Concial fermenter

Hi everyone!!! I am new to the forum but have been lurking around as a non member for a while now. I am new to homebrewing i have my second batch in lager now. But i am here to ask some oppinions. First let me tell you a bit about myself I am a fabricator/welder i do it for a living working for a fab shop. We specialize in stainless steel and aluminum welding and fabrication I do not want to toot my own horn here but i am the best stainless steel guy in my entire shop. And we are the go to shop in the entire state of michigan for stainless ans aluminum welding. I also have my own welding business on the side. I had a though the other day about building my own conical fermenter so i went about pricing the stainless materials to build one and turns out its alog cheaper if i order in bulk although i already knew that it got me thinking. I can order enough material to build 6 13 gallon conical fermenters thats from the bottom of the cone to the brim so i figured 1 or 2 gallon headspace and i could call it a 10 gallon fermenter. The cost for the materials would be about $48 a piece. I know most SS conicals are spun. These ones would be welded construction. I have the machinery and capability to produce sanitary welds throgh out the entire project. I figure once i add all the valves and things that go along with it i would have about $150 into each this way. And could sell them for significantly less Then what they sell for normally so my question is would it be wise for me to build these and sell them? As in do you think people would buy them considering they are welded and not spun? Any thought recommendations you guys have i am happy to listen to.

I'd buy a couple if I were in Michigan! I've wanted a couple conicals for a while, but can't justify the price right now when I have enough carboys for how much I brew.

Well i am going to build them either way seeing as i want one so if your interested i would be able to ship them to you once i get them built im sure we can work something out where it dosnt cost you an arm and a leg for shipping the total dimensions overall would be somewhere around 15" diameter and 24" height without the legs. I am pretty sure i can get a box large enough to fit 2 and ship via fedex. It will be a while before i actually build them though im still in the planning phase at the moment

If the welds are sanitary I don't see the issue. What are you thinking for a lid and connections?
I have been looking at conicals for a while but have never pulled the trigger. A couple of design points to consider.

1. Option to add a stainless coil to be added for internal cooling. (if you do Triclamp you could just use plugs if you don't have the coil)

2. Design the lid so it can support pressurized fermentation's and transfers.

3. IMO, Triclamp is a must for a conical. These items will drive up the cost.

Honestly as far as the triclamp goes my goal here is to build a more affordable SS conical so most likely wouldnt use them. If i had the ability to spin the stainless i would then go with all the bells and whistles but i do not. As far as the coil that could be something i could add. The lid i havnt gotten as far as designing it although i did include the material to make the lids when i got the quote from my local supplier. Any suggestions on that part i will definatly take into consideration. All said and done though im thinking i can build them and be able to sell them for $250 a piece and after checking the math it will be more like 15 gallons from bottom of cone to the brim of the top so for a comparable size its a huge savings if i can keep the price where im thinking.

Bswan0508 said:

Honestly as far as the triclamp goes my goal here is to build a more affordable SS conical so most likely wouldnt use them. If i had the ability to spin the stainless i would then go with all the bells and whistles but i do not. As far as the coil that could be something i could add. The lid i havnt gotten as far as designing it although i did include the material to make the lids when i got the quote from my local supplier. Any suggestions on that part i will definatly take into consideration. All said and done though im thinking i can build them and be able to sell them for $250 a piece and after checking the math it will be more like 15 gallons from bottom of cone to the brim of the top so for a comparable size its a huge savings if i can keep the price where im thinking.

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Sooooo you are going to make conicals with sanitary welds but you aren't going to use triclover fittings?

Weld less fittings have absolutely no business being on conicals.

I am not sure how to take that reponse. Yes i am going to build conicals with sanitary welds and i plan on using cheaper fittings made with stainless i dont see the point in spending more on fittings then the conical itself it would defeat the purpose of what i am trying to do. Some people may not be interested in buying them but the more and more i think of it i know i can produce a Quality conical that will be much cheaper then any other you can buy of a similar size. I love the hobby and i am sure other homebrewers would be much happier buying a conical at the price im thinking i could sell it for rather then shell out 500 on a spun conical. And of course i am sure there will be the other end of the spectrum that wont even think of buying it. To each there own but i am not a person who has the financial capability of spending thousands to get my home brewery the way i want it.

