Individual Fermenter Control- Saltwater

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benbradford

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I am planning on building my brewery soon, and want to keep 5 15.5 gallon sanke kegs as fermenters and be able to indidually control each keg for different stages and styles of fermentation.

Here is my idea:
1. Chest freezer with old keggle inside full of saltwater chilled as low as possible and controlled with temp controller.

2. 5 aquarium pumps with open inlets and outs hooked to thin walled 3/8 of an inch inside diameter tubing

3. Each tubing line will run out and coil around a keg.

4. Each keg will then be wrapped in insulated wrap.

5. Each keg will then be covered in wood slats made from reconditioned old oak barrels.

6. A temperature (cheap and easy aquarium temp controller) controller will control each fermenter with temp sensor in thermocoupler inside top of keg.

Any one done something like this?

Critiques?

If I follow through, I will post pics.
 
I missed a glycol power pack of the cl a while back but have been thinking about it ever since. one thing about the tubing around the keg would be to use copper and a auto body hammer to flatten it a bit around the keg to get better contact.

I had a though to trying to solder the tubes to the keg but not sure how well that would work. i think it would just make a honorable mess.

depending on the type of isolation i would be worried about mold / mildew from condensation. remember the heat you are taking out of the kegs ia being dumped out at the back of the freezer. If you had a closet to put the kegs and put the freezer / power pack some where else.

the setup I have been thinking about would go the other way with the pumps. I all ready have a decent reticulation pump so i would do it that there is one cooling circuit. each keg has its on temp probe and valve. The pump relay would be a "wired or" of all the controller outputs.
 
I haven't built anything thing like this and like the idea. I'm wondering how effective the tubing is going to be around the keg. How much tubing and what kind of tubing are you going to wrap around each keg? The only thing I wouldn't do is cover the kegs with the wood slats. Old oak barrels are breading grounds for all sort of infection.
 
I would prefer flattened copper, but am considering plastic due to cost. I read on another glycol page about someone doing this except his kegs were in a insulated box and the tubing would be removed when desired.

The wood would be a pretty well sealed and permanent fixture similar to an old dairy tank.
 
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