Brewhemoth conicals?

CornyKegs 728
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strat_thru_marshall

strat_thru_marshall

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Anybody using these:

www.brewhemoth.com

I searched the forums but didnt find anything... looks like it might be interesting? $429 for a conical with a 1/2 bbl batch capacity...

hemoth003%20copy.jpg
 
I've seen these. The folks making them do top notch work. They just put together an internal chiller for these. One was just awarded to the Best of Show winner in the St Louis Brews Happy Holidays Homebrew Competition.
 
stlbeer said:
I've seen these. The folks making them do top notch work. They just put together an internal chiller for these. One was just awarded to the Best of Show winner in the St Louis Brews Happy Holidays Homebrew Competition.
Click to expand...

Great I gotta one before they raise the prices double.
 
Looks like free shipping on all their products...nice.

The 16 gallon Penrose brew kettle looks decent for $139 as well.
 
Kally said:
I have a customized version of this with tri-clamps. It's great! I have pictures of it and the clean-in-place system I built for it here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29296&id=100000215634491&l=1b2d177104
Click to expand...

Very nice setup. Did you have them weld in the Tri fittings? I took a look at their site and really like their stuff.

What kind of seal is in the top of the Conical? Can it be pressurized? Looks like one piece so I'd guess it can. Not sure of the seal.
 
haha, thanks for the compliment.

I need to put a parts list together for it. I have a mix of parts from Ebay and McMaster-Carr. I have photos and documentation for the whole thing, so it's just a matter of getting it published. Some of the tri-clamp fittings and valves can get very expensive. I was fortunate to find some good deals on ebay and I was able to buy a bunch of the old Route 66 brewery's fittings after they closed.

The top lid clamps down and seals well. I think it is a Buna-N type seal, although it might be something fancier as these are built from liquid oxygen tanks - so the stainless was able to handle tremendous amounts of pressure. Dale has a racking demonstration video on the Brewhemoth site. He puts the conical under 5-10psi of pressure for easy racking to a keg. I have fittings to connect the racking outlet port to the corny liquid out post, so I keep the entire system closed and under CO2. I put the corny on a scale and fill it by weight.

A few lessons I learned:
1 - I used a 1/2" racking tri-clamp fitting. I would go to a 3/4" tri-clamp instead, assuming it fits in the weld-space. I haven't verified the fit with the manufacturer, but I believe it would fit better than the 1/2". A 1/2" tri-clamp actually has a 3/8" inside diameter and the 3/4" is close to 1/2". Most of my brew hoses are 1/2" ID Santoprene.

2 - There is an open hole for the airlock at the top next to the main lid. This is also used as the CO2 inlet port. A drilled stopper works well with a tube going through it. I have been debating on having a 1" tri-clamp welded to this so that I can have more options with the setup. I would like to have a corny CO2 input fitting there. This can be achieved with a 1" tri-clamp to 1/4" threaded fitting and attaching a post to that.

3 - Planning the infrastructure to use a conical effectively cannot be emphasized enough. I don't have casters on mine, so there's no way to move a conical filled with 10 gallons of wort. It has to be filled in location and kept there until you're ready to rack. I had some interesting challenges keeping things cool enough in my garage over the summer. I have a fridge for this now. One great thing about the Brewhemoth vs other conicals is that it's tall and narrow - you can fit it in the fridge side of many side by side fridges (which are cheap now that the french door style fridges are the rage). I am building a temperature control chamber out of this fridge with a heater to allow this to work in the winter.
I recommend diagramming each operation before you have wort on the line so you know you have the right parts.

Since this has been setup, it's been great. I love the clean-in-place system. I just set it up and the whole thing cleans, rinses, and sanitizes itself. No scrubbing required. Although you can clean this easily with your hands if you prefer to keep it simple.
If you want the tri-clamp version, you have to tell them from the beginning. It has to be custom manufactured that way, there isn't a way to retrofit the system. Dale and Josh are very friendly and easy to work with. They will brew over backwards to help you out.
 
Thanks again for the info. Do they have an endless supply of the tanks? Sounds like they could easily run out. Have you seen the kettle they have for sale? Looks very nice also.
 
