Brewhemoth conicals?

That or add options of having the fermenter fully Tri-Clamped with fittings then any pressures within reason of brewing without any worries.

Can anyone think of anything NOT great about these conicals? I am seriously considering getting one with all TC fittings as I have a bunch laying around from another project. The size is just right for 18G batches, which is about what I need to do to get 15G in the kegs. My boiler is a 25G pot. My fementation box is styrofoam, that I can heat and cool, and could be able to mod to fit this thing, especially with the shorter legs.

Anything out there that I'm overlooking? Thick steel, all TC, cheap, able to take some pressure... sounds right to me.

StMarcos said:

The size is just right for 18G batches, which is about what I need to do to get 15G in the kegs. My boiler is a 25G pot. My fementation box is styrofoam, that I can heat and cool, and could be able to mod to fit this thing, especially with the shorter legs.

Anything out there that I'm overlooking? Thick steel, all TC, cheap, able to take some pressure... sounds right to me.

Click to expand...

That's all I was looking for plus the capacity matched exactly my needs without the high cost.
I call her the cleaning lady, built strong like bull.

I'm with you. Will get these blchmann things, which have worked fine for 5 years now, on the market. Probably even make a few buck in the process. I am so incredibly anal about sanitation, and hate arfing around with assembling all the teflon taped connections each time. I sanitize the tape too. I take the valves totally apart each time. Going to get some butterfly valves - hoping they will convince me I don't need to disassemble each time. Ball valves are only sanitary with one open-close action. After that, what happens to the crud wedged between the ball and seat over time?

I need a cleaning lady!

I promise you are going to love the Brewhemoth! I can't wait to get the temp control if that works out.
Steve

These conicals look great. Any pics of how the welds are finished on the inside?

I took outside plus inside with welds pictures of the Brewhemoth before storing it due to injuries not brewing with a POS Kodak camera, it deletes photos on the download. I'll work on it to get more photos posted.
They are great looking welds inside I can tell you this, a narrow bluing band at the welds that 600 grit wet sanded paper removed.

So they aren't sanitary welds?

I find light bluing that came of not a problem.

It's not the light bluing I'm worried about. Are the welds at least ground smooth or can you see the bead?

dstar26t said:

It's not the light bluing I'm worried about. Are the welds at least ground smooth or can you see the bead?

Click to expand...

Machine welded smooth top and bottom conical to body no need to grind welds, bottom of conical plate to conical by hand with a smooth normal weld bead no crevices that nasty bugs can hide when cleaning and sanitizing that I can see.
Best to ask Josh and Dale the makers of Brewhemoth's if they make sanitary or non sanitary welds as they are the builders of the fermenters. Being brewers themselves entering beer competitions they should have your answers. I'm just a little home brewer.

If you saw my first fermenter you would of laughed your butt off with the internal welds it was a rolled SS conical welded with SS stick rod, funny thing 6 years of use by many people it never produced a bad bier or an infection.

It really depends on your definition of sanitary! The welds are the same welds that would be used on a medical oxygen vessel (what the Brewhemoth was born from) so they are good welds. The welds are smooth and have no pitting...

Dale and I both use a Brewhemoth in our own homes, for our own beer. We have done nothing different to ours to make them different or better than the ones we are selling. Dale has brewed quite a few batches using his with no ill effects to the beer (or any of the drinkers of it). I have only used mine once (I don't brew as much), but no ill effects from mine either.

Dale is more the techincal guy than I am, so sorry if my answer is a bit vague. Contact us through the website if you have any questions.

Cheers!

Josh

Sure Josh, thanks for the response.

Josh, I had to step away with the word "is it a sanitary weld?" asked.

I plasma cut a couple milk jugs for other brewing purposes, I was told "those welds are not sanitary welds and not good for any brewing" this from a HBS store by employees not knowing they were dairy grade pieces of equipment. Go figure because I did not purchase their high dollar "sanitary welded" equipment from them. The word sanitary is about the most misused and twisted up word unless an attorney is present twisting words up.
Maybe DOT also has become rather lax and sloppy on pressure vessel weld inspections certifications allowing them on public roads these days?
Machined welds like orbital Tigged SS tubing in hospitals for different gases i've enjoyed working around these welders plus learning what I can about those "sanitary welds".

Doesn't it mean that it was back-gassed and then polished to some specified grit? Maybe some maximum HAZ or something?

