Where to buy stainless tubing?

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nasmeyer

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Where can I find bendable stainless tubing online or in a store? I am looking for something in the range of 3/8 1/4 or maybe 5/16 that I can bend into a coil to use as a temp controler for my fermenter. Copper would impart off flavors if left submerged during fermentation. I believe stainless would be fine but can't locate any at local hardware stores.
 
So are you going to recirc ice water or glycol through that or something? interesting. Never heard of an IC serving that purpose.

mind If I ask what kind of fermenter you're talking about and why not use a jacket on the outside walls?
 
So are you going to recirc ice water or glycol through that or something? interesting. Never heard of an IC serving that purpose.
mind If I ask what kind of fermenter you're talking about and why not use a jacket on the outside walls?

I have a cheap homemade system using a tub of H2O that I control with an aquarium heater and currently DO use it to heat a jacket around my Mini-Brew conical fermenter. (Jacket is here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/homemade-water-jacket-minibrew-6-5-conical-156874/ ) But I think I can get better control with an internal coil that I can pump the same controlled H2O through. To compare, when I chill my wort with simple copper wort chiller it will chill much faster than if I simply set it in a jacket(sink) of ice water. So I would like to try the same concept with fermentation. I believe it is easier to conduct hot/cold through metal then plastic, and this conical is very thick.
 
I have a friend that own an HVAC company. I work with him now and then. I helped him install the chillers at a commercial winery here. They used the same concept to control their wine fermentation temps. I looked like an IM chiller that was stainless. I came through the fermenter lid and was held in place with compression fittings.
 
speedymetals.com has 1/4 " tubing as then as .035 thickness. they don't have a min. order. you mite get a few inches and see what you can do to bend it.
oldtrucker
 
I have a friend that own an HVAC company. I work with him now and then. I helped him install the chillers at a commercial winery here. They used the same concept to control their wine fermentation temps. I looked like an IM chiller that was stainless. I came through the fermenter lid and was held in place with compression fittings.

Exactly what I want to do (if not cost prohibitive) I would cut 2 holes in the top of my fermenter for bung plugs with holes for the tubing to slide through. Probably too expensive but never hurts to check into it.
 
Yeah, I have a little experience with SS tubing. Bending and SS tubing dont really go hand in hand. If you want something that doesnt look like it fell off a truck, and was dragged 50 miles... Id get a coil already coiled. Just my .02

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Sorry if this is a hijack, but does anyone have any numbers on how much heat is generated by the yeast during fermentation? Using an internal chiller, I wouldn't think it would need to be all that big to counteract the heat given off, especially if you used glycol at freezing temps. Maybe you could get away with a simple U bend. I've been thinking about doing this, too, but I think a 25' coil would be waaay more than is needed, unless you wanted to do some serious crashing or something. My other consideration here would be that with a tightly wound coil, it would be more difficult to clean and sanitize, while a simple U shape would be much easier.

Just a thought...
MrH
 
To compare, when I chill my wort with simple copper wort chiller it will chill much faster than if I simply set it in a jacket(sink) of ice water.

I gotta bring up that bringing a temp from 212 to 60 takes considerably more cooling power than maintaining a 60-70 environment that might fluctuate 10 degrees or so. I agree with MrH, maybe some smaller amount of coil in a ring or two?
 
I wonder if stainless brakeline tubing would come in a large enough diameter for this idea. I purchased some a few years ago for a car resto and it was very bendable, but it was a small diameter.

Would making a coil unit for a fermenter out of copper impart off flavors if left submerged during fermentation as suggested, or would copper tubing work OK?
 
I am very interested in this, first post here ( I post occasionally over at the Northern Brewer forum, but the DIY section here is much more active - impressive stuff ), I was going to post after doing some experiments, but that might be a while since it is plenty cold enough here for ales in my basement, and I've got some home remodeling projects to finish up. So I thought I'd post before this thread goes 'cold'... so, to get to the point....


I agree, it should only take a very small amount of stainless tubing in contact with the wort to move the temperature from ambient to fermentation temps (obviously depends on your ambient and whether doing ale or lager). I was planning on taking a thermowell-like tube, running a 1/4" OD plastic tube down into it, and pumping chill water through it with a tiny fountain pump (the smaller the better - less heat generated by the pump). If a 25' tube can remove maybe one degree F per minute at a 25F differential (guessing on that rate), then 1 foot in wort should be able to bring it down ~2~3F per hour. Seems like enough to offset fermentation heat and bring it below ambient with decent insulation.

So, if anyone has a thermowell that could try this before I get around to it, it would be interesting to see some data. You just need to break out the 1/4" tube so you can pump chill water into the thermowell, and drain from the 1/4" tube. I was going to drill out a PVC elbow, run the 1/4" through the hole, run the pump line and 'co-axial' line from the thermowell with the 1/4" inside it through holes drilled in caps on the elbow, and aquarium seal it all up. I'll try to draw this up when I have some time later. Insulate the line, insulate the fermentor in a cooler or just wrap with bubble wrap.

This has so many advantages over the foam boxes:

1) Liquid-liquid thermal transfer with a bit of SS between. Compare to the foam box with ice transferring through plastic bottles to air, transferring through the fermentor walls to the wort. Huge advantage in eff%, which means pump/fan runs less, so less heat added to the system

2) Total surface area could be much less, lower heat loss and less thermal mass to bring to temperature.

3) Should just about eliminate condensation build up - all the coldest parts are internal, or easily insulated (pipe foam insulation on the lines).

4) Other than the thermowell (buy or make) and a bit of low-pressure plumbing hook up, thermostat hook-up, almost no other 'construction' to do (may be a minus for you 'gadget freaks' ;) ).

5) I bought a 12V/.7A fountain pump to try with this - the 12V pump could be wired direct to a house-style thermostat, no need for a high voltage relay.

6) Could run multiple fermentors at different temperatures off the same ice water reservoir (which could be kept in a refrigerator to eliminate/reduce ice re-filling.

There was a thread on this previously, but using a water bath for the fermentor. If I find it I'll link to it. Similar advantages, but I think putting the chiller in the fermentor is even better.

cheers - kenc (no affiliation with Zymurgy mag, I just liked the rhyme)
 
I am very interested in this, first post here ( I post occasionally over at the Northern Brewer forum, but the DIY section here is much more active - impressive stuff ), I was going to post after doing some experiments, but that might be a while since it is plenty cold enough here for ales in my basement, and I've got some home remodeling projects to finish up. So I thought I'd post before this thread goes 'cold'... so, to get to the point....

cheers - kenc (no affiliation with Zymurgy mag, I just liked the rhyme)


Nice first post. :)
 
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