Brewers Hardware 15 Gallon Jacketed Unboxing

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Elfmaze

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Just got my new conical in. It is the new version with the dimple jacket instead of the coil jacketed. BH has also added a sample port and I believe the two additional ports on the top are new as well. I plan to leave the manual read thermometer in place and use a top mounted thermometer for my cooling pumps thermostat. The other spare port can be used for a pressure relief valve because these fermentors can now be pressurized to ~15 lbs!

The thing is heavy stainless, weighing in around 140lbs. I feel like I got my moneys worth vs a Morebeer ultimate, or SS BrewTech with FTSS.

I know I could barely find a picture of the unit when I was going to purchase one. So I had to go out on a limb. But, after getting it here I have no doubts I bought the correct one. Enjoy some pictures and please ask if you have any dimension questions. It definitely would not fit in my freezer.. But then again thats not the point of having it jacketed.

























 
I ended up using an ice chest with 40lbs of ice in it. Used my wort chiller to bring it down to 90* then transferred and turned the jacket and ice water to drop the wort to 70*; oxygenated and pitch. The ice was still holding up two days later, I just tossed my first frozen water jug in there because there were only a few ice cubes left.

As far as the insulation goes. The computer over shot 70* by 5*. It was 85 in my garage and the conical only came up .5 degrees every hour. I'm happy with that!

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This is the pump we are using for the jacket. It seems to be working very well. Harbor freight $20. The insulation I bought for the lines was $2 at lowes.

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OK through my second brew with this thing... A few notes. I am buying triclamp wheels from MoreBeer. I understand that they can make the thing "tippy" ESPECIALLY while attempting to move it full... But it is difficult to move empty and full impossibly now. Plus I cant stand the grinding sound of stainless steel legs on my concrete floor as I move the fermenter after its done its job.... While brewing it sits in the middle of my garage near the brewery and fridge, it hides in a corner in the "offseason"

Wheels
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Second, I didn't like the setup I had to feed CO2 back through the blowoff tube for force transfering (BTW Force transferring is AMAZING!) So I am buying a MoreBeer Pressure gauge with ball lock gas fitting. Should make it a lot easier to keep an eye on transfer pressure and feed gas into the system. I will need to block off the blow off tube to pressurize it though.

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Lastly the CIP ball I bought had a 1.5" triclamp on the back of it. I should have got threaded. finding a 1.5" triclamp 90* that will go to my pump has been difficult. Although Brewers hardware does seel the part i need it would have been nice to be able to get some stuff local.

All in All, I am loving the system and it is vastly helping simplify my brewing needs!
 
I didn't know tri-clamp wheels were a thing. That is pretty neat! Seems a bit overkill.... but very blingy.
 
I love that thing... and i want one, so bad :( maybe.. one day.. probably never... but i still want one... damn it
 
Wow that second to last pic looks like the robot from "Lost In Space"! Seriously that's a lot of stainless, looks like a quality made fermenter. Love to see a pic of the inside when you get a chance.

John
 
I wouldn't use the tricamp wheels on this fermenter unless your planning on building cross braces to each leg. If anything, do what Johnw did building those carts. Keeps the legs stable and they function as cross braces as well.
 
Elfmaze - interested in details on you keezer. Looks grew (as does the new conical!).

Todd
 
Wow that second to last pic looks like the robot from "Lost In Space"! Seriously that's a lot of stainless, looks like a quality made fermenter. Love to see a pic of the inside when you get a chance.

John

Sure, I feel the top down pic makes it look more "wavy" than it is. But there are dents in the wall from the jacketing. Welds look good though. I made every weld on my brewery. But I didn't feel comfortable making the fermentor.





 
I have two Brewers Hardware 20G fermenters and they are awesome. I ended up building wood carts to put them on. It raises them for better access to put a bucket under when cleaning/dumping and it stabilizes them by having 4 wheels instead of 3.

fermenters.jpg

Ok, I can see how that would be way more stable and not risk buckling a leg. I guess you just drilled the triclamp feet and screwed though? not much meat down there to attach to the board.
 
Sure, I feel the top down pic makes it look more "wavy" than it is. But there are dents in the wall from the jacketing. Welds look good though. I made every weld on my brewery. But I didn't feel comfortable making the fermentor.






I think its the way they make the conical tanks in china, most of the tanks I see that are made there have it. My "american brewing' conical from china has the same wavyness to it. although my chinese stout conical does not appear to have the waves. The AHB conical came with the exact same butterfly valves as yours too...

BTW brewers hardwares pricing is a deal compared to buying directly from china, the shipping is a killer,

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/15-G...est=201526_4,201527_2_71_72_73_74_75,201409_2
Whereas according to brewers hardware the shipping is only $56 ? Is that right?

