Chiller hire brewery projects don’t always mean emergency callouts. Sometimes the issue is more gradual — a refrigeration system that works fine under normal conditions but starts to struggle when summer heat and peak production hit at the same time. That’s exactly what happened here. Aircon Rentals worked with a brewery client to design and install a supplemental chiller solution that protected fermentation temperatures without touching the existing system — in just over four hours.

33kW — Supplemental chiller deployed –4.5°C — Target operating temperature achieved +4°C — Glycol temp during peak periods without supplemental cooling 4 hours — Total installation time 0 — Major plumbing modifications required

The situation: peak summer production pushing the existing system past its limits

The client — a food and beverage operator running a brewery — had experienced issues with their chiller system the previous summer. Rather than wait for the problem to repeat itself, they contacted Aircon Rentals ahead of time to put a reliable temporary solution in place before the warmer months arrived.

The existing refrigeration system ran a series of DX chillers maintaining glycol temperatures at –4.5°C — the temperature required to keep fermentation on track. When the heat came and production ramped up, glycol temperatures were climbing to +4°C — well outside the range needed for clean fermentation. Yeast is sensitive. A few degrees in the wrong direction slows activity, throws off timing, and can affect the finished product in ways that aren’t always recoverable. With expansion plans already in motion, the client needed a dependable stopgap while their permanent system upgrade was completed.

The challenge: adding supplemental cooling without major plumbing work

Tapping into the existing pipework was the obvious move — and the wrong one. It would have meant modifications, downtime, and disruption to a production floor that was already under pressure. The team looked at what was actually on site and found a better option.

Working closely with the client, the Aircon Rentals team assessed the existing setup and identified that it was best to use an existing standby pump on the client’s glycol tank rather than trying to plumb a supplemental chiller into the existing system.

The solution: side-stream glycol chiller connected to the existing standby pump

Connecting the hired chiller as a side-stream system to the glycol tank was the least intrusive option available. Using this method, water/glycol is drawn from the client’s tank, passed through the hired chiller to bring it down to the required temperature, and then returned to the tank. The existing system continues to operate as normal — the hired chiller simply supplements it, pulling the glycol temperature back down during periods when the primary system can’t keep pace.

No major plumbing modifications were required. No disruption to the production floor. A 33kW air-cooled chiller was deployed to site and the full installation — from arrival to commissioning — took just over four hours.

Post-commissioning, the system was operating at the design temperature of –4.5°C. The process cooling solution worked exactly as designed.

The outcome

Glycol temperatures held at –4.5°C through the summer production period. Fermentation ran to schedule. Product quality held. The client got what they needed without tearing into their existing system — and was happy with both how quickly it happened and how little disruption it caused.

Because the client had longer-term expansion plans underway, this was also a case where a long-term rental solution made commercial sense — bridging the gap between the current system’s limits and the permanent upgrade without capital expenditure on equipment they’d eventually replace.

What brewery and food and beverage operators can take from this

Don’t wait for a failure before acting. This client had already experienced temperature issues the previous summer — reaching out ahead of time meant the solution was in place before the problem repeated itself. Reactive is always more expensive than proactive.

A side-stream glycol chiller connected to an existing tank is one of the least disruptive ways to add supplemental cooling capacity. If your system has an unused standby pump, that’s your connection point — no major plumbing required.

Fermentation temperature is non-negotiable. Even a few degrees above the target range affects yeast activity and can compromise batch quality. If your refrigeration system struggles during peak summer production, that’s a risk to product — not just comfort.

Temporary chiller hire is a viable bridge while permanent upgrades are planned or funded. It avoids capital expenditure on equipment that may be superseded once an expansion is complete.

For more on how we work with food and beverage operators across Australia, or to explore our full range of chiller hire options, see the relevant pages.

We’ve handled similar fermentation cooling challenges for winery operators too — see how we delivered emergency chiller hire for a winery during crush season when a chiller failed at the worst possible moment, and how we provided additional cooling capacity for a winery to meet peak crush season demand.

Need chiller hire for a brewery or food and beverage facility? Aircon Rentals operates 24/7 across Australia. Call 1800 626 996 or enquire online.