Beer Forum

This is one for the mad scientists out there. Has anyone ever heard of converting a propane powered refrigerator or air conditioner into a wort chiller? Almost everyone brews with propane, right? Would it be possible to use a gas absorption cycle cooler to use the propane flame that everyone has right next to their kettle to power some sort of super-chiller?

Not sure if this is what you are thinking Beer Barron but an ultra ghetto setup for this would be put your gas tank in the kettle with the wort and run the burner flat out. I remember seeing a setup where a guy in NZ built a jet engine out of an old turbo charger for a car, based on the principal that the faster you burn the gas the cooler the bottle gets. He used it to chill a can of beer in a minute (or there abouts).

Not that this would be that efficent, I'd guess you'd burn a lot of gas to chill a batch, but it could work.

I remember that guy...

If you put the propane tank in a water bath while boiling the water gets very cold and I've even had ice form on top.

The problem is you really don't want to be chilling while you're boiling....

You should be able to do that. Take a look at this discussion over on the MoreBeer forum: http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.ph ... rt+chiller

This shows building a glycol chiller using the guts of an air conditioner. You are starting with a propane operated chilling unit, but the basic principle should be the same.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:You should be able to do that. Take a look at this discussion over on the MoreBeer forum: http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.ph ... rt+chiller

This shows building a glycol chiller using the guts of an air conditioner. You are starting with a propane operated chilling unit, but the basic principle should be the same.

Wayne

Figures that Andy built one already.

I got a catalog in the mail from a store in Amish country and they had propane refrigerators and A/C's in there, and I figured that someone who uses propane to brew could make a super powered chiller using their burner for the energy source.

You might check with your local RV dealer for used propane units. Sometimes they will have some that were pulled from rv's due to reasons other than the basic unit not working such as cracked shelves or broken door. Junk ones like that can be had really cheap.

Wayne

I would double check the schematics from the propane powered units from Lehmans ( www.lehmans.com ) to make sure you have everything plumbed corectly. While I have an intelectual understanding of the process, it wouldn't hurt to know the nuts and bolts of the equipment.

My 2 cents,
Alan