DIY glycol chilled plastic conical fermenters

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Can't wait to see finished product! It is amazing the different skills people have. For me, re-wiring the BCS would be the easy / fun part, but building the setup would be tricky, and look like **** when I was finished... as I prove every time I build something.

You get the ICs for the conicals yet? Will those be hard-plummed or TC'd in for easy removal and cleaning? I don't remember seeing, are you just using a cooler for the glycol reservoir?
 
BadWolfBrewing said:
Can't wait to see finished product! It is amazing the different skills people have. For me, re-wiring the BCS would be the easy / fun part, but building the setup would be tricky, and look like **** when I was finished... as I prove every time I build something.

You get the ICs for the conicals yet? Will those be hard-plummed or TC'd in for easy removal and cleaning? I don't remember seeing, are you just using a cooler for the glycol reservoir?
Click to expand...

Oh, wiring it isn't terribly difficult. I just hate drilling holes in a new chassis and then painting everything. Giant pain in the ass.

Stainless brewing finally got the 1/2" tubing in stock yesterday. So, I put through the order for that. Hopefully it'll be here sometime next week.

I'm using ISO 7241-B couplings for the connectors to the ICs. That way there should be minimal leakage of glycol when I disconnect everything. I was going to plumb the ICs through the side, but figured the tubing would be a pain to CIP. This way I can just drop it in a bucket of PBW while I use a spray ball on the rest.

Yeah, the reservoir is going to be a cooler. I have it mostly finished and the stand for that is done except for casters that have taking ages to get here in the mail. Once the casters get here I'll take a picture of that with the reservoir.
 
Wiring for the ball valves is done:

IMG_3315.jpg


Cutouts for the new chassis of the BCS-460 are also done. Gotta wait for the paint to dry before I can continue.
 
packet said:
To equalize the flow between the conicals. If you don't have that, the first conical in line gets a lot more glycol flow to it than the last one in line since there is less total pipe for the glycol to flow through.

This way they should get roughly equal amounts of glycol if more than one fermenter needs to chill at any given point in time.
Click to expand...

So I could see that if it was a loop on the supply side if the chillers. The way you have it though I really don't see that balancing out.

I went through a similar exercise when we installed a pool. All of the returns to them pool were on a loop to equalize the pressure and flow. It was that or make each run the same length which wasn't practical.

I don't see how that setup balances the pressure/flow across the chillers given that its on the low pressure side.
 
Carlscan26 said:
So I could see that if it was a loop on the supply side if the chillers. The way you have it though I really don't see that balancing out.

I went through a similar exercise when we installed a pool. All of the returns to them pool were on a loop to equalize the pressure and flow. It was that it make each run the same length which wasn't practical.

I don't see how that setup balances the pressure/flow across the chillers given that its on the low pressure side.
Click to expand...

Here it is from people that make glycol chillers for a living:

http://www.prochiller.com/files/GLYCOLGUIDE.pdf

page 4, along with a diagram.
 
Inside the cooler:

IMG_3318.jpg


Waiting on a dip tube for the return line, but otherwise that should be good to go for parts. I also need to position the A/C a bit better in cooler.

And in place next to the brewery:

IMG_3320.jpg
 
Looks great!! Well done! Have been following the thread for a while. Looks like you are getting close to being operational.
 
mrklueber said:
Looks great!! Well done! Have been following the thread for a while. Looks like you are getting close to being operational.
Click to expand...

Hopefully in a week or two. I need to wire up the controller today or tomorrow, but other than that it's just waiting for the remaining fittings in the conicals.

I need to cut the neoprene for insulating the conicals too, but I'm waiting on the fittings for that.
 
packet said:
Here it is from people that make glycol chillers for a living:

http://www.prochiller.com/files/GLYCOLGUIDE.pdf

page 4, along with a diagram.
Click to expand...

Alright I see it now thanks. I thought you had both ends of the red connected making one loop. First time I've seen this balanced on the return side but the end result is the same - balanced, equidistant paths.
 
Carlscan26 said:
Alright I see it now thanks. I thought you had both ends of the red connected making one loop. First time I've seen this balanced on the return side but the end result is the same - balanced, equidistant paths.
Click to expand...

Bingo.

I suppose you could do it supply side, but then you'd be increasing the temp of the glycol slightly before it got to the conicals. Probably better to do it on the return side.
 
Very well done. Your chiller / conical table rig + JimmyHugh's rasberrypi brain build for its interface, web access, and ease of adding control zones would be the ultimate fermentation system.

Sub'd!
 
starman said:
Very well done. Your chiller / conical table rig + JimmyHugh's rasberrypi brain build for its interface, web access, and ease of adding control zones would be the ultimate fermentation system.

Sub'd!
Click to expand...

Got a link to his raspberrypi build?

The BCS has a full web interface that's relatively easy to use. Programming it can be a bit of a pain though.
 
One thing I haven't been able to determine - are the conicals jacketed, or are you putting a coil inside/outside them?
 
mattd2 said:
One thing I haven't been able to determine - are the conicals jacketed, or are you putting a coil inside/outside them?
Click to expand...

I'm putting a coil inside each conical, and heat tape wrapped around the outside for heating in the winter. I still need to insulate the conicals and have a couple rolls of 1/2" neoprene for that, but am waiting for the remaining fittings before I do that.
 
