Upgrading Your Speidel Fermenter

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Joe_CraftBeerTraders

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
Messages
96
Reaction score
40
Location
Charlotte
I have grown quite fond of my Speidel Fermenters with their handles and spigot design. However after a couple of uses there were some slight annoyances I wanted to address with a couple upgrades. One of the most important aspects of fermentation is temperature control. I personally dislike the $4 sticker thermometers so I needed to find a quality alternative for reading temperature. The next important thing is transferring. Speidel fermenters already have made a great effort in making this easier with a spigot at the bottom of the vessel, however, if you are using it for a secondary vessel (or even primary) there is a decent amount of loss as the spigot port isnt as low as it could be. Even with trub or a yeast cake at the base I had always found there was some loss and thats something I wanted to address. Lastly, at quick glance you dont really know information about how long the beer has been in there or even what beer it is. Ive had fermenters littered with painters tape and writing on it but I thought it was ugly and after a while the tape falls off. So I wanted to be able to write on the fermenters in a non permanent way.

IMG_2490.jpg




Chalkboard Painting

While walking through Lowes I found a small spray can of chalkboard paint and thought, this is perfect! The Speidel fermenters have a nice open space on the fronts with plenty of room for writing. All I did was tape off a section and spray chalkboard paint on it. *Note* the paint is extremely dense and has massive over spray. Be sure to use news paper to cover any parts of the fermenter you do not want painted and cover what you are spraying on (floor/table). Its really that simple! Now I can write on the fermenter with chalk the date it was filled, OG, FG, date of additions etc, and it whips off easily with a wet sponge.

IMG_2491.jpg


IMG_2782.jpg




Upgrading to Racking Arm

Although the Speidel has a spigot at the bottom, as mentioned before there is a good amount of loss that you have when transferring. Well good old SsBrewTech comes to the rescue here with their 2pc racking arm that comes on their Brew Bucket and Brewmaster Edition Chronicals. Here is a link to the SsBrewTech Racking Arm. What is really nice about this piece from SsBrewTech is that it has a pickup arm that extends down to the bottom of the Speidel. You can also rotate the valve to pick up at the top of the trub/yeast as well. The installation is super easy and honestly convenient. With the Speidel fermenters they provide a solid screw cap that you can use to replace the spigot or the the blow off on the lid. All I did was drill a hole in that solid cap and mount the Racking Arm. Just a note though, the Racking Arm is made to fit a 17mm hole which is just smaller then 11/16ths. Do not use a 11/16ths drill bit as you will end up with to large of a hole and potential leaking. You can use a step bit and be careful or SsBrewTech offers a 17mm drill bit for drilling into Stainless Steel. I went ahead and got the drill bit from SsBrewTech as its designed for their accessories and would definitely use this in the future when upgrading my own equipment. Here is the link to their 17mm Drill Bit . Thats it, drill the hole and mount the racking arm. Make sure you sand down and spurs that might be present.

IMG_3134.jpg


IMG_3135.jpg


IMG_3136.jpg


IMG_3137.jpg


IMG_3138.jpg


IMG_3139.jpg


IMG_3140.jpg




Upgrading the LCD Thermometer

The last think I wanted was a better way to monitor temperature then those stick on thermometer strips. While browsing the SsBrewTech site for the Racking Arm I noticed they sell their LCD Thermometer and Weldless Thermowell that are seen on all their fermenters. Here are the links to the Weldless Thermowell and LCD Thermometer. Again the thermowell is made to fit a 17mm hole. I highly recommend using the 17mm drill bit SsBrewTech offers as the Speidel fermenters wall thickness is pretty thick. Trying to use a step bit and get the hole even on both sides can be tricky and if you dont you are prone to leaking. Its not just a $5 cap that you are drilling into now its the fermenter so be as accurate as possible. I found a location right above the Racking Arm, drilled the hole and mounted the thermowell and lcd thermometer. Looks really clean in my opinion.

IMG_3845.jpg


IMG_3844.jpg



As you can see the pickup from the Racking Arm fits nicely and gets nice and low in the fermenter. The picture above is on the 60L (15.9g) Speidel and you can see youll be able to pick up atleast another inch worth of beer which could have been about a gallon of loss. I am a big fan of Speidel Fermenters and with a little help from SsBrewTech I was able to turn it into an amazing fermentation vessel. Happy Brewing!


Here is the link to the post on my blog http://blog.craftbeertraders.com/upgrading-your-speidel-fermenter/
 
The picture above is on the 60L (15.9g) Speidel and you can see youll be able to pick up atleast another inch worth of beer which could have been about a gallon of loss.

I have the 30L Speidel. Is the spigot to bottom dimension the same as in the 60L? Just wondering if the racking arm would sit at the same level inside the fermenter on the 30L.

