Thawing Frozen IBC - Tips/Tricks

[woodbo...@gmail.com]

I've been kicking around ideas to help speed up the thaw process for frozen totes of juice.  Every year we end up freezing what we don't have room for then thawing them in January/February when there's more space on the cidery floor to ferment.  Ambient temp in the Portland Oregon winter is probably 45 degrees outside, making the thaw process last a few weeks.

Anyone ever use a bucket heater like this one to help speed things up?: https://www.amazon.com/Allied-Precision-Premier-742G-Bucket/dp/B000BDB4UG

Also considered a 1000W fish tank heater with thermostat like this one: https://www.amazingamazon.com.au/titan-heavy-duty-aquarium-heater.html

Essentially, I'd drill out a hole in the ice block then bombs away with the heating element.  I know there'd be some issue with thermal pooling around the heater itself but figuring it would be faster than sitting and waiting.

I've looked at the IBC heating blankets but they are upwards of $1000USD.  What I really need is a giant microwave, just hit the dethaw button and wait a few hours.

Anyone have other good experiences with other methods, I'd love to hear them?

Mike

Woodbox Cider

[Chris Schmidt]

Ideas:

1. Do the reverse of a bright tank chilling system or pasteurization beth: wrap the tote with pex pipe, and circulate hot water with an instant hot-water on-demand. Cover the whole thing with an insulated blanket too. This creates a really nice and hot enivronment to help speed up the process. I’ve done something similar for 200L drums of frozen juice…not super efficient but it does work fairly quickly for probably 20 bucks of propane (no gas available where I am)

2. If you’re getting frozen juice on a regular basis, ask your supplier/grower/juicer to imbed some stainless pipe into the liquid juice before freezing, then you can connect your instant hot-water heater to this piping that is now inside the frozen juice for an very nice immersion heater.

3. Move to Texas????

Cheers!

[Vince Wakefield]

Throw a tarp over it with a couple of fan heaters blowing hot air under it, you could add a few blankets to add a bit of insulation, or make a box out of kingspan type insulation and blow hot air into that. I think heaters in the IBC will only act on a small area of the ice and not work very well.

 

If I did this every year I would probably put some plastic pipe in the ibc while the juice is liquid, then when frozen and you want it defrosted I would pump hot water around the pipe.

 

Vince

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[Handmade Cider]

I would introduce a pump into the equation to keep the juice next to the ice the same temp as that next to the heat exchanger.

Denis

Denis France   www.handmadecider.co.uk   07590 264804  Company. No. 07241330

White Label – Champion Farmhouse Cider, Bath & West Show 2015.

Spring Surprise - Cider of the Festival Chippenham Camra Beer Festival 2015 & 2014

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[Handmade Cider]

Vince, I have tried using HDPE pipe as a heat exchanger and it did a seriously slow job. Really it is stainless all the way.

Maybe think about drawing liquid out the bottom tap, through a heat exchanger and back in the top of the IBC. A suitable system could be cobbled together using a centrifugal pump and and a pub remote chiller.

[woodbo...@gmail.com]

Denis,

Genius! thanks for the suggestion, I already do a cold crash from IBC to bright using my plate heat exchanger and a couple hundred pounds of ice.  This would be the reverse, get the orange Gatorade cooler and fill with 160F degree water from instant hot water heater, then run the warm water through the plate chiller.  I'd pump dethawed cider from the bottom IBC fitting through another pump then through the the plate chiller to achieve an efficient exchange.  Cider coming out of the exchange should be pretty warm, the output goes to the top of the IBC to rinse over the ice block.

Only issue I could see is possible extra oxidation.  Anyone else see any pitfalls with this approach? don't want to ruin a full tote or two of juice.

Mike

On Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 1:30:05 PM UTC-8, Handmade Cider wrote:

I would introduce a pump into the equation to keep the juice next to the ice the same temp as that next to the heat exchanger.

Denis

Denis France   www.handmadecider.co.uk   07590 264804  Company. No. 07241330

White Label – Champion Farmhouse Cider, Bath & West Show 2015.

Spring Surprise - Cider of the Festival Chippenham Camra Beer Festival 2015 & 2014

Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
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[Matt]

Did you come up with a solution for this Mike? Any issues with oxidation?