They have lots of tanks, but not endless. I don't know if they have a long term manufacturing plan for these as they are moving more to larger commercial oxygen systems. This may be why they are willing to offer these at such a great price.

The Penrose Kettles are awesome. I don't own one, but I have used them before. I had my kettles before they started making these or else I would have just bought theirs. I'm currently doing 10 gallon batches. When I get around to 15 gallon batches (since the fermentor will hold that), I'll get a 22 gallon Penrose kettle (note this is a bit larger than the basic Penrose kettle, which I believe is 17-18 gal). These are made by homebrewers, so they work with you to customize what you need for your application.
 
oh, and if you want to see it in action - there's some serious scrubbing power with the CIP ball and 1/2 hp stainless pump.



I made the CIP system reconfigurable to work as my keg and carboy cleaner too.
 
Kally said:
They have lots of tanks, but not endless. I don't know if they have a long term manufacturing plan for these as they are moving more to larger commercial oxygen systems. This may be why they are willing to offer these at such a great price.

The Penrose Kettles are awesome. I don't own one, but I have used them before. I had my kettles before they started making these or else I would have just bought theirs. I'm currently doing 10 gallon batches. When I get around to 15 gallon batches (since the fermentor will hold that), I'll get a 22 gallon Penrose kettle (note this is a bit larger than the basic Penrose kettle, which I believe is 17-18 gal). These are made by homebrewers, so they work with you to customize what you need for your application.
Click to expand...

are these actually available? i cant seem to find anything. i'm about to build an e kettle and i'm looking for 15 gal capacity, the only thing i've found is a SS kettle on ebay for 250
 
defenestrate said:
are these actually available? i cant seem to find anything. i'm about to build an e kettle and i'm looking for 15 gal capacity, the only thing i've found is a SS kettle on ebay for 250
Click to expand...

you probably have to email them for a custom quote...seems like they are still a small startup company
 
that kettle looks really interesting. anybody know if it is a full coupler that is welded in so you could screw in a pickup tube? i emailed them, just wondering if anybody already knows.
 
Just so you know, The Brewhemoth is a Monday-Friday gig...sometimes questions go unanswered over the weekend. We don't usually have access to our e-mails when not at the office...

Cheers!
 
Interested for sure, although I'd be more inclined to snag one with sanitary couplings (including one up top where the blowoff lives) like Kally's. Email sent to the lads!
 
I have a Brewhemoth also. I won it earlier this year as a BOS prize. I haven't used it much over the summer because the basement temps were too high, but filled it again over the weekend with American IPA. I haven't done any mods to it yet like Kally. I think my first mod will be a way to rack from the garage to the basement so I don't have to lug buckets downstairs to fill it.
 
Just in case you guys weren't aware, I am one of the Brewhemoth guys (I'm Josh).

Thanks for all the inquiries, comments, questions...everything! We have been "officially" up since the day before Thanksgiving, however we have been local (St. Louis, MO) since the beginning of 2010.

The Brewhemoth, Penrose Kettle and everything else that we will be selling on the site...yes there is more stuff in the works...is all 100% Made in America!

Just wanted to make that perfectly clear...in case you had doubts! :)

Anyway...please DO NOT HESITATE to send comments or questions to us from The Brewhemoth's website -here! I promise that one of us (Dale more than likely, if it a "technical" question) will get back to you as soon as we possibly can!

Thanks again, everyone!!!!

Oh, and if we haven't gotten back to you just yet...we are still working on pricing for some inquiries. We should have all of your questions answered in the next day or so.

Cheers!
 
Thanks for the quick response via email you guys will be making me very poor very soon
 
There is about 2 pints of volume between the racking port and the end of my dump valve setup. My setup has a straight 1-1/2" tri-clamp welded to the bottom of the conical. Then I attach a 90' tube and a 1-1/2" tri-clamp butterfly valve. 2 pints is pretty close to the trub I leave behind in a carboy. Best case (that I've measured) for a carboy might be just over 1 pint left behind.

I'll do a couple yeast dumping events throughout fermentation. These might be a 1/2 pint to a pint each. I love the easy sample taking from the rack output to check gravity!

