US2229874A - Mechanical coolship - Google Patents

Description

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MECHANICAL GOOLSHI P 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 3l, 1938 FILM 0F WORT FROM SPREADER SPOONS WORT LEVEL gf iwf/m@ ATTO R N EY 5 Patented Jan. 28, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MECHANICAL COOLSHIP tion of New York Application July 13, 1938, Serial No. 218,964

7 Claims.

The present invention relates to equipment 'for cooling wort at the stage after it leaves the hop separator for the relatively coarse precipitation of nitrogenous substances and hop resins, soluble t in the hot wort, prior to yeast pitching.

An object of the invention is to cool the wort after separation of spent hops as it is being discharged into a hot wort collecting tank, and to continue the cooling thereafter by repeating such Ml cooling operation if necessary, all at such rate of heat abstraction as to assure the formation of large flocculent precipitated particles of the nitrogenous substances and hop resins for ease and maximum removal thereof from the wort.

m Another obect is to provide a mechanical coolship for the above purpose in which clean and germ free air in motion and of desired temperature serves as the cooling medium and the need for the tremendous floor area required for conventional surface coolers or coolships and the -need for air conditioning the room are obviated, while at the same time the cooling is effected with greatly enhanced speed of operation and accuracy of control.

Generally speaking, the invention involves cooling the wort by evaporation in a cycle which includes the passage of clean, filtered air or air rendered germ free by other methods through a closed tank along or across the path of a flat expanded stream in which the wort is introduced into the tank. Where the cooling after such operation is inadequate, the wort is pumped in one or more repetitions of said cycle until the desired cooling has been effected.

The present application is limited to the mechanical coolship as a structure or installation. The method of wort cooling herein disclosed is made the subject of a divisional application Serial No. 324,079, filed March 15, 1940.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view in longitudinal cross-section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 2, of a preferred form of mechanical coolship according to the invention, y

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view thereof, taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 41s a view in greatly enlarged cross-section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 4.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a mechanical coolship, comprising a large sheet (Cl. E61- 115) metal tank T supported on a channel beam foundation I0 and having a roof with a central beam II, sloping side Walls I2 and inwardly sloping end walls I3. Suspended from the beam II by hangers i4 and extending longitudinally of the tank 5 and symmetrically spaced from the sloping side walls I2 thereof is a horizontal wort distributor pipe I5, which preferably has an upwardly d.irected inlet elbow I 6 adapted to be connected to a hop strainer pump as indicated. The distributor pipe which is preferably closed by a plug Il at the extremity thereof opposite the inlet has a multiplicity of preferably uniformly spaced downwardly opening ports lil through which the wort is emitted in its iiow from the hop separator. 15

Near the ports I3 are spreaders constructed and arranged to cause the wort to spread or fan out in the form of thin films for exposing a relatively tremendous surface area of wort to the n evaporating effect of air in motion, as set forth o hereinafter. Desirably the spreading devices are in the form of spreader spoons carried by the pipe. In a preferred embodiment each spoon comprises a hanger strap 2|] snugly embracing the pipe I5 and is shaped at its extremity as the 25 'spoon bowl 2l the concavity of which extends directly under the corresponding port I8 and slopes obliquely downward so that it serves to baille the wort dropping thereon and to spread it 30 outward and downward in the desired flat fanshaped lm,

Preferably consecutive spoons extend in alternately opposite directions as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, so that in operation the hot wort from the hop strainer, either pumped or allowed to flow 35 by gravity into the distributor pipe I5, is spread to flow downward to the bottom in two diverging planes P and P2 all as suggested in Fig. 3. Thus a tremendously large surface area of the flowing wort relative to its volume is exposed to the cooling effect of air as will now be set forth, for effectiveness of cooling by evaporation.

For supplying the air which serves as the cooling medium, it is desirable to have a pair of air inlet ports 25 and 26 near the opposite ends of the sloping roof of the tank and an air outlet port 2l near the middle of the tank roof. Air being thus blown through the two inlets, passes along and across the tent-shaped lrns P and P2 `of hot Wort dropping toward the bottom ofthe 50 tank and therefore effects evaporation of some of the wort with corresponding cooling thereof.

The hot wort flows continuously into the tank T and in such flow is constantly met and cooled by ltered'or otherwise germ freed air as set forth. This operation is continued until all of the Wort has been discharged from the hop separator, at which time it will fill the tank T to a level, usually of about ve feet, but the level may be higher or lower depending on circumstances of operation. While in certain applications the operation set forth may be sufficient to cool the hot Wort to the temperature required to complete the precipitation desired in the coolship, the cooling may in some instances be insuincient for the purpose.

