Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2018
Capstone Advisor
Michelle Blum
Honors Reader
Shalabh Maroo
Capstone Major
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Capstone College
Engineering and Computer Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Sciences and Engineering
Subject Categories
Engineering | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Homebrewing, the process of making beer for personal consumption, has been legal in the United States since 1978 and allowed beer enthusiasts to experiment with new beer styles at a low cost. Although the procedure is relatively straightforward, it can be very timeconsuming without expensive equipment. The longest step in brewing is wort cooling, where the non-alcoholic beer, or wort, is cooled from boiling temperatures to near room temperature for fermentation. Improper or slow cooling can not only be monotonous but result in contamination or haze in the final product. Wort chillers, which generally cost anywhere from $50 to $500, cool non-alcoholic beer at high rates, thereby reducing the overall time required for brewing while also lowering the probability of contamination. For beginners, these prices can be discouraging; However, other methods such as ice baths or natural cooling exist to cool wort on a budget. In this experiment, four low-cost wort cooling techniques were compared in terms of cooling time, cost, cleanability, and complexity of use, providing homebrewers with the ability to pick which technique is best for them. The results showed that wort chillers have the lowest cooling time yet the highest complexity and cost. The cooling time of wort chillers depends on the submerged surface area, so it is beneficial to purchase a small wort chiller for smaller batches. Natural convection has the highest cooling time, but is a very simple technique and does not require extra cleaning. Ice baths, although cheaper than wort chillers, have recurring costs and become more expensive if frequently used.
Recommended Citation
Hammond, Zachary, "Experimental and Numerical Comparison of Wort Cooling Methods during the Homebrewing Process" (2018). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1287.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1287
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