I am a bit curious why if brewers hardware really did design it as they claim, its being sold directly by the manufacturer... most things like this (like the SSbrewing products) require and exclusive distributor contract at least for a limited amount of time.. this is why I think the stout and ss brewing stuff is just recently popping up as being sold under different brand names after years of being sold exclusively by their respective distributors.
 
I'm actually pretty sure BH waved the shipping fee altogether. I can't imagine there are that many factories in China that make conicals. Maby two or three at the most. These Chinese companies are rockstar at cranking out stainless products and being a nitch market not sure what the demand looks like... Its probably a lot more than I think with all these micro breweries popping up though.

I will say though. I havent seen many other 60 liter jacketed conicals on the international trade boards... Its possible BH had them custom made for them.
 
I'm actually pretty sure BH waved the shipping fee altogether. I can't imagine there are that many factories in China that make conicals. Maby two or three at the most. These Chinese companies are rockstar at cranking out stainless products and being a nitch market not sure what the demand looks like... Its probably a lot more than I think with all these micro breweries popping up though.

I will say though. I havent seen many other 60 liter jacketed conicals on the international trade boards... Its possible BH had them custom made for them.

Yes its completely possible, usually though the distributor bargains exclusive rights to sell them too... In any case BH seems to be offering these at a very fair price and im sure they will stand behind them if theres any problems.

I have noticed a lot of companies in china that make stainless brewing tanks and conicals myself... I am always looking at the different systems and ideas some of the chinese companies come up with. I think the stainless conicals I have made a huge improvement in the quality of my beers.
 
I wouldn't use the tricamp wheels on this fermenter unless your planning on building cross braces to each leg. If anything, do what Johnw did building those carts. Keeps the legs stable and they function as cross braces as well.

+1 on cross braces

I was all gun-hoe about getting my conical on casters. I found some stem casters that fit the legs. They looked good ;) and moving was easy. Once I filled the conical, things did not look so good. I removed them. Now it is stationary.
 
Thanks Elfmaze for posting the photos of the inside of the fermenter! I am looking at different conicals and this one has my attention.

John
 
Did you have to buy a 3" tri clover compaitble cap to seal off the opening in the lid to transfer beer with your MoreBeer Pressure gauge with ball lock gas fitting or did the conical already come with the cap? Or are you sealing it up some other war?

Thanks,
 
Did you have to buy a 3" tri clover compaitble cap to seal off the opening in the lid to transfer beer with your MoreBeer Pressure gauge with ball lock gas fitting or did the conical already come with the cap? Or are you sealing it up some other war?

Thanks,


The current plan is to swap the Blow off tube for my sterilized CIP ball. The CIP ball will then have a 1.5" cap(a few came with the conical) on it to pressure seal the vessel until time to clean. The More beer pressure gauge I didn't much like the plastic quick disconnect. But I found a nice barbed ball valve that i can use to purge head space and let in C02 as needed.

I don't like that the pressure gauge is the only thing on the conical that cannot be sanitized thoroughly.






 
I ended up making the cart. Great idea... Just not sure how I am going to attach the fermentor to the wood yet.

I will make a holder for the CO2 bottle on the cart and I am making another cart to slide inside this one to hold the CIP pump and tank.

Its coming along, Good news is its all aesthetics at this point. we are producing beer!



EDIT: I am also plannning on getting a nice deep thermowell to mount in the last hole in the top. I want to run the temp control pumps off the thermowell and keep the mechanical thermometer on the front for backup. A deep enough thermowell will also allow me to run five gallon batches of a specialty beer. Currently 5 gallons does not reach the front thermo port.
 
A deep enough thermowell will also allow me to run five gallon batches of a specialty beer. Currently 5 gallons does not reach the front thermo port.

Hey Elfmaze, do you know how many gallons the thermowell does start hitting liquid at? I'm looking to do smaller batches as well. Thanks!
 
About the 7 gallon mark.... But I have an idea about this. There is a spare 1.5" triclamp port in the lid. If I get a nice long thermowell I can reach down from the top for the jacket pump. I haven't got as far as measuring the distance down to the 5 gallon mark yet though.

The cone is temp controlled Darrin assures me.. So temp regulation should not be an issue.
 
I prefer the longer probe being inserted from the top. With a short probe in the front, I felt that it wasn't reflecting the actual temperature of the wort due to cooling by the jacket.
 
How far down the fermentor does the glycol jacket go? would it be able to cool smaller batches?
 
I actually just solved this issue this month so that she could do a wine batch.

The jacket does chill all the way down the cone. But, you need about six gallons too cover the temp probe and sample valve port. So for $20 I got a 22" thermowell that mounts in one of my two spare ports up top. Reaches deep into the conical for temperature readings. Could probably do 3 gallon batches if need be. Obviously the racking port will also become useless eventually. But worst case just slap a hose barb on the dump valve toss a few pounds of pressure on top and co2 pump to your keg or bottles.
 
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