mcflyfisher
Member
I have been fermenting in sankey kegs for a few months now. For my proposes they work well, but the same problem exists. I can't see into the keg to be sure it is clean. I do an oxy soak, and use drill mounted carboy cleaner, but still I am never sure. I have accidently made an oatmeal sour, and wonder if the problem was the fermenter. I sanitize with iodaphor, as star San doesnot play well with my super hard water. I would really like to heat sanitize the fermenters but am an all electric brewer. I have a couple heat sticks of werper design, but they won't fit into the spear opening. I think a naked heating element would fit, as the compression nut I'd what is keeping the current sticks from fitting. Do you think it is possible to build a safe heat stick that doesn't have the compression nut? I was thinking of soldering a piece of wire to the element base to use as a ground and then wiring the element to a section if water proof wire/cord of some sort, and doing the pvc jbweld potting trick. when completed I should be able to add a couple gallons of water to the keg, drop the stick into the keg, plug it in and have a heat sanitized fermenter in a few minutes. If am feeling really ambitious a am sure a pressure cooker could be cannibalized to provide a means to safely pressurize the unit, but that is a future project that will require alot of safety consideration. So will my skinny heat stick idea work?