Untapped Energy In Your Brewery

The Challenge

Tanner Beers was head brewer at Anthem Brewery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when he noticed some contamination during the brewing process. He traced it back to a used Paul Mueller Company plate heat exchanger he had purchased on the open market. Because the used plate heat exchanger came from an unknown source, there was no way to know if it was configured for a brewery, what kind of parts had been replaced on it, or what the previous owners used to clean the plates.

The Journey

Tanner called up Paul Mueller Company and the Accu-Therm® heat transfer group. They helped Tanner track down the origin of the unit.

It was a plate heat exchanger from a dairy farm equipment plate from 2001! Application engineer Victor Shafer helped Tanner identify the leaky plate causing the problems, and he went a step further and talked to Tanner about his entire brewing process.

The Solution

During this consultation, Victor identified that Tanner’s chiller compressor was running constantly, wasting electricity. Victor came up with a plan where Tanner could use city water to cool down the wort as a first step in decreasing the chiller compressor runtime. In addition, a new heat exchanger plate pack was recommended that would be much more efficient in Tanner’s brewery than the 15-year-old pack he was currently using.

The Results

Thanks to the consultation and the new plate pack, the energy savings will continue to add up over the upgraded cooling system's lifetime usage.

You want to get the most efficient and cost-saving solution possible. We can offer you the same problem-solving guidance Tanner received, when you sign up for our free heat transfer consultation. Our experts have 75 years of experience guiding us, and we want to support you by:

• Advising on how we have seen certain fluids affect certain materials
• Explaining how even slight temperature differences can change your process
• Calculating the right amount of heat and cold exchange needed for optimal efficiency
• Consulting on the best frame options for your needs today, with room for growth tomorrow