Todd
 
That's pretty cool. I have 30 and 20 liter units and think they are pretty cool. I am surprised the paint sticks to the plastic - it's pretty slick. The racking arm is a great idea. I usually tilt the fermenter near the end of transfer but this would be much less practical with a 60l unit. I had thought of installing a thermowell, but decided against it due to cleaning/spaces for gunk to hide. But this looks fantastic! Thanks for the tips.
 
I have the 30L Speidel. Is the spigot to bottom dimension the same as in the 60L? Just wondering if the racking arm would sit at the same level inside the fermenter on the 30L.

Todd


The gap on the 30l is less but that's actually better. You can rotate to the base or vertical. I loved it when pulling off fruit.
 
Nice job...for temp I ended up using a 2-hole rubber stopper with a 12" SS thermowell to house my temp controller thermocouple...the second hole is for a standard 3-piece airlock. The 60L has plenty of headspace so I can do a 12gal batch without a blowoff.

11" FlexWatt is great for providing heat to the fermenter if you need it.
 
I put an SS Brewtech thermowell into my Coopers fermenter. I used a step bit. The hole is not ideal size, but it seals and doesn't leak. I wish I knew about the drill bit they sell.

Next time.

Great post!
 
I'm curious to here how your chalkboard paint is holding up. Are you still happy with it?
It looks really cool!
I've been using blue painter's tape so far. Works pretty well and I usually just move the tape to the keg.

Also curious about the rotation of the racking arm. Maybe I'm missing something, but the SS Brewtech solution like the NorCalBrewing solution have to be rotated before the wort goes in, correct? There's no way to rotate it when you are doing the transfer from the fermenter. If so, I'm curious how folks pre-set the depth to ensure their not picking up from below the trub/yeast line.

I've seen a rotating racking arm with an external lever. Seems like it would be hard to adjust without being able to see the end of the racking arm and top of the trub. Perhaps it's all about watching the output cloudiness.
 
I believe you can rotate the SS Brewtech one while the fermenter is full. It suggests clockwise only (so that you are tightening against the o-ring). A bit of keg lube on the O-ring when installing should help that.

Obviously it's best if you only do that right as you are about to rack, so any micro-leaks don't leak much before the fermenter is emptied.
 
Also curious about the rotation of the racking arm. Maybe I'm missing something, but the SS Brewtech solution like the NorCalBrewing solution have to be rotated before the wort goes in, correct? There's no way to rotate it when you are doing the transfer from the fermenter. If so, I'm curious how folks pre-set the depth to ensure their not picking up from below the trub/yeast line.

I followed these instructions on the SS Brewtech valve solution and it works pretty well. A few tips
--pay attention to that mention of a 17mm drill bit. You don't have one that will work close enough and you will not find that bit at home depot.
--Get a couple extra solid caps when you buy the fermentor. They are cheap and again not easy to find except mail order. I bumped into the SS brewtech valve by accident and it tore up the cap.
--You rotate the entire valve to aim the dip tube. When you put it together for a brew day you mount the valve to the cap, screw the cap onto the fermenter. Test for leaks. Rotate the valve so the handle is up. Then reach in and mount the dip tube.
--On mine the dip tube will not rotate 360degrees. It doesn't quite clear the bottom. (I have 15 gallon fermentor maybe the drain hole is a bit closer to the bottom than the OPs). So I start it at about 6:30 (think of a clock). I fill the fermenter with star san. Shake it all up. Drain it through the valve (still at 6:30) then fill the fermenter with wort and yeast. After fermentation is done I rotate the valve (not the cap, just the valve body) to 12:00 and drain a very small amount of sludgy beer. After that it drains clear which goes into my keg. During the transfer I carefully rotate the valve back to where it starts to grab yeast then back off a bit. This will normally be between 8:00 and 9:00.

--I also got that thermowell from SS Brewtech and it works great. Installed it into the lid of my 15 gallon fermentor.
 
A couple questions.

I just installed this setup prior to my last batch and was so excited to try it. On bottling night I realized that all of the hose I had for transferring were all to large an ID and it wouldn't seal around the valve. What ID hose is need for this?

Second, how do you know where to set the racking arm height within the fermenter? I installed it parallel to the ground (at a 90 degree angle) and it was still buried in a little bit of trub post fermentation and cold crash, and that was with a saison. If I brewed a DIPA I would have to aim the arm straight up to get it out of the trub I feel like. If anyone has tips on how to use this to maximize yield all while making trnasferring easy, it would be appreciated.
 
I also have a Speidel and modded one of the caps in order to do closed transfers from it, by putting a gas-in ball lock post. This way I can easily pressurize the fermenter prior to cold crashing, and also use it to add pressure while transfering to the keg for counter pressure transfers. It's just a 1/4" hole and the ball lock post, quite easy.
 