Sure looks like a fine grit flap wheel was used inside on the welds not a hard grinding stone.

Every Brewhemoth is Argon purged before (and during) welding. We make every effort to make the welds as nice and as smooth as we can.

Cheers!

Josh

This is my brand new Brewhemoth. The kind UPS guy delivered it on Thursday. I haven't cleaned it yet. It has a little oil and grinding and welding debris that will clean up. I bought the "scratch and dent" model. I think it was an R&D model. I got a great price on it!

This weld is where the top dome is welded to the body. Beer will never touch it.



This is the weld between the cone and barrel. The weld is clean, smooth and virtually invisible.



This is the vertical weld on the barrel part.



These are the dump valve and racking valve ports. Not sure about the dump valve weld.

I am contemplating the purchase of two of the triclamp models. I am totally fine with all the welds except the weld between the top dome and the body of the fermenter. That weld looks suspect for a fermenter.

stevehaun said:

I am contemplating the purchase of two of the triclamp models. I am totally fine with all the welds except the weld between the top dome and the body of the fermenter. That weld looks suspect for a fermenter.

Click to expand...

You could do 15+ gallon batches and nothing will ever touch that weld. Except maybe krausen.

how is everyone cleaning their fermenters now?

Atl300zx said:

how is everyone cleaning their fermenters now?

Click to expand...

With 220 grit then 600 wet/dry paper used wet, spend 1-2 hours with a little labor detailing removing bluing plus polishing the weld beads, wash and just use it.

I fill it up with water, dump in Oxyclean let it sit overnight and hose it out the next day. I then fill it up and add Star San and poof....done.... very easy!
Steve

Hey Josh, how is the temp control coming?????
Steve

(copy/paste from a different thread)

In addition to a clean in place solution I use which involves loc-line, quick disconnects, my wort pump (LG), and a cip revolving spray ball, I also do steam sanitizing about every 3rd ferment. I use one of those clothes steamers you see in SkyMall. Just hook it up to my bottom dump and as per my thermowell, the whole thing gets up to 212. I don't care what kind of welds or threads you have then, you'll be fine. I know it's overkill, but I'm surprised that more people don't do this and also worry about contamination.

Least expensive CIP 'revolving' sprayball I've found: $50 - McMaster part 71445T84. You can't use a wimpy pump with the CIP's. They take some ummph for it to be worth it.


(FYI, if you look into this, don't be fooled by the pipe connection, it's british standard and it will seal on 1/2" NPT with a little bit more teflon tape... Other people sell this same one for more money and call it NPT).

Tigeranteater said:

Hey Josh, how is the temp control coming?????
Steve

Click to expand...

The internal temp control worked. Using 34 degree water, pumped at 20 gallons an hour, I kept the wort 25 degrees below ambient. The major difficulty was keeping the chilling water cold.
Currently I am working on a glycol chiller, its complete minus a thermostat. This will keep 10 gallons of a glycol solution at 28-30 degrees. The test Brewhemoth has about 60 feet of 1/4 inch aluminum tubing divided in three zones wrapped around it. this will be covered with foam insulation. Testing with a 15 gallon batch of lager should begin in two weeks (need to make a starter). Will keep everyone informed on the progress as it goes.

Tigeranteater said:

Hey Josh, how is the temp control coming?????
Steve

Click to expand...

See message above from Dale for your answer! He is ON IT today!

Josh

for people who buy the brewhemoth today, when the external temp controller is all worked out, will there be an upgrade option available?

The Brewhemoth with the external chilling coils will be an entity unto itself. The attachment of the legs is different to allow for the coils, hence it will not be possible to sell a kit. That is why the internal coil device was made.

Dale my first beers made with the Brewhemoth will be going out to competition soon! I think they are spectacular. Will the internal temp control option add on be available soon?
Steve

I'm not in the holding pattern waiting for my Brewhemoth to be built/shipped. Dale and Josh have been amazing with the pre-sale support.

Here is a bit of the info I received that might be helpful to someone else.

Inside bottom (at dump valve) to weld (where cone meets the side
cylinder) - 16" dia X 7.5" tall (about 2.5" dia at bottom)
Cylinder from weld to weld - 16" dia X 17.5" tall
Overall height from bottom to top WELD - 25" tall

Tigeranteater said:

I fill it up with water, dump in Oxyclean let it sit overnight and hose it out the next day. I then fill it up and add Star San and poof....done.... very easy!
Steve

Click to expand...

