Brewhemoth conicals?

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I am having a 1'' tc put on the cylinder part for a thermowell. A little towards a leg so it could fit into a smaller chill box. My RTDs have a 1/8'' mpt thread, so that would make for a pretty wide thermowell if I was going to drop id down from the top.

I have a 1/8npt to flare fitting, so I can tap a hole in the 4'' top for it. Will make transferring under pressure easier, as I have flare ends on all of my gas lines. Maybe I'll put it on a 1'' blanking plate and use it on the airlock tc. Yeah, that seems like a better idea now that I think about it.

Have some pretty beefy butterfly valves to pimp it a bit!

I am planning on dropping a 20 inch thermowell in the 1.5 inch top TC opening. I have an extra 4 inch TC cap that I am going to drill out for a blow off hole. If I need to pressurize I will swap it out with the undrilled cap.
 
I have asked them to think about building something like this: Some issues with DOT testing...

I find this totally false as these decommissioned liquid oxygen tanks are now fermenters not tested or under DOT guidelines. Can they take pressure yes proven to 150 plus psi just to prove their strength.
I bet if Brewhemoth can have then DOT certified they would sell at $2,400 each.
They came up with a great idea with these containers I find another added option of ferm brands. JMO's.
 
I have taken the plunge. I ordered mine yesterday and am looking forward to the new brew toy. I'm leaning toward using the 1" TC on the top for a thermowell and perhaps getting a 4" TC cap and drilling a hole for the airlock. Does anyone know if a 15-18 gallon ferment will produce too great a volume of CO2 to use a standard airlock?
 
I am planning on dropping a 20 inch thermowell in the 1.5 inch top TC opening.
Going off memory as Mr. Brewhemoth is in storage, (back surgery injury recovering no play for me). My thinking the thermowell needs to be app 24" long for 5.5 gallon batches.
The conical to body joint alone requires 2 gallons, the body for every 1.163" rise increase per/gallon.
Rough measuring using 1 gallon milk jugs from top of 4" TC fitting to surface of a 5.5 gallon batch I measured 17.26" down. A 24" thermowell allows the probe to be submerged 6 3/4" below the surface or app the centered vertically in the wort. I must add when i'll ferment 15 gallon net batches a second shorter thermowell will be used with my Brewhwmoth.
 
'Twas only small change to have them put a tc on the side for thermowell. Unfortunately I couldn't find a cheap tc thermowell that was short (4'' or so).

Standard airlock would be fine. If you had a bunch for gas coming out, I'd guess the top of a 3piece airlock would just sort of hover there. I always used a small 5/16id "blowoff" tube running down to a container with sanitizer in the past (14.5G conicals).
 
Is no one asking them to put corny posts on the 4" tri-clamp? Thermowell? Pressure relief valve (or just a port for it)? Would be sweet. Just sayin.

Great to have a blow-off port AND a gas out post. Mine just has a gas out post that I also use as a blow-off port by fiddling with post adapters and such (basically to give me better ID and eliminate the poppit valve).

I'm getting different length dip tubes for the gas out so I can experiment with top cropping more effectively (i.e. just put a gas out dip tube in that's, say, 3" from the final volume level.... etc.)

I agee, hell even just a thermowell toward the bottom would be awesome.
 
Yes, but I prefer to have everything possible on the cap. That way you can just throw it in the HLT to sanitize. On my fermenter, there is only 1 weld below the beer line and that's the bottom dump. If I got a brewhemoth, I would omit the racking port. Of course that all makes for tricky situation if your ferm chamber is not a chest freezer and is an upright.

With my dip tube racking, I am literally left with about a cup of beer above the yeast cake.
 
Yes, but I prefer to have everything possible on the cap. That way you can just throw it in the HLT to sanitize.

With my dip tube racking, I am literally left with about a cup of beer above the yeast cake.

I second that with everything added or changed at the cap, simple, quick and easy to sanitize.

On my Brewhemoth with a welded on 1 1/2" TC 90 fitting the bottom of the racking port leaves behind 30 ounces. This can be collected from the dump valve, I rather not as 30 ounces of mixed crap vs 20 gallon ferm capacity I can live with dumping.
 
BrewBeemer said:
….On my Brewhemoth with a welded on 1 1/2" TC 90 fitting the bottom of the racking port leaves behind 30 ounces. This can be collected from the dump valve, I rather not as 30 ounces of mixed crap vs 20 gallon ferm capacity I can live with dumping.

Is that with a rotating racking arm pointed down?
 
Yes, but I prefer to have everything possible on the cap. That way you can just throw it in the HLT to sanitize.

With my dip tube racking, I am literally left with about a cup of beer above the yeast cake.

I second that with everything added or changed at the cap, simple, quick and easy to sanitize.