You should never let someone tell you how to run your business. Certainly there are a few things that you should take into consideration:

1) What size ports are you planning on adding?
2) Drain Port and Sample Port?
3) Support Legs with or without extensions?
4) Jacketed or Cooling Coil Options?
5) Lid with ability to do pressurized transfers
6) Welded Thermowell Port

These are just a few that I can think of right off the top of my head, but you can see the ideas.

Bswan0508 said:

I am not sure how to take that reponse. Yes i am going to build conicals with sanitary welds and i plan on using cheaper fittings made with stainless i dont see the point in spending more on fittings then the conical itself it would defeat the purpose of what i am trying to do.

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My $0.02 - I have two 100L wine tanks that have NPT ports. I hate having to unthread the valves to sanitize and remember where I left the teflon tape every time I use them. I think TC is worth the added expense for a SS fermenter that will last my lifetime. Ferrules aren't too expensive and if someone doesn't want to spend the money on a TC valve, they can get a TC to NPT adapter and add their own ball valve.

Either way, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Just my opinion. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Build one. Then get back to us...with lots of pictures...

Cheers!

I am currently in the market for 2 or 3 conicals, but can't get over the idea of spending north of $600 each. I'd be interested in a couple, if you can do 17-20 gal conicals. PM me if you think you have the material for it, and we can see what we come up with.

A solution would be to build the conical units with 1.5" triclover ferrules welded for trub port (vertically mounted at the bottom of the cone), drain/sample port (1/2 to 2/3 up the cone), and thermowell. Then folks can attach whatever racking arms, valves, fittings, etc they want...

jmitchell3 said:

A solution would be to build the conical units with 1.5" triclover ferrules welded for trub port (vertically mounted at the bottom of the cone), drain/sample port (1/2 to 2/3 up the cone), and thermowell. Then folks can attach whatever racking arms, valves, fittings, etc they want...

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100% this. You aren't going to increase the price of your conicals by thousands..... maybe an increase of 50-100 bucks (cost of ferrules + added labor cost paid to you) and it will make your conicals much more desirable. All of us know that Santitation is one of the most important steps in brewing.... why even bother with sanitary welds if you go half ass on the fittings.

(This is probably how I should of worded my first reply)

Yeah i am now thinking the the same way. I will be building a 22 gal for brentk14 and will take pictures of the entire process and post them here. And i am going to use the TC fittings on it.

I might be interested in a 7.5 gallon one

Jmitchell3 i can do that pm me if you are serious we can work out a price once i figure out dimensions and materials needed.

I would be interested in a 13 gallon with TC fittings.

I'd be very interested. If it had 1.5" tri-clamp fittings, one on the bottom of cone for yeast dump, one on side of cone for transferring to keg, and one on lid for blow off tube. A thermowell port would be nice to. The ferrules are cheap should be pretty easy to weld.

The will all have tc ferrules and you will possibly have the option to buy the valves from me too at a cheaper price i am working on sourcing them now.

I am interested in keeping an eye on this. I just had a friend help me weld/fabricate up two stainless fermenters based on 7.75 tall pony kegs. Cut a hole/welded a 4" TC ferrule into the bottom of the keg and then added 4x NPT threadings to a 4" TC cap for a dip tube, pressure release valve, thermowell, and gas in/out. I wonder how much it would take to swap all of those NPT fittings to TC ferrules...but thats probably a project for another day.

Looking forward to updates, costs, and pictures. Very interested, especially if a thirteen gallon one would fit in my fridge.

Also very interested to see how this turns out. Being from Michigan this is almost to good to be true As other have mentioned though would want the tc fittings. Basically I would be looking for similar to what is commercially available (nothing fancy, just the economical versions) just cheaper!

have you seen where Yuri did this? I think he ordered stainless funnels from a place in Toledo?

cheers!

If you can get the name of the company ill look into it although i will more then likely build the cones myself as it will probably be cheaper. Also I will be using different diameters for different size fermenters so unless they have a wide selection of sizes it may not be of much help.