That's a crap-load of Star San. You could probably pay for a CIP ball with the money you save on Star San if you go that route.

Is no one asking them to put corny posts on the 4" tri-clamp? Thermowell? Pressure relief valve (or just a port for it)? Would be sweet. Just sayin.

Great to have a blow-off port AND a gas out post. Mine just has a gas out post that I also use as a blow-off port by fiddling with post adapters and such (basically to give me better ID and eliminate the poppit valve).

I'm getting different length dip tubes for the gas out so I can experiment with top cropping more effectively (i.e. just put a gas out dip tube in that's, say, 3" from the final volume level.... etc.)

No kidding at 23 gallons, I use a Coke corny to store and pump out of.
I have a fixed ball from a friends tank wash business with plans
of a rotating ball replacement.

SankePankey said:

Is no one asking them to put corny posts on the 4" tri-clamp? Thermowell? Pressure relief valve (or just a port for it)? Would be sweet. Just sayin.

Great to have a blow-off port AND a gas out post. Mine just has a gas out post that I also use as a blow-off port by fiddling with post adapters and such (basically to give me better ID and eliminate the poppit valve).

I'm getting different length dip tubes for the gas out so I can experiment with top cropping more effectively (i.e. just put a gas out dip tube in that's, say, 3" from the final volume level.... etc.)

Click to expand...

The best part of Tri-Clamp fittings is you can make it do what you want. Want a thermowell and blowoff? Put a Tee on top and put both on there

Bokonon said:

I'm not in the holding pattern waiting for my Brewhemoth to be built/shipped. Dale and Josh have been amazing with the pre-sale support.

Here is a bit of the info I received that might be helpful to someone else.

Inside bottom (at dump valve) to weld (where cone meets the side
cylinder) - 16" dia X 7.5" tall (about 2.5" dia at bottom)
Cylinder from weld to weld - 16" dia X 17.5" tall
Overall height from bottom to top WELD - 25" tall

Click to expand...

Judging from your measurements and the overall height of this listed on the website (50") am I correct in saying that there is about 18" of space from the bottom cone fitting to the ground?

I am having a 1'' tc put on the cylinder part for a thermowell. A little towards a leg so it could fit into a smaller chill box. My RTDs have a 1/8'' mpt thread, so that would make for a pretty wide thermowell if I was going to drop id down from the top.

I have a 1/8npt to flare fitting, so I can tap a hole in the 4'' top for it. Will make transferring under pressure easier, as I have flare ends on all of my gas lines. Maybe I'll put it on a 1'' blanking plate and use it on the airlock tc. Yeah, that seems like a better idea now that I think about it.

Have some pretty beefy butterfly valves to pimp it a bit!

RiverCityBrewer said:

Judging from your measurements and the overall height of this listed on the website (50") am I correct in saying that there is about 18" of space from the bottom cone fitting to the ground?

Click to expand...

I don't have one yet to measure, those numbers we're all from Josh.

I used gimp and measured pixels on one of the pictures and I would guess there is about 15" from the bottom dump (on the triclover model) to the ground. These are my measurements though, maybe Josh or Dale can chime in

SankePankey said:

Is no one asking them to put corny posts on the 4" tri-clamp? Thermowell? Pressure relief valve (or just a port for it)? Would be sweet. Just sayin.

Great to have a blow-off port AND a gas out post. Mine just has a gas out post that I also use as a blow-off port by fiddling with post adapters and such (basically to give me better ID and eliminate the poppit valve).

I'm getting different length dip tubes for the gas out so I can experiment with top cropping more effectively (i.e. just put a gas out dip tube in that's, say, 3" from the final volume level.... etc.)

Click to expand...

I have asked them to think about building something like this:


with a dip tube going down into the conical.

No idea if they will do it. Some issues with DOT testing...

Bokonon said:

I don't have one yet to measure, those numbers we're all from Josh.

I used gimp and measured pixels on one of the pictures and I would guess there is about 15" from the bottom dump (on the triclover model) to the ground. These are my measurements though, maybe Josh or Dale can chime in

Click to expand...

Measuring off my Brewhemoth 4" TC fitting the lowest I can get it with 1 1/2" butterfly dump valve clearing the floor, top bare 4" TC, 38 3/4". This will be with shortened legs. The low dump and racking port is not a problem with my planned pressure fermenting and transferring up to the corny's.