On my Brewhemoth having a added 1 1/2" 90 degree TC fitting welded on the bottom of the racking port only leaves 30 ounces behind. This can be collected from the dump valve, I would rather not.
 
Mine's going in a cooled foam box that doesn't have a lid. CIP (hopefully get it to work right) so I won't be taking anything off to clean or sanitize. The valves I suppose I might take off. Not planning on removing the thermowell in between fillings. Hopefully I won't get stuff accumulating where the racking tc angles towards the floor....
 
Is that with a rotating racking arm pointed down?

No, this is a 3/4" TC fitting welded to the cone flush on the inside, no racking arm.
My friends racking arm leaked draining out a complete fermenter on the family room carpet. We went halves on this Bling unit, instantly sold it also hence a Brewhemoth purchase.
I was rather impressed on the small amount left behind when I tested the Brewhemoth,
same volume posted by a HBT member with one of the first Brewhemoths, I recall he won it at a raffle last year.
 
Dale my first beers made with the Brewhemoth will be going out to competition soon! I think they are spectacular. Will the internal temp control option add on be available soon?
Steve

Look on the website, Steve...it's available NOW! :rockin:

Josh
 
Judging from your measurements and the overall height of this listed on the website (50") am I correct in saying that there is about 18" of space from the bottom cone fitting to the ground?

Right about 18", yes...it is more like 17" (after throwing a tape on it to measure).
 
I have asked them to think about building something like this:
Modified4.jpg


with a dip tube going down into the conical.

No idea if they will do it. Some issues with DOT testing...

Nothing to do with testing! It is more of a case of what we (any company) claim as it's pressure rating...there is a magic number (30 PSI, I believe) that if you go over it, then you have to mark each until with a DOT approval number.

It's a giant pain that we are working on overcoming...we have to do this with other products we sell, that's how we know it's a pain.
 
Does anyone know if a 15-18 gallon ferment will produce too great a volume of CO2 to use a standard airlock?

15 will be fine...we do it all the time! An 18 gallon MAY need a blow-off...

Oh, and while I'm at it...

Thanks to all of you who have ordered! Those who have gotten them already...hopefully you are enjoying them as much as we enjoy making / using them!

Josh
 
I had a semi-radical idea. I'm thinking that a brewhemoth and chiller would make for a very interesting electric boil kettle. After boil you could let the hops settle and dump out of the bottom valve, then use the chiller to cool the wort and pitch into the same vessel for ferment. This would make cleanup much easier. Who wants to do it first?
 
I had a semi-radical idea. I'm thinking that a brewhemoth and chiller would make for a very interesting electric boil kettle. After boil you could let the hops settle and dump out of the bottom valve, then use the chiller to cool the wort and pitch into the same vessel for ferment. This would make cleanup much easier. Who wants to do it first?

Boiling with only a 4" hole in the top of a kettle would be interesting. May be possible, but I wouldn't want to be the first guy to try it :). Also, where are you going to put your heating element(s)? Ne connections welded in? Would present some cleaning challenges. I guess they could be tri-clover connections as well to ease cleaning somewhat. For me, I have a boil kettle I'm happy with :).
 
I had a semi-radical idea. I'm thinking that a brewhemoth and chiller would make for a very interesting electric boil kettle. After boil you could let the hops settle and dump out of the bottom valve, then use the chiller to cool the wort and pitch into the same vessel for ferment. This would make cleanup much easier. Who wants to do it first?

This sounds like a nasty mess to cleanup after boiling besides how are all the nasties going to get boiled out thru a 4" opening without recondensing?
Sorry this sounds like a sin to apply to a Brewhemoth ferm.
 
I bet it would work just fine. Plenty of breweries pass the steam out of the room through pipes off seemingly similar opening-to-pot size ratio. You would want an extra low density stainless element, which I'm not sure exist. I had a similar idea for a 5-7G conical to be mossed into a yeast maker (propagation). Built-in element, airstone, overhead stirring rod, and permanent cooling coil. Probably never get to making that I'm sure, but fun to think about.

Modding a beermaking conical seems like too much complication for effort saved. I'd still rather boil in a pot and transfer.
 
We priced out a 3 barrel fermenter for a potential customer, but apperently the pricing was too high as we never heard back. If you have an interest, email us your requirements and we will get back to you.
 
I'm very interested in the Brewhemoth here are my reservations:

1. I will be brewing mostly 5 gallon batches.... is it too big?

2. Cleaning/sanitizing... I am a little scared about cleaning.. With talk about CIP systems...etc it is a little intimidating. How hard is it really to clean? What are the best practices?
 
So far, cleaning has not been an issue. A brief PBW soak, good rinsing, followed by Star San, I mix up 5 gallons, shake it around good several times over the time it takes to chill my beer, transfer this over to a corny for future use and fill. Have yet to have an issue.
 
