Adam Jacobs

Whirlpooling

Adam Jacobs · Jul 26, 2019 ·

What Is Whirlpooling?

Whirlpooling. Dangerous when floating a river, but critical when brewing beer. To put it simply, whirlpooling separates the good stuff in your brew from the waste that can be thrown away.

Because whirlpooling is such an important part of the brewing process, simply stirring just isn’t going to cut it. Let’s dive into the brew, shall we?

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Wort And Trub

Before you can ferment your brew, you have to separate the brewed wort from the trub.

For those who don’t speak beer, here’s a quick glossary:

Wort:

Wort is “the sweet, amber liquid extracted from malted barley that the yeast will later ferment into beer.” According to Howtobrew.com, whirlpooling helps prepare the wort for fermentation by “gathering most of the break and hops into the center of the pot to better enable the siphon to draw off clear wort from the side.”

Trub:

Beerandbrewing.com identifies trub as “a collective term covering sediments formed in the brewing process during wort boiling—called hot break—and upon cooling the wort before primary fermentation boiling—called cold break—as well as during cold storage of fermented beer, which is called cold trub.” In any form, trub is usually discarded by brewers as a waste-product.

Whirlpooling is the process of steeping hops in a way that preserves oils essential for wort flavor while separating out the trub.

Let It Whirl

The swirling motion of the brew prevents most of the hop oils from boiling away. You can whirlpool your brew by using a spoon to stir or anything that will get the water moving.

The main benefits of whirlpooling are preserving flavoring oils from boiling off and collecting trub to be disposed of. Experts in whirlpooling will do so in a way that shapes the trub into a cone at the bottom of the boiling pot:

Once you’ve moved the wort brew to the fermentation chamber, you can throw away the trub. Some homebrewers use trub as a fertilizer for their lawns and gardens. Others use it as a drain filter due to the trub’s straining properties.

Temperature Control

Throughout the brewing process, ensuring your brew doesn’t get too hot or cold is critical. North Slope Chillers offers fermentation chillers and Keg Coolers to help keep your brew at the desired temperature during each stage. For more information about how North Slope Chillers can help you brew the finest craft beer you’ve ever made, call (866) 826-2993 or email [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.

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 .

Dairy and Milk Coolers

Adam Jacobs · Jun 4, 2019 ·

Process cooling has a place in many industries, and is no stranger in the world of dairy production. What role do dairy and milk coolers have in getting milk ready for consumption?

Process Cooling in the Dairy Industry

The dairy industry is massive, with $38.1 billion of milk produced in the United States alone in 2017. As a part of that industry, pasteurization is critical to producing milk for consumer use. Pasteurization kills and removes harmful bacteria from milk liquids. Process cooling controls temperatures during and following pasteurization procedures.

Bacteria

As it leaves the animal, milk is inhabited by harmful pathogens, and is generally unsafe to consume. According to Milk Facts, some of these bacteria include:

E. coli: One of the most infamous bacteria, E. coli in most of its strains is harmless and used by the human digestive system. However, E. coli strain O157:H7 is a different matter. This particular strain produces toxins that can make humans sick, even leading to death in some cases. Thankfully, pasteurization kills the O157:H7 strain.
Listeria monocytogenes: This bacteria can infect nearly anyone and is regularly found in unpasteurized milk. Symptoms found in humans that have contracted Listeriosis range from fever and muscle aches to stillbirths and death. Though pasteurization kills Listeria, it can grow in refrigerated temperatures if the milk becomes recontaminated.
Salmonella: If you’ve ever had food poisoning, you probably have Salmonella to thank. While not usually life threatening, Salmonella can cause intestinal issues resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. It is not uncommon to find strains of this bacteria in raw milk, but they are not found in properly pasteurized milk.

HTST vs UHT

Having killed off these harmful bacteria, pasteurized milk is globally considered safe to consume. However, different countries have different ways of pasteurizing.

Milk in the United States and Canada is pasteurized via High-Temperature, Short-Time (HTST) The milk is heated to a lower temperature (about 165°F) than milk in Europe. The milk is kept at this temperature for about 15 seconds before process cooling kicks in and the temperature is gradually reduced to refrigeration levels. As a result, milk has a shorter shelf life and needs to be refrigerated for maximum storage. Most often, dairy coolers or milk coolers are used to stabilize temperatures.

European dairy producers require much higher temperatures, utilizing a pasteurization process called Ultra-High Temperature (UHT). The temperature of milk is heated much higher than milk processed in the United States, to about 191°F. Unlike HTST, milk is only heated that high for a few seconds. This method allows for milk to be stored without refrigeration and giving it a longer shelf life. The downside is that the milk has a different taste, with some calling it a “cooked” flavor.

Keep it cool

Regardless of pasteurization preference, milk needs to be cooled after being pasteurized so as not to burn the milk into something unfit for consumer tastes. Milk coolers from North Slope Chillers offer temperature control solutions that dairy producers need to lower temperatures after pasteurization and ready milk for market or further processing. Contact North Slope Chillers for the best milk coolers in the dairy industry at (866) 826-2993 or by email at [email protected].

Whirlpooling

What Is Whirlpooling?