature control to initiate, stabilize, suspend, and stop sensitive chemical reactions. Experiment integrity, equipment protection, and lab-worker safety can all be compromised if precise temperatures are not met at precise times. Let’s take a closer look at a common piece of temperature control equipment used in biomedical research and production: cooling chambers.

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What Are Cooling Chambers?

Cooling chambers are anodized aluminum storage racks that are specifically designed to store and transfer sensitive liquids. They have grids of wells that can safely house configurations of different sized test tubes and vials while they are being chilled. The anodized aluminum prevents corrosion and ensures cold temperatures are sustained in each lab sample.

What Are Cooling Chambers Used For?

Aluminum cooling chambers are used in many different laboratory applications as samples are put through a process called thermal cycling.

Thermal Cycling

Clinical laboratory research requires meeting exact temperatures for exact periods of time in order to produce accurate results. Thermal cycling exposes reactants to repeated cycles of heating and cooling to start, stop, suspend, or stabilize chemical reactions. One of the most common uses for thermal cycling cooling chambers is a method called PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction).

PCR

PCR was developed in 1993 by Kary Mullis as a precise method for copying strands of DNA. DNA strands are suspended in tubes of liquid and housed in aluminum cooling chambers while they are thermally cycled. The DNA goes through anywhere from 20-40 different temperature stages causing it to melt, elongate, bind, and reform as needed. Thermal cycling for PCR has become critical to many different industries from medical research to forensic analysis.

How Are Cooling Chambers Thermally Cycled?

Cooling chambers can be housed in many different types of containers as they hit their required temperature targets. These containers range from large fridge-like chambers that are specially calibrated for thermal cycling to small foam ice-chest sized boxes with cooling blocks that can be stored on a counter top.

Total Temperature Control From North Slope Chillers

North Slope Chillers offers portable, easy to install chillers that won’t disrupt your current setup. For more about our temperature control products, contact us: (866) 826-2993 or [email protected].

Recirculating Chillers

Adam Jacobs · Jul 19, 2019 ·

What’s in a name?

Think you’ve never heard of a recirculating chiller before? Think again.

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Chiller: You Know What It Is

When we think of industrial cooling equipment, the word that most often comes to mind is “chiller.” That’s because chiller is the term most often used in any industry when referring to cooling equipment.

Known By Another Name

Technically, these units are called recirculating chillers, aptly named for their ability to circulate liquids through a cooling system while drawing heat away from temperature-sensitive materials. Recirculating chillers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, suiting the specific industries they serve. From hydroponics to plastics, cannabis to dairy, and lasers to 3D printing, recirculating chillers are an important part of manufacturing everywhere.

Did you know that chillers originated in German breweries? Check out our article on how to keep beer cold to learn about how and why recirculating chillers came into existence.

Benchtop Chillers

Adam Jacobs · Jul 18, 2019 ·

When Smaller is Better

Industrial chillers come in a variety of sizes. How small can chillers get?

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All sizes of Cold

Chillers are an essential part of any workplace where temperature control is concerned. They come in all shapes and sizes, usually specific for the cooling task they were built for.

The Little Chiller that Could

While some chillers are built to handle literal tons of heat, some only have a small job to do. These are often referred to as benchtop chillers. These miniature cooling units are the George Foreman Grills of cold: small, portable and efficient.

Benchtop chillers can be used while sitting on top of a work desk. Their size makes them ideal for keeping small amounts of material cold while still providing an industrial-grade of chill.

Learn More

Want to learn more about chillers? You’re at the right place: North Slope Chillers is the world’s best expert in keeping things cold. Check out our chiller guide to determine what size of chiller will fit your needs, or call 866) 826-2993 to talk to one of our chilling experts.

Fermentation Cooling Jackets

Brooke Loeffler · Jul 16, 2019 ·

Wrap Up To Stay Cool

Whether you are wine making, distilling, or brewing, temperature control during the fermentation stage is crucial. Keeping fermentation chambers within specified temperature zones ensures ideal flavors, colors, aromas and alcohol levels in your drinks.

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Fermentation containers come in all shapes and sizes: from massive steel chambers, to medium conical fermenters, all the way down to small car-boy fermenters for small batches and home brewing.

The methods of cooling these chambers are as varied as the fermentation containers themselves. These chilling methods can be approached from two directions: inside or outside.

Cooling From The Inside

Some fermentation chillers involve inserting a cooling rod or coil down into your fermenting liquid. These devices then cool the liquid through direct contact. Cooling a fermentation container from the inside comes with added risks. Anytime a tool or device is inserted into your fermenting liquid, you risk exposure to unwanted microorganisms (such as wild yeasts) that can alter flavors, as well as bacteria, potentially tainting your drink. Opening a fermentation chamber to insert cooling devices also increases the change of oxidization spoilage.