Attachments

  • cap1.jpg
    cap1.jpg
    767 KB · Views: 123
  • cap2.jpg
    cap2.jpg
    621.4 KB · Views: 123
I also have a Speidel and modded one of the caps in order to do closed transfers from it, by putting a gas-in ball lock post. This way I can easily pressurize the fermenter prior to cold crashing, and also use it to add pressure while transfering to the keg for counter pressure transfers. It's just a 1/4" hole and the ball lock post, quite easy.

You might want to check out NorCal's website. Jaybird has come up with a whole slew of Speidel upgrades. I've got two 30L fermenters that I've pretty much outgrown. If I hadn't upgraded to stainless conicals a couple years ago I'd be dropping my $$$$ on those toys!

Brooo Brother
 
Upgrading to Racking Arm


IMG_3844.jpg



As you can see the pickup from the Racking Arm fits nicely and gets nice and low in the fermenter. The picture above is on the 60L (15.9g) Speidel and you can see youll be able to pick up atleast another inch worth of beer which could have been about a gallon of loss. I am a big fan of Speidel Fermenters and with a little help from SsBrewTech I was able to turn it into an amazing fermentation vessel. Happy Brewing!


Here is the link to the post on my blog Upgrading Your Speidel Fermenter - CraftBeerTraders

I know this is old, but how has your experience with this been? Does it leak? Can the racking arm reach well above trub and hop matter without clogging?
 
I copied this exact setup and it works beautifully. I've done about 15 batches with the racking arm installed and I've never had a leak. What I do is I start transfer and fermentation with the racking arm facing straight up. Then when I do my transfer to keg I rotate the ball valve which rotates the arm down until I just see a the first signs of trub and then I back off. I rarely transfer any trub to to the keg this way.
 
I copied this exact setup and it works beautifully. I've done about 15 batches with the racking arm installed and I've never had a leak. What I do is I start transfer and fermentation with the racking arm facing straight up. Then when I do my transfer to keg I rotate the ball valve which rotates the arm down until I just see a the first signs of trub and then I back off. I rarely transfer any trub to to the keg this way.
That's awesome. I'm thinking of doing this setup as well and I just wanted to make sure it could reach above the the gunk. Clogging the dip tube is a lesson you don't want to learn first hand, trust me. lol

So you think it would be safe to reach above 6-7 ounces or dry hops in a 6.6 gallon batch?
 
The very first batch I did was a NEIPA with 7 oz dry hops. I clogged my poppit trying to transfer to the keg. However the issue was hops still in suspension, not the racking arms fault. I since started to dry hop in a 5 gallon paint strainer and never had an issue.

Funny enough I'm doing a NEIPA tonight and I plan on dry hopping without the bag again after getting some tips on how to get the hops to settle down to the bottom. As long as you can consistently get your dry hops to settle on the bottom, you should be fine with this setup and no additional tweaks.
 
I also have a Speidel and modded one of the caps in order to do closed transfers from it, by putting a gas-in ball lock post. This way I can easily pressurize the fermenter prior to cold crashing, and also use it to add pressure while transfering to the keg for counter pressure transfers. It's just a 1/4" hole and the ball lock post, quite easy.

I tried to duplicate this setup, but the hole I drilled wasn't so clean, and now it leaks no matter where I put the o-ring or how much I tighten it. The ball lock connector bulkheads I bought from morebeer require a 1/2 inch hole. What's the best way to get a nice clean hole? Use a step bit? I tried to do a gradual step up with twist drill bits, but the larger ones just distorted the hole instead of removing material evenly. Maybe I need to make fixture that keeps the cap material flat against a surface while it's being drilled. Thanks!
 
Thanks - I may need to consider a punch, but I was hoping to use tools I already have. Looking at the hole, I made, I think it should work. I'm thinking maybe the round o-ring that came with the bulk-head just isn't the right type of seal. I tried an o-ring on both sides of the Speidel cap and it still leaks CO2 when I charge the fermenter with 1 to 2 psi. Someone in another thread suggested silicone o-rings. That may be worth trying, or maybe flat o-rings.
 
That's a fair price for one of those. I think 17mm is too big. The bulkhead is a 1/4 BSP thread, which looks to be about 1/2 inch diameter. 13mm would be just right if they had it.

I was thinking OP using a SS Brewtech valve with racking arm, which is 17mm. I see now that you are using a different valve. My bad.

You should be able to get about any size Forstner on Amazon.
 
I've bought from the o-ring store as well. great prices, selection, and reasonable shipping.

I just tried two smaller cross-section silicone o-rings that I had on-hand. So far it seems to be holding the gas in. I'll check in a few hours.
 
Last edited:
Hello Fellow Brewers

Can I adapt this barrel type to use as a Mash Tun by installing a 1500 watt electric immersion heater...joe
 
Back
Top