Accordingly the present invention provides means for recirculating all or part of the wort delivered to the tank T to repeat the cooling cycle to whatever extent is necessary to effect the desired cooling. For this purpose a recirculating pipe 3U which taps the pipe 3| leads to the wort cooler, at a three way valve 32. When the latter is set for recirculation, pump p draws wort from the bottom of tank T past cock 33 and delivers it through pipe branch 34 to distributer pipe I5.

Preferably a short standpipe 35 serves to intercept any precipitate lodged in the bottom of the tank T. The standpipe is desirably normally closed by plug 36 connected by rod 3l to handle 38 accessible from the top of the tank for raising plug 36 preparatory to recirculation or delivery to the wort cooler as the case may be. In a preferred mode of operation no further wort is passed into tank T while the wort is being recirculated through the pipe 30 for further cooling.

In a typical installation for treating a brew say of five hundred barrels, the tank T is preferably 321/2 feet long, 151/2 feet wide, 10 feet high, and the distributor pipe has twenty-three spoon spreaders. Twenty to forty-live minutes are consumed in admission of the wort at about 210 F. into the tank T by flow in the spread films described. The purified air, preferably at a temperature of 70 to 110 F. is forced through the tank T at the rate of 4000 to 13000 cubic feet per minute. By this operation it is possible in `a room of about 70 F. to bring the five hundred barrels of wort from the hop separator down to the desired temperature of to 170 F. after recirculation of all or part of the volume, the entire operation usually taking about one to one and one half hours.

'Ihe apparatus disclosed, while it finds an important field of application in the beer brewing industry, is not limited to such use as it is applicable for the treatment of other liquids that contain coagulable protein element that may be precipitated by means of cooling through aeration with the use of the units set forth, and the term Wort as used in the specification is intended to embrace within its scope all such liquids.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and method and many apparently Widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: A

1. A mechanical coolship comprising a tank having means for baffling the flow of hot wort as it is introduced thereinto to expose a large surface thereof, means for blowingV puried air therealong for vcooling the wort thus exposed, a pipe connection from the bottom of said tank to said baille feed means, a valve controlling the :dow

through said pipe and a pump for feeding wort through said pipe for recirculation and further cooling thereof.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1 in which the outlet from the tank has a short standpipe to avoid recirculation of precipitated matter lodged on the bottom of the tank.

3. A mechanical coolship comprising a tank having an inlet pipe extending therein along th top thereof, nozzles distributed along said pipe` for emission of the wort therefrom in thin films;` inlet and outlet ports through the tank wall ar--` ranged for blowing purified air at the rate of more than a thousand cubic feet per minute, for promoting evaporation from said films of wort, a recirculating pipe connection from the bottom of the tank to said distributing pipe and valve control means therefor.

4. A mechanical coolship comprising a tank, a Wort distributing pipe having an inlet and a multiplicity of outlets distributed along the length thereof, spreaders adjacent said outlets and alternately directed toward opposite sides of the pipe, and effective to spread the outflow through said outlets in thin diverging lms directed toward the bottom of the tank, and inlet and outlet air ports near the top of the tank, so arranged that the descending Ifilm of wort extends in the path of air flow.

5. A mechanical coolship comprising a generally rectangular tank having a substantially straight wort distributing pipe extending horizontally near the top thereof and having an inlet at one end, said distributing pipe having down- Wardly opening outlet ports distributed therealong, spreader spoon devices extending under the respective outlet ports for causing the wort to be expanded into at films toward opposite sides of the distributing pipe in its downward flow toward the bottom of the tank, and means for blowing purified air at the rate of more than a thousand cubic feet per minute into and out of the tank along and across the descending Wort lm for cooling the latter.

6. A mechanical coolship comprising a generally rectangular tank having a distributing pipe extending generally horizontally near the top thereof and spaced from the sides thereof, said distributor pipe having an inlet near one end thereof and having downwardly directed outlet ports distributed along the length thereof, spreader spoons affixed to the distributor pipe and extending alternately in opposite direction from the pipe, whereby the outow of wort from the distributing pipe will be spread in the form of diverging flat films of wort directed downward toward the bottom of the tank, and ports through the top of the tank substantially symmetrically y arranged with respect to the spoons, to blow air for cooling the Wort as it flows in such films.

7. A mechanical coolship, comprising a tank having a sloping roof with a central beam, an air outlet port in said roof near the center thereof, air inlet ports near the ends of said roof, a wort distributing pipe suspended from said beam and extending horizontally between the sloping sides thereof and symmetrically below said air ports, said pipe having an inlet at one end thereof and having downwardly directed outlet ports distributed longitudinally thereof and stationary wort spreader means carried by said pipe in the path of outflow through said ports.

ROBERT SCHWARZ. FRED L. A. SCHMIDT.

Gil

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