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Daedalus and Herlinda
Jim Vander Giessen with Prochiller PROGreen and Nick Gislason from Hanabi Lager join us on Brew Ha Ha with Herlinda Heras and Daedalus Howell. Nick has been on the show before, the last time was this episode last January. Jim Vander Giessen is a co-founder and CEO of Prochiller. He is in California for the ProGreen50 Showcase in Napa. Jim Weatherwax, regional sales manager for ProChiller, is also in the studio today.
ProChiller manufactures a wide range of refrigerant systems. They have a new product line called PROGreen Solutions which uses refrigerants that have a negligible global warming potential.
Herlinda discovered this company at the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia. ProChiller was showing their PROGreen systems at the conference. Herlinda was there with a friend who introduced her to them.
They mentioned that they were coming to California soon to present their products in Napa and they have just arrived.
ProChiller and Hanabi Lager
Nick Gislason is the owner of Hanabi Lager. He is also a professional winemaker and he knows the ProChiller company from using their systems in the winery. Refrigeration is important to both industries. Nick is doing a six-month experiment with a ProChiller system.
Visit Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Check out their website and socials for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more.
In brewing or winemaking, you need chilling for different steps in the process and up to the finished goods. In both cases, there is fermentation which produces heat. If you let the fermentation run away, it ruins the product. You have to pull the heat out and move it from the tank to a radiator outside.
The ProChiller PROGreen system is a CO2 based chiller that does not use traditional chemical refrigerants. Those chemicals have a high global warming potential if they are ever accidentally released. But the CO2 has a negligible index, about 1, compared too 500 or more. Nick explains his reasons for chosing to work with this new system. CO2 chillers actually produce boiling water as a “waste product” which is very useful around the brewery. ProChiller will be demonstrating the PROGreen chiller on Thursday, June 11, at Hanabi Lager in Napa. Soon they will hold other demos in the Sonoma County area.