The Brewhemouth functions equally well on 5 gallon batches. I have run 9 batches through since January. As far as cleaning, that is easy simply use oxyclean and let it sit half a day, rinse and fill with starsan. Done.
 
The Brewhemouth functions equally well on 5 gallon batches. I have run 9 batches through since January. As far as cleaning, that is easy simply use oxyclean and let it sit half a day, rinse and fill with starsan. Done.

Couldn't have said it better myself! :rockin:

Josh
 
I doubt that I will blow 22G of starsan to make one batch....

Because the racking port slopes down a bit, I'm assuming you get a bit of trub/yeast buildup there. Does this mean that one should take a sample before filling kegs? I've only even taken samples when I dump yeast from the bottom port (from my ex-blarchmanns).
 
My new brewhemoth. Looks really nice.

hemoth1.JPG


Have a 1 and 1.5'' trigger valve on there - Pt cured silicone for the tc gaskets. I realize now that I only really needed one barbed adapter, as I'd never need two at the same time. Also, I'd probably never even use the one for the bottom dump anyway - could dump right into an erlenmeyer.

hemoth2.JPG


This is the custom bit I had them do - a 1'' tc for a thermowell. The thermowell has a 1/2''fpt hole, but would have been fine with no threads. Could have just stuffed some gauze around the RTD, but figured what the hell and put in a 1/2 - 1/8 npt adapter in there, seeing as the RTD already had npt threads. The thermowell would have had to be pretty wide to fit the hex head on the RTD from above, so I thought I'd have this side port put in. It's offset so the whole thing will fit in a smaller ferm box (how I plan to control temps). It's a 3wire RTD that I've been using for years on some blichmanns.

The only mods I need to do myself is fit a flare on a 1.5'' endcap for pressure transfers. I have to tap a 1/4 thread in a spare endcap to fit the flare adapter I have. Also I need to get a sump pump and find some way to rig my 3/4'' fpt rotating spray ball on the inside for CIP.

hemoth3.JPG


Some of the bits I need to deal with. The spray ball won't fit through a 1'' opening, so it will have to go on a 4''. To save buying another 4'' blanking plate, I could have it mounted on this plate, and having a cap to seal the inlet during fermentation. Don't have a TIG at the moment, so will have to Ag braze or thread something. Open to any suggestions. I'm guessing I'll never need that blowoff barb I bought. Planning on 16-17G ferments so I get 15 total in kegs. The smaller barb will just have some tubing running into a cup with sanitizer as an airlock. Been doing that for years and it works great. Just have to be careful not sucking up sanitized fruit flies when doing cooldowns after the ferm is done.

hemoth5.JPG


Gotta say, this is one of the slicker looking homebrew conicals I've seen. Pressurized ferments should be a breeze with a few more components. For the first brew I am thinking an ofest-dortmunder hybrid that I've brewed before and really like. Brewhemoth guys did a great job I think. The inner top weld has some discoloration, but it is a lot smoother than the earlier photos posted.
 
Brewhemoth guys did a great job I think. The inner top weld has some discoloration, but it is a lot smoother than the earlier photos posted.

I agree, I think mine is great quality as well. I also noticed a bit of discoloration around the top weld and when I wiped it with a towel some red substance transferred on to the towel. It doesn't look like rust but the dome was a bit dirty on the inside, so it could just be a soot byproduct of the weld. I'd be interested to hear if you have the same soot on the inside of yours as well and the red discoloration at the weld. Its not going to keep me from using it, just curious what it is. Also, the most liquid I could fit in mine is about 20.5 gallons, so you might want to measure first before you fill it if you are going to be close on volume.
 
This is how they came. Planning on cleaning with PBW and then taking another look. It's possible the bead area might need to have some acid treatment so they passivate properly in air. Might do some polishing with 2, 4, or 600 grit. Looks like a pretty smooth bead.

hemoth6.JPG


hemoth7.JPG
 
I know most of you will be placing these in old friges etc. curious if anyone is going to use the internal cooling, I bought two of these myself, and just ordered 1 set of the cooling coils to try it out. I also plan to insulate with
1/2" Armaflex and then a thin stainless sheet with latches for removal if needed. I think i will just try a pond pump and ice chest with ice water at first since most my beers are done in the first week anyway, at least until the heat gets here which is only a month or so away. Anyone tried the cooling coils yet?
 
Got a few reasons I don't want to use internal cooling.

I want to be able to bring the beer down to about 0C with the same system that controls fermentation temps. Those stainless coils probably can't do that.

The conical, on it's own, will absorb a lot of heat through the walls. To counteract this, you could put the internally cooled conical in an insulated box. At this point, you might as well cool the box.

I'm thinking of making my box out of 2-4'' polyurethane panels. Used styrofoam before - worked ok - polyurethane is much better. I just used foil tape to make the seals and the door hinge. Not very robust or durable. I think I'll frame it with high density fiberboard this time.
 
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