I was interested in making a water jacket for my Mini-Brerw 6.5 conical and was able to build one quite cheaply with old stuff around the house and a couple of inexpensive purchases.
It consists of a 14 gallon plastic tub from Lowes which I cut off about 4 inches from the bottom, cut a 14" disc from plywood that has a 10" hole in it for the conical to rest into, then I used a $7 kids plastic sledding inner tube for a liner to hold the water. The bottom of the tub makes a good overflow pan under the unit. I use my meat smoker dual probe digital thermometer to get a beer reading through a thermowell, and the other probe sits inside the water jacket.
To flatten the liner and hold it tightly against the conical I used rubber bands, and to flatten the liner against the tub I used Romex wiring.
My basement stays around 60* in the winter, so I have an in-line aquarium heater set in the mid sixties, which is pumped into the sleeve, it then exits back into the tub. I have been able to keep my beer within 1* of my set temp during fermentation. As fermentation slows I can easily raise the temp slightly to maintain whatever temp it reached during vigorous fermentation.
The heater has a small knob that doesn't allow for fine adjustments, so I made my own dial that does which I hot-glued to the dial.
This works fine but the sleeve holds only enough water to reach the top of the beer level, I would like to make a larger one with a 16-20 gallon tub, this would hold more water in the sleeve and have more pressure to flatten the liner tighter against the conical.
DIY projects are fun, especially with stuff that packrats like myself keep around the house!
It consists of a 14 gallon plastic tub from Lowes which I cut off about 4 inches from the bottom, cut a 14" disc from plywood that has a 10" hole in it for the conical to rest into, then I used a $7 kids plastic sledding inner tube for a liner to hold the water. The bottom of the tub makes a good overflow pan under the unit. I use my meat smoker dual probe digital thermometer to get a beer reading through a thermowell, and the other probe sits inside the water jacket.
To flatten the liner and hold it tightly against the conical I used rubber bands, and to flatten the liner against the tub I used Romex wiring.
My basement stays around 60* in the winter, so I have an in-line aquarium heater set in the mid sixties, which is pumped into the sleeve, it then exits back into the tub. I have been able to keep my beer within 1* of my set temp during fermentation. As fermentation slows I can easily raise the temp slightly to maintain whatever temp it reached during vigorous fermentation.
The heater has a small knob that doesn't allow for fine adjustments, so I made my own dial that does which I hot-glued to the dial.
This works fine but the sleeve holds only enough water to reach the top of the beer level, I would like to make a larger one with a 16-20 gallon tub, this would hold more water in the sleeve and have more pressure to flatten the liner tighter against the conical.
DIY projects are fun, especially with stuff that packrats like myself keep around the house!