Pictures of all this are available on my facebook site, btw - thought I had shared that...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29296&id=100000215634491&l=1b2d177104
 
Kally said:
There is about 2 pints of volume between the racking port and the end of my dump valve setup. My setup has a straight 1-1/2" tri-clamp welded to the bottom of the conical. Then I attach a 90' tube and a 1-1/2" tri-clamp butterfly valve. 2 pints is pretty close to the trub I leave behind in a carboy. Best case (that I've measured) for a carboy might be just over 1 pint left behind.

I'll do a couple yeast dumping events throughout fermentation. These might be a 1/2 pint to a pint each. I love the easy sample taking from the rack output to check gravity!

Pictures of all this are available on my facebook site, btw - thought I had shared that...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29296&id=100000215634491&l=1b2d177104
Click to expand...


I'm envious and I don't like this feeling:cross: Good set-up
 
Yep, thanks to this thread and the HHHC results being posted on the Brewhemoth website, we have had a very busy (but really fun!) start to our week!

Thanks again to all who have inquired about our products! If we missed you somehow, please let us know! We have been flooded with e-mails, phone calls and the like and want to make sure we have EVERYONE taken care of as much as we possibly can!

And, to those who have already ordered (BrewBeemer), a sincere thank you! All the fittings have been ordered for your setup and we should have our welder doing his damage to yours by the end of this week!

Fun times, I tell ya!!

Cheers!
:mug:
 
BrewBeemer said:
Kally,
thanks for the Brewhemoth posting.
Dale and Josh are great to deal with we had spearker
phone conversation, great people all answeres answered quickly.
I ordered my ferm with larger valves plus all welded on
tri fittings, a 90 degree tri clamp fitting at the dump.
Ordered this morning after they gave me a corrected price.
Shorter legs allowing 4" clearance below the dump valve
after the legs have been shortened to allow me more
refrigerator options to fit inside.
Wifey gave me that death look. Prost.
Click to expand...

How much that modded version run you?
 
That is pretty sweet, but I have one question. Is that a 60* conical? It doesn't look like it. I would totally buy one right now if it would hold higher pressures than what was stated. All that being said, great looking product guys... and from the sound of it, great customer service. I will be watching this product very closely.
 
Could, perhaps, some rapping on said 45deg walls convince the yeast to slide down? Just axin'; my fermenator spits a ton of yeast/trub out its little bottom.
 
We did some research on the 45 vs 60 degree conical question. The industry standard fermentor built today is a 60 degree conical, but there are many variations out there. All of the professionals that were consulted (including a worldwide yeast expert) felt that the 45 degree angle is enough to get the yeast to drop out effectively. The height of the fermentor aids in this as well. Overall, the scale of this fermentor being 15 gallons of wort vs 15+ barrels really meant that you won't notice a difference between 45 and 60 degrees. All of my beers have come out remarkably clear. The whole operation is just so much easier with a conical.

I see a second one coming home in the next year too. I'm still debating on whether to integrate temperature control into it or not.
 
BrewBeemer said:
Josh,
Kally mentioned that he supplied his own tri-clover fittings for his ferm you assembled for him and that they were "thick wall tri-clovers".
Question I have is how much thicker is the wall on these thick wall tri-clovers vs the ones you will use on my ferm? Is there a strength issue using regular wall thickness vs thick?
Or, is this something to not worry about unless the tri-clover is being used to lift the ferm off the ground? Just had to ask.
Click to expand...

I am fairly certain (Dale knows this technical stuff MUCH better than me) that we are using standard wall on yours...and if you aren't planning on lifting it by the tri-clover, I think you'll be safe! :)
 
Let me quickly answer some of the questions here...

First, yep...it's a 45* cone. As Kally mentioned, we talked (I didn't know Kally did - good researching job!) to a LOT of people about that. The slightly longer answer is that the 60* cone is what was used in the dairy industry and it just kind of got adopted by the brewing industry. There are many pros that use 45* (Six Row here in St. Louis comes to mind).

As far as pressure...these are fermentors ONLY. They are not serving vessels, so we (currently) don't feel they need to hold more than 8 PSI. We are considering one in the future, but we have more "chilling" things to work on first! And yes...that was a hint of what we are working on now!

Ummm...I think that's all I have for now. Keep the questions, comments and (of course) praise coming guys! Thanks!!!!!

Cheers!
:mug:
 

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