Heat Recovery System
We are inordinately proud of our heat recovery system. It's so straightforward and simple to construct that we hope it becomes a model for all breweries in colder climates. We are currently able to use waste heat from production to heat our entire brewhouse.
What is a heat recovery system?
A heat recovery system is any system that takes heat that would otherwise be lost or wasted and moves it into an area or process that needs heat input.
Heat recovery systems come in all forms and levels of sophistication.
Heat recovery systems come in all forms and levels of sophistication.
How does your heat recovery system work?
Since all fermentations need to be chilled at some point either during active fermentation or carbonation/packaging, every production brewhouse has a glycol chilling unit. This is basically a huge air conditioner (compressor) that cools a liquid rather than the air.
In nearly all breweries, this unit is outside (again, like an air conditioner), releasing its heat into the environment.
Our unit, however, is in our loading dock with two huge garage doors on either side of it.
When one of our tanks calls for glycol, the compressor turns on and begins releasing heat into the loading dock. During the summer, the overhead doors are opened and an evacuation fan helps move this hot air outside like in a normal brewery. But in Vermont, this is only about four months of the year.
During the winter, the doors of the loading dock are closed, and the evacuation fan is switched so that it directs air into the brewhouse. Now, when the tank calls for glycol, the heat produced by the compressor is directed into our production area, meaning that we don't need to pay to heat that space all winter.
In other words: We are heating our brewhouse with the metabolic activity of our yeast!
In nearly all breweries, this unit is outside (again, like an air conditioner), releasing its heat into the environment.
Our unit, however, is in our loading dock with two huge garage doors on either side of it.
When one of our tanks calls for glycol, the compressor turns on and begins releasing heat into the loading dock. During the summer, the overhead doors are opened and an evacuation fan helps move this hot air outside like in a normal brewery. But in Vermont, this is only about four months of the year.
During the winter, the doors of the loading dock are closed, and the evacuation fan is switched so that it directs air into the brewhouse. Now, when the tank calls for glycol, the heat produced by the compressor is directed into our production area, meaning that we don't need to pay to heat that space all winter.
In other words: We are heating our brewhouse with the metabolic activity of our yeast!