And mounted next to the electric brewery controller:

Mounted.jpg


Aside from some BCS firmware nonsense regarding a hard limit of 6 temp controlled outputs, it's ready to go once I get the remaining fittings.
 
I have a request. When it is all done, please take some pics of the whole brewery / fermentation system together. I'd like something to stare at wistfully while saving my nickels...

Nice work, it looks great so far, an inspiring build. I finally found a mini-fridge that will fit an ale pale without any modification, hopefully that will hold me over for the couple of years it will take for me to win the powerball.
 
BadWolfBrewing said:
I have a request. When it is all done, please take some pics of the whole brewery / fermentation system together. I'd like something to stare at wistfully while saving my nickels...

Nice work, it looks great so far, an inspiring build. I finally found a mini-fridge that will fit an ale pale without any modification, hopefully that will hold me over for the couple of years it will take for me to win the powerball.
Click to expand...

Sure. The brewery is in a bit of a state of flux right now though. I'm in the middle of transitioning everything over to tri-clover fittings.
 
Spray Ball:

IMG_0683.JPG


I also hooked up the fittings for the blow off tubing while I wait for the tri-clover fittings to show up.

The bad news is that it appears one of the three motorized ball valves isn't working. I was testing them via the BCS and the one on Ferm 3 moved slightly once and then quit. So, bad news there. I ordered another 3 to have spares on hand, but it'll probably take a couple weeks to get here from China.
 
Its more pex tubing but do you think a submersible fountain pump for each conical would be easier to manage? There's one less SSR and you don't need to pump that much volume.
 
starman said:
Its more pex tubing but do you think a submersible fountain pump for each conical would be easier to manage? There's one less SSR and you don't need to pump that much volume.
Click to expand...

You could, but that would actually add 2 SSRs. The ball valves are driven directly off a 12v driver board (https://www.oscsys.com/store/product/1002030). So, no SSR needed for those. Also, the pump takes up a decent amount of volume in the cooler (https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAy4/JklD-1CEjlw/w800-h533-no/IMG_3318.jpg). Although I guess you could go with smaller pumps if you're going with one per conical.

The other thing I liked about the single pump design is that I can turn the pump on when just the chiller runs to circulate the water in the cooler, which is handy.

6 of one, half a dozen of another though. One pump per conical would probably work fairly well, but it would cost you a couple of additional ball valves and pressure gauges.
 
If it's not one thing, it's another. It appears that the bad ball valve took 3 channels of the driver board with it. So, I'll need another one of those. Hopefully OSC will get them in stock again soon.
 
packet said:
If it's not one thing, it's another. It appears that the bad ball valve took 3 channels of the driver board with it. So, I'll need another one of those. Hopefully OSC will get them in stock again soon.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing a thread for one pop up on the for sale forum today (don't know if it had been sold or not though)
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/12v-16-channel-relay-board-415897/
Plus some ball valves from the same guy https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/1-2-stainless-motorized-ball-valves-415882/
 
Ah gotcha on the SSR count - had it in my head those were 120v AC valves.

I was thinking of using the submersible fountain pumps that do ~150gph with a short amount of lift and are relatively small, 2"x3"x3" They leach heat so the more they run the greater the load on the AC. I'll be curious how many gph it takes to keep your conicals happy at different temperature deltas.

Hope you get it the replacements soon and are operational quickly.
 
starman said:
Ah gotcha on the SSR count - had it in my head those were 120v AC valves.

I was thinking of using the submersible fountain pumps that do ~150gph with a short amount of lift and are relatively small, 2"x3"x3" They leach heat so the more they run the greater the load on the AC. I'll be curious how many gph it takes to keep your conicals happy at different temperature deltas.

Hope you get it the replacements soon and are operational quickly.
Click to expand...

The pump I have is a 1/4 horsepower submersible pump usually used for draining small pools. ~$45 on amazon. I have a ball valve to control flow and a pressure gauge on the line to control the line pressure. So, hopefully it'll work pretty well. If I need something smaller I plan on using the pump for the spray ball to clean the conicals later on.

Like I said before, three pumps would probably work. My main concern is that's a lot of tubing to run out of the cooler and could get messy pretty quickly.
 
is there any limitation on CIP in a plastic conical? I've never tried CIP before (sounds awesome though), but I thought the CIP chemicals were too potent for anything but stainless.
 
BadWolfBrewing said:
is there any limitation on CIP in a plastic conical? I've never tried CIP before (sounds awesome though), but I thought the CIP chemicals were too potent for anything but stainless.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't try any of the strong acid washes. I plan on using PBW, which others have used without an issue. I just didn't want to deal with 15-20 gallons of it at a time. So, I'm going to try using a spray ball.
 
I use PBW and a spray ball.....works quite well. You still need to do poke your hand and sponge in there cause there are some nooks and crannys the spray doesn't get too.
 
fpweeks said:
I use PBW and a spray ball.....works quite well. You still need to do poke your hand and sponge in there cause there are some nooks and crannys the spray doesn't get too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the main thing I don't like about the conicals is that the screws for the lid go all the way through the plastic. Thankfully beer shouldn't ever get that high though.

All in all, it should be pretty easy to clean.
 

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