Using this cooling method also greatly decreases the chilling efficiency. Fermentation liquid is exposed to a much smaller cooling surface area, leading it to not cool as effectively, especially for medium to large batches. This also increases the risk of hot and cool spots in the fermenting liquid, making it harder for the yeast to finish the fermentation process.

North Slope Chillers infographic showing the benefits of using a fermentation cooling jacket

Cooling From The Outside

Chilling fermentation chambers from the outside is the most effective method. No matter the diameter of your fermenting container, the outside surface area will always be greater than cooling from the inside. Putting the chilling source in direct contact with the fermentation container will produce the best results due to uniform thermal flow from the container to the chiller. As fermenters come in all shapes and sizes, cooling sources should be as flexible as possible to ensure complete contact with the container.

North Slope Chilling Solutions

Fermentation cooling jackets that completely wrap around your fermenter will give you the most direct cooling contact. Insulated Fluxwrap jackets from North Slope Chillers have multiple channels of cooling liquid evenly distributed around your fermentation chamber. Their adjustable temperature range will eliminate hot or cold spots and keep your yeast happy and fermenting. Fluxwrap is easy to install without opening your fermenting container and flexibly fits a wide variety of container shapes and sizes.

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Chilling Beer

Adam Jacobs · Jul 10, 2019 ·

Keep it Cold

Successful craft breweries have one thing in common: they stay in control of their creation. What’s the best way to keep beer cold?

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Beer: Stay in Command

Flavor, color and texture are all dependent on how beer is made. Temperature control during the brewing process directly impacts each of those three elements. It’s always been that way, and always will be.

Using Ice and Snow

Ever since mankind discovered how to make beer, keeping it chilled has been critical to allowing the fermentation process to work its magic. Fermentation generates heat, so beer makers have had to pay strict attention to temperature control. In the past, most beer producers stored beer in cellars to keep it protected from external heat, while using water and ice to reduce fermentation heat.

Beer chilling methods have changed over time. During the reign of Roman Emperor Nero, distilled water was invented, allowing for colder drinks to be served. In medieval times, ice houses dug into the ground were all the rage in Europe and Asia. Snow was also a commodity used in keeping beer and wine cold. Once the New World was discovered, Spain imposed a tax on snow imported from Mexico that lasted 300 years due to its value in cooling.

In the early colonization of North America, ice caves were essential to keeping beer at a stable temperature. Brewers would layer huge blocks of ice along cave walls, creating a freezer that lowered the air temperature of the cave. It’s said that the success of breweries in Wisconsin was only possible due to the nearby lakes that freeze over during the winter, providing breweries with a massive supply of ice to help with fermenting and storing. To this day, you can still tour the ice caves that used to house barrels of Miller beer.

Beer Spoils

When beer isn’t chilled correctly, it often spoils. George Washington had a recipe he used to reclaim spoiled beer due to the difficulty of maintaining a stable temperature. Beer production in Germany from the 16th century to the 19th century was banned during the hot summer months. Overheated beer provides “ideal habitats for noxious airborne bacteria to proliferate and caused yeasts to produce undesirable fermentation flavors.” With few exceptions, most spoiled beer is deemed unusable and simply thrown out.

The First Chiller

Mechanized temperature control wasn’t a thing until 1873, when German engineer Carl von Linde invented the first chiller machine. According to the Oxford Companion to Beer, von Linde saw a need for artificial refrigeration and found a solution using the basic principles of thermodynamics.

Because cold is merely the absence of heat, to make things cold, one must withdraw heat. Compressing a medium generates heat; subsequently decompressing or evaporating it quickly absorbs heat from its environment. Devices based on this principle are now generally known as vapor-compression refrigeration systems; apply this to a fermenting or lagering vessel, and it becomes a beer-cooling system.
-Oxford Companion to Beer

Dubbing his creation the “ammonia cold machine” due to the use of ammonia as a refrigerant, von Linde’s invention changed the world forever, allowing breweries to ditch the ice caves and produce beer year round. Today, von Linde’s ammonia cold machine has evolved into modern equipment. Commercial beer chillers allow yeast strains to be kept at their optimum temperature and reduce risk of overheating. They also provide beer with a stable storage temperature that works in nearly any environment.

Keg Coolers

North Slope Chillers offers the best beer chilling equipment on the market. Our Keg Coolers bring peace of mind to large breweries and home brewers alike. With a white vinyl finish to repel heat from sunlight and insulated layering, Keg Coolers draw heat away from the container to ensure beer stays at a set temperature. Portable and easy to use, Keg Coolers are essential for every brewer.

Temperature control in beer making is just as important in 2019 as it was in 3000 B.C. By using North Slope Chillers Keg Coolers, craft brewers can carry on the age-old tradition of using the best temperature control solution available.

Cooling from North Slope Chillers

North Slope Chillers offers easy to install, portable chillers that won’t disrupt your current setup. If you would like to know more about our product offerings, give us a call at (866) 826-2993 .

Biotech Cooling Chambers

Where Test Tubes Chill Out

What Are Cooling Chambers?