Breweries:

The production of beers and ciders needs the fermentation of sugary fluids by the action of yeasts, and the cooling, filtration, clarification and storage of the resulting alcohol -water mixture.

The starting mix for beers is a warm brew of grain-based sugar and flavouring. This „wort? leaves the hot brewing process and is cooled to a suitable brewing temperature around 10°C for lagers and 20°C for traditional bitters. This was originally carried out with Baudelot coolers, but now plate heat exchangers are mainly used, with chilled water as the coolant.

The process of fermentation gives off heat, and the tanks may need to be cooled with chilled water coils, with jackets, or by cooling the „cellar? in which the tanks are located. When fermentation is complete, many beers are now pasteurized, in the same manner as milk. The beer is then cooled to just above freezing, filtered and left to „age?. Before ultimate bottling, kegging or canning this will undergo a fine filtration to develop the clarity.

Refrigeration is required for the cold storage rooms and to provide chilled water for the plate heat exchangers. The „cellars? are very wet areas, and the cooling plant should be designed to maintain as low a humidity as possible, to help preserve the building structure.

Beers at the point of sale are traditionally stored in cellars to keep them cool. Beers are in kegs or piped into bulk tanks. Now Artificial cooling of these areas is usual, by using packaged beer cellar coolers. Bulk-storage tanks may have inbuilt refrigeration plant. Drinks like lager beers that are generally drunk colder than other beers, are flowed through a chilled water bath or double-pipe heat exchanger for final cooling.

Bottled beers & other drinks are kept on refrigerated trays, including a cooled base tray and an inbuilt refrigeration system.

In wine-making also, refrigeration is needed in three stages, viz.,

(a) for the control of temperature throughout fermentation,

(b) for the removal of excess potassium tartrate by cold precipitation, and

(c) for storage.

The quality of wine is greatly affected by the temperature of fermentation which should not exceed 29°C for red wine and 15°C for white wine. The mini mum cooling requirement for fermentation is 31 kJ/kg of must. For grapes of high- sugar content, it might be up to 52 kJ/kg. Frequently chilled-water cooling coils are used in concrete fermentors.

For the cooling of wine for precipitating excess potassium bitartrate, the lowest possible temperatures above the freezing point of wine are used. The freezing points vary between - 13 and - 6°C.

The quality of wine also depends on the temperature and length of storage. Some wines require as low a temperature as 7°C for storage.

In carbonated-drink manufacturing plants, refrigeration is needed to cool the water, syrup or finished product.