What is a Calandria?
Calandrias are the key heating component in both nuclear power generation and in the process of brewing craft beer. In the brewhouse, a calandria is a heat exchanger which boils wort inside the brew kettle or heats water in the hot liquor tank (HLT). There are two common installation methods for calandria:
- Internal: a submersed calandria heats the surrounding liquid
- External: the liquid being heated is pumped through tubes with a high surface area to volume ratio
In both installations super-heated steam is the heating medium.
Why Select a PKW Calandria?
Portland Kettle Works’ calandrias provide the brewer with several key advantages:
- Field tested by some of America’s leading craft brewers
- Rapid heat exchange without scorching
- Made of 100% non-reactive, sanitary-finished, 304 food-grade stainless steel
- Integrated Clean in Place (CIP) systems enables rapid and convenient cleaning
- Manufactured using our 100% standardized and proprietary Flowing Quality Control (FQC) process which maintains the highest standards of quality throughout fabrication
- Reduced stratification in HLT
- Greater hop utilization
- Less time waiting for a boil
- Less likely to have dimethyl sulfide (DMS) in beer
- No need to disassemble ever
PKW Calandria Specifications
As with all our brewing equipment, Portland Kettle Works calandrias are designed and manufactured to exacting standards.
- Our proprietary Convect-o-Matic Internal Calandria is integrated into both our brewhouses and our hot liquor tanks (HLT). These internal calandrias continually agitate the tank contents resulting in a consistent liquor temperature throughout the vessel without the use of expensive and maintenance-intensive pumps.
- Our proprietary Valveless External Calandria (VEC) is included with our mash tuns and lauter tuns. These external calandrias precisely maintain mash temperatures without heat-stressing the grain bed.