What Size Chiller Does Your Winery Need? Here’s How We Get It Right
Planning a new winery buildout or expanding your crush pad? One of the first—and most important—questions to answer is:
What size chiller do I need?
It’s not a guess. It’s not a rule of thumb. It’s a technical calculation based on real-world winemaking processes and your specific operation. That’s where our decades of experience and proprietary software come in.
We’ve spent years running R&D on tank sizes, fermentation curves, and cooling requirements for both red and white wine production. With that data, we’ve built a specialized chiller sizing tool that gives you a clear, accurate BTU load based on your:
- Tank sizes and quantities
- Red vs. white wine ratios
- Tons of fruit brought in per harvest
- Cold stabilization and storage needs
- Fermentation temperature targets
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer—and it shouldn’t be.
What We Look At When Sizing Winery Chillers:
- Fermentation Load by Variety
Reds and whites don’t ferment the same way—and they don’t load a chiller the same way either. We calculate:
- Total gallons in fermentation
- Peak temperature drop (ΔT)
- Timeframe for temperature control
Red wine ferments warm but still needs jacket cooling. White wine often requires aggressive chilling, especially early in the process. We size your system to handle both—simultaneously.
- Harvest Volume
Your chiller must handle the heaviest part of harvest without lag. That’s the critical load we engineer for. That’s why we ask “How many tons of fruit are coming in—per day and per week?”
- Cold Stabilization + Storage
After fermentation, white wine needs to be cold stabilized. We factor in:
- Volume going into stabilization
- Target temperature
- Timeframe
Plus, if you’re storing wine in tank long-term, your chiller needs to hold those temps efficiently without overcycling.
- Simultaneous Demand
Most wineries are running multiple processes during harvest. We build in room for:
- Fermentation + stabilization overlap
- Active storage while fruit is still arriving
- Barrel room cooling
We engineer for peak season—not just average days.
- Future Growth
Production going up next season? Planning to add tanks or expand your tasting room? We’ll size your chiller for today—with room to scale tomorrow.
Why Our Approach Works
We’ve sized winery chillers for boutique estates and full-scale commercial operations. Our engineers have real-world data and decades in the industry, giving us the numbers you can trust.
We size chillers based on:
- Cooling load accuracy
- Process efficiency
- Long-term reliability
Want Your Winery Chiller Sized Right?
Don’t guess. Don’t rely on a square footage estimate or outdated spreadsheet. Call us today and our sales team walk you through a quick questionnaire—tank sizes, varietal breakdown, tonnage—and we’ll run the numbers for you.
Call us at 800-555-0973
Or email us your specs at info@gdchillers.com and we’ll send back a recommendation.
Chill With Confidence
The cold side of your winery isn’t just important—it’s mission-critical.
Let’s get the right-sized chiller from day one—built for your process, your pace, and your plans to grow.
Call G&D Chillers today. Let’s build it right.
800-555-0973
info@gdchillers.com
— Andy Backer
VP of Sales, , G&D Chillers