CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

Hey guys. I know there have been a few threads on these before, but I still have a few questions before I get started.

These just came in early last week:



I'm about to pull the trigger on some 1/2" stainless ball valves for the racking port, but I'm still not quite sure how to affix them to the inside of the conical. I'm guessing some kind of nipple w/ silicon o-rings on both sides, but what would you use on the inside surface to hold things together?

I'm also not sure how to do the bottom dump. There are 1 1/2" threads in the mouth of the conicals and after looking at 1 1/2" ball valves there's no freaking way I'm spending that much. I was thinking of using a 1.5 to 1" reducing nipple (LINK), but I can only seem to find plastic. They appear to be polypropylene...would this be ok?

Any other random thoughts/comments are greatly appreciated!

ubermick

Recipes 

To drop from 1.5" to 1" you *could* use a bushing and nipple combo from buyfittingsonline.com. Granted, it adds a little extra in terms of threads that will need to be disassembled and cleaned, but if you want stainless cheap, that's what I'd do. (They don't seem to have a reducer in the size you want, from 1.5" they're going to 1.25") They also stock 1" ball valves (as well as 1.5")

Personally, I'd go with the 1.5" valve. Less chance of crap buildup during dumping, although a $40 price difference isn't to be sniffed at (although less than that, since I suppose you wouldn't have to buy the reducers)

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Ridemywideglide

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If you point those to the front, then stand between them... You might understand how that poor, helpless BMC in your avatar feels....

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samc

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Plastic conicals, why bother with SS fittings? Does not make much sense to me.

This http://suburb.semo.net/jet1024/Rotating%20Racking%20Arm.htm should give you ideas for your racking arm.

CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

Hell I'd trade places with it in a second.

Well the ball valves I found are only like $10 off ebay, and I figured I could always use them later so why not? I may just go ahead and use the plastic reducer though as long as polypropylene won't cause any problems.

CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

Oh and I just ran into a new (big) problem. Just got back from Lowe's and it doesn't look like any of the upright freezers are going to be deep enough unless I ghetto-rig up a new door somehow. Anybody have other ideas for fermentation control?

greeneyed

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Can't you just put a "collar" on an upright like everyone does on keezers?

ShortSnoutBrewing

Recipes 

Time to build a cold room

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arturo7

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Wind some copper tubing around it or hang a stainless steel coil from the lid. You'll need some way to circulate water and/or glycol.

I often think of such a system but haven't done anything yet. Not sure of the volume of liquid or flow rate of the pump needed. There are a couple threads on this sorta thing but I've never seen any details on reservoir/pump sizing.

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CharlosCarlies

Recipes 

Yeah this is what I'm starting to lean towards. If that doesn't work out somehow, I think the collar would work fine also. Glycol would be awesome, but I'm sure it's the most expensive option and I'm not all that technically inclined.