Author Topic: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes  (Read 20742 times)

tananaBrian

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2011, 05:53:04 PM »

Yeah ..sanitation seems to be the bugaboo and who wants to find out several weeks or months down the road that your cheese is now inflating....

I think if I were to use a coil type immersion chiller, then I'd make one with as few nooks and crannies as possible, e.g. lose the copper wire ties that everyone seems to use on these so there's nothing but smooth copper pipe in the milk ...and then I'd use steaming to sanitize.  I think a large pot with a couple of inches of water in it might work.  Wipe the chiller down with a strong chlorine mixture, rinse, then steam in the pot for 20 minutes or so ...make a foil lid that can be 'fit' around the copper tubes where they come out over the top of the pot.  With beer brewing, you get sanitization for free by putting the chiller into the boiling wort around the time you add your late hops.  When done chilling, rinse in cold water, wash, then wipe down with chlorine and rinse.  Might work.

Brian


linuxboy

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2011, 05:58:36 PM »
Could work, that's a decent way of doing it. A little overkill, IMHO. Easier to milk into a 5-7 gal dairy bucket that sits in another bucket or tub full of ice. By the time you're through milking most of the milk will be in the 40s, and then it's easy to get the last little bit in the fridge or freezer.

I just couldn't see myself milking twice a day and dealing with an immersion cooler.

Or bring the pails back and put into a chest freezer full of glycol (or if you're cheap, salt water).

Homestead

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #17 on: March 02, 2011, 07:53:17 PM »
We have tried different ways and found the best to be 1/2 gallon mason jars.  We milk and filter strait into the jars, then we move the jars with lids on but not tight to the freezer.  They stay in the freezer for about 40 min then are moved to the fridge.  It works great and is the least amount of work.

tananaBrian

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #18 on: March 03, 2011, 12:21:10 AM »
Could work, that's a decent way of doing it. A little overkill, IMHO. Easier to milk into a 5-7 gal dairy bucket that sits in another bucket or tub full of ice. By the time you're through milking most of the milk will be in the 40s, and then it's easy to get the last little bit in the fridge or freezer.

I just couldn't see myself milking twice a day and dealing with an immersion cooler.

Or bring the pails back and put into a chest freezer full of glycol (or if you're cheap, salt water).

Sorry ...I should explain.  My milk cooling is not for cooling just-milked milk, but instead cooling home-pasteurized milk from a raw milk cow share.  Slightly different need since I'd be heating the milk to 145 F, letting it sit 30 minutes at that temp, then quickly cooling it to either the temperature needed for culturing and making cheese or storing in the refrigerator. 

Brian

PS: I'm looking into the whole cow share thing and just working out the details about what that would mean in different ways...


4estrover

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #19 on: July 18, 2012, 09:03:56 PM »
Does anybody have plans for making chest freezer milk cooler?

norb

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #20 on: October 18, 2012, 10:05:51 PM »
Here is what we have been doing for over three years to cool our milk. We keep a 20 oz bottle of water in the freezer and put that in the milking pail during milking. I have not measured the temperature of the milk as it comes in but it is substantially cooler than when we do not put the bottle in the pail. We use a soda bottle. I remove the plastic ring that is left behind when you initially open the bottle. We give it a quick wash (or rinse) before putting it back in the freezer. The only problem that we have had is that the plastic bottle can split over time and slightly dilute your milk. That has happened a couple of times in three years. When I milk I often try to aim the spray at the bottle to get maximum heat transfer.

Tomer1

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Re: Cooling Milk - Small Volumes
« Reply #21 on: October 19, 2012, 12:47:10 PM »
Look for a used beer chiller\cooling snake. 
Or alternativly if you have cool water running @ your kitchen you can submerged a sanitized SS\Brass\copper coil connected to your tap on one end and emptied into the sink the other end.   Its very wasteful in terms of water use but it works.  you can use a submerged pump instead to recirculate the water and keep adding ice to them.