In general, the brine freezing point should be run about 5° F (3° C) colder than the operating temperature of the brine. In other words, if you are running your brine at 25° F (-4° C), you should have your salt solution mixed to give you a freezing point of 20° F(-7° C) (10.5% salt) or lower.

As a direct measure to prevent freezing of the brine solution in the heat exchanger, the freezing point for the brine solution should be lower than the suction temperature of the refrigeration control system.

You can use the Brine Salometer Calculator in the "Processing" section of our website to calculate the required salt content for different freezing points, Brine Salometer

What brine temperature should I use?

To get the most out of your brine chiller, the operating brine temperature should be set at approximately 10° F (5.5° C) below the target endpoint temperature for your product. For example, if you want your product to be chilled to a 35° F (2° C) endpoint, then your brine solution should be running at 25° F (-3.5° C) or colder and your brine solution should be mixed to a freezing point of 20° F (-6.5° C). There are some exceptions. Some products like turkey breast are sensitive to crust freezing. Turkey breast generally freezes at 26° to 28° F (-3° to -2° C), so to prevent crust freezing, your brine operating temperature should be 25° F (-4° C) or warmer. Another exception is skinless viennas. Typical endpoint temperatures for viennas are 28° to 30° F (-2° to -1° C), but if the brine operating temperature is set at 20° to 22° F (-7° to -5° C) it will sometimes over-chill the product surface and cause peeling problems. For this reason, viennas are typically chilled to 28° to 30° F (-2 to -1° C) using 24° to 26° F (-4° to -3° C) brine.

Depending on the product being chilled, brine chillers are typically operated at 14° to 25° F (-10° to -4° C). As a practical matter, the coldest realistic brine operating temperature is 8° to 10°F(-13° to -12°C). Any colder and it is difficult to keep the salt in solution.

Will my product taste more salty if I use a brine chiller?

Cured processed meats contain salt and therefore can be brine chilled with little or no effect on taste. However, because the salt concentration in the brine is higher than that in the product, you can expect that the product will absorb a small amount of salt. We have found that processed products absorb 0.1 to 0.2% salt during brine chilling. In other words, if the incoming salt content of a vienna was 2.0%, its salt content exiting the chiller might be 2.1 to 2.2%. If you are making a salt-reduced product such as low-salt sausages, you will need to keep close watch on the salt concentration in the brine and adjust it if needed. Often, these low-salt products also have practical limits to avoid crust freezing, so you may already be using warmer, lower-salt brine. Some natural or collagen casing products may absorb brine more quickly. To prevent salt pickup, we have found that a cold water rinse before brine chilling is effective to help prevent salt absorption.

Will brine chilling wash away my smoke color?