Beer line flash chiller- I think?!?

[JabbA]

I've just acquired what I believe to be a three line flash chiller. Having never come across one before I'd be very grateful if some one could tell me how to set it up and maintain it

I've read posts on here concerning Maxi chillers but a search for SI Industries comes a blank, as does google

I've plugged it in and the fans wizz round so it works in part! It looks like one controller controls the red line while the other controls both black and blue lines; water goes in the hole on the top- that's all I know about it





Cheers,
Jamie

[Parva]

That's definitely a flash chiller. Now, all of the following assumes you have some way of serving beer under pressure (ie. with the cornie kegging system or similar). If you don't have kegs and C02 to 'pump' the beer then you either need to acquire them or sell the chiller as it's useless without some method of being able to 'push' the beer through the chiller.

Can you tell me what the inlets and outlets say? It's possible that one pair (possibly the red ones) are recirculation lines for chilling a python (to get that ice-cold water vapour effect on the pump). If that is indeed the case then you will need the JG fittings and a small length of 3/8th line to connect the two together (or disconnect the pump internally) else you'll have a wet floor.

Other than that, you have either two lines left or three if you don't have the recirculation option. You only need to connect up the lines you are going to use so if only using one simply connect cornie out to product in then the corresponding out goes to the tap. If using the second line then connect that up to product 2 using the same procedure as above. Each product line has a stainless steel coil which is immersed in an ice bath so beer goes in at room temperature and back out at say 10c (depending on what temperature you select). You can also superchill lagers by piping into product 1 then where it exits product 1 connect this to product 2 inlet and then product 2 outlet to the tap so that it runs through the ice bath twice. To clean it out simply pump some cleaner of choice from the cornie through the chiller to the tap, leave in the lines to soak for a bit then flush with plenty of water. I tend to clean my every few weeks or so as I'm bone idle but usually dispense a pint or two a day and haven't noted any off flavers doing this.

Fill the bath with water before you start, simply fill until water starts coming out of the overflow. I have a single line chiller with recirc and have added a pic which should hopefully make it clearer.

[Blackaddler]

That looks like a very useful chiller. All you need now is some JG pushfit connectors and some python tubing, as seen in Parva's pics.

There should be an internal pump, which continuously pumps chilled water around a recirculation loop.
Looking at the pics, that appears to be the 2 black inlet/outlets. These pipes need to be looped together [see Parva's pic again], unless you're using the water to chill pipes, dispensing fonts etc.

I use use the internal pump to provide chilled water for a heat exchanger.

Beer is usually pumped through the product coil[s]. In your case, the red and blue inlet/outlets, I think.
Your chiller also appears to have separate temperature controls on the product coils. I'm not sure how that works, as presumably they use the same ice bath.

You don't have to connect these up if you don't need them. However, if you do, you will need to feed the beer/water/whatever under some sort of pressure. For instance, that could be water under mains pressure, an external electric or handpump, or beer under CO2 pressure.

The other large black outlet in the middle is the overflow. Place a jug under it and fill the chiller with water, until it flows out the overflow. If the water level ever gets a bit low, the pump will probably make a gurgling noise. Just top up the water.

The chiller should not be powered on and off too frequently. It's a bit like like a fridge, and is designed to be left on.
On/off cycling for the Maxi is 5 mins. It can take several hours before the ice bath reaches its optimal temperature.

Take it outside, fill it up with water and switch it on. If I'm correct, water should be pumped out of one the the black tubes. Switch off! I'd empty it again, until you can test it properly with a loop in place.

There are a number of different ways to use a chiller, if you think about what you want to use it for.

[JabbA]

Fantastic, cheers for the detailed responses guys

I've just had a play and filled it up with water and gravity fed water in from an FV. I switched it on and connected FV to the RED in line and a length of PVC tubing from the RED out line and water duly came out, and in a matter of moments was ice cold I looked at the other two lines to see if they were re-circ line but no water came out of the BLUE or BLACK lines.

I then tried the BLUE and BLACK lines in turn and again super-cooled water came out in a matter of moments and no water came out of the RED line, leading me to believe all three lines are beer lines with no re-circ. The confusing thing is the dial controlling both the BLACK and BLUE lines Maybe the RED line has a double coil for super chilled largers, I didn't notice the out coming water to be colder though...

Can you tell me what the inlets and outlets say?

They simply say IN LONG & OUT LONG on all 3!

I've started my collection of cornies and have a bottle of CO2 & 70/30 in the shed (still need to get my regulators sorted though ) and thought about using the chiller to chill beers for parties, BBQs in the summer etc.

One other question, the water coming out did seem very cold, too cold to use with bitters- how do you control the temperature for serving bitter. I'm thinking of a TC-10 but can't think of how to incorporate it into the system

Cheers,
Jamie

[Maltloaf]

One other question, the water coming out did seem very cold, too cold to use with bitters- how do you control the temperature for serving bitter.

I'm guessing the thin copper tie-wrapped to the larger pipe and cladding is the capillary to the thermostat for the compressor. Follow that 'til it meets a box with electrical wires. It may just be a simple rotary thermostat which you can tweak to control the 'ice' bank* temperature. It may even be calibrated in some way!
Best,
ML.
*My guess comes from the world of bulk milk tanks, not sure what you'd call it in this instance. I don't even know if this thing is intended/able to freeze!

[Blackaddler]

Well, it sounds like I was wrong, and there's no internal pump. That's a shame, but you could always use an external pump, as I said before.

It might be a bit too cold to run a bitter through. I think that you'd need to experiment with it, to see what temperature the chilled beer is served at. To a large extent, I guess it depends on the temperature you're storing your beer at, and how quickly the beer passes through the chiller.

I don't use Cornies myself, so I'll let someone else comment on that. At least you appear to have some temperature control on the lines.

[edit1now]

Yes, it does have a pump (I can see it in Jabba's middle photo on top of the ice bank tank, right of the compressor) but it doesn't have a python loop. The pump just recirculates the water in the tank. Might be adaptable to run a python loop if you took the top off to have a look?

Someone on here used a chiller with no pump for recirculating cold water though his fermenter loop, using a 12V caravan water pump.