Jif said:

Looking forward to updates, costs, and pictures. Very interested, especially if a thirteen gallon one would fit in my fridge.

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I am not sure how big your fridge is but it may be possible if i had some dimensions to work with.

jmitchell3 said:

I might be interested in a 7.5 gallon one

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Bswan0508 said:

Jmitchell3 i can do that pm me if you are serious we can work out a price once i figure out dimensions and materials needed.

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I might be interested in a 7.5 gallon one also. Depending on price of course. Maybe even two. I was just eyeing the SS Brewtech 7 gallon bucket when I remembered this thread.

Did you guys figure out a price and the dimensions for the 7.5 gallon conical? If you did, would you mind posting it here or do you want me to PM you?

Lastley, where in Michigan are you located? I am here in West Michigan. I was born and raised 20 miles south of Detroit and then moved to the West side of the state in 1996. I work in Grand Rapids but live in a small town about 20 miles from Lake Michigan.

laredo7mm said:

I might be interested in a 7.5 gallon one also. Depending on price of course. Maybe even two. I was just eyeing the SS Brewtech 7 gallon bucket when I remembered this thread.

Did you guys figure out a price and the dimensions for the 7.5 gallon conical? If you did, would you mind posting it here or do you want me to PM you?

Lastley, where in Michigan are you located? I am here in West Michigan. I was born and raised 20 miles south of Detroit and then moved to the West side of the state in 1996. I work in Grand Rapids but live in a small town about 20 miles from Lake Michigan.

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I was thinking 8 gallons wouldn't be too big for a 5 gallon batch (5.5-6 in fermenter?)

jmitchell3 said:

I was thinking 8 gallons wouldn't be too big for a 5 gallon batch (5.5-6 in fermenter?)

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I think that 8 gallons would be perfect. I have almost bought the Speidel 30L fermenters a couple of times but I really like the thought of using stainless, but the price is usually a turn off. My only dimensional requirements are 29" or less in height and 17" (14" would be ideal so I could fit three wide in my ferm chamber) or less in diameter so I might have to forgo the bottom dump valve assembly and have some shorter legs.

I brew 5 gallon batches but start with 6 gallons. A half gallon loss from kettle to carboy and another half gallon loss from carboy to keg, I end up with 5 gallons. 5.5 gallons or so in a 6 gallon better bottle is really tight. I like my wheat beer with WY3068 so a blow off tube is required. I think last time I lost about a liter due to blow off.

I really despise racking in general. If the stainless conical has a loss of 0.75 gallons, hell, even 1 gallon, it would be a small price to pay to not have to rack from carboy to keg. I have been overshooting my OG numbers lately anyway so I could just add a bit more water in the beginning to make up for any extra dead space in the fermentor and not miss my OG.

Can't wait to see these, I would probably be interested in the larger ones.

laredo7mm said:

I think that 8 gallons would be perfect. I have almost bought the Speidel 30L fermenters a couple of times but I really like the thought of using stainless, but the price is usually a turn off. My only dimensional requirements are 29" or less in height and 17" (14" would be ideal so I could fit three wide in my ferm chamber) or less in diameter so I might have to forgo the bottom dump valve assembly and have some shorter legs.

I brew 5 gallon batches but start with 6 gallons. A half gallon loss from kettle to carboy and another half gallon loss from carboy to keg, I end up with 5 gallons. 5.5 gallons or so in a 6 gallon better bottle is really tight. I like my wheat beer with WY3068 so a blow off tube is required. I think last time I lost about a liter due to blow off.

I really despise racking in general. If the stainless conical has a loss of 0.75 gallons, hell, even 1 gallon, it would be a small price to pay to not have to rack from carboy to keg. I have been overshooting my OG numbers lately anyway so I could just add a bit more water in the beginning to make up for any extra dead space in the fermentor and not miss my OG.

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Yeah, I do the same for volumes!

laredo7mm said:

I might be interested in a 7.5 gallon one also. Depending on price of course. Maybe even two. I was just eyeing the SS Brewtech 7 gallon bucket when I remembered this thread.

Did you guys figure out a price and the dimensions for the 7.5 gallon conical? If you did, would you mind posting it here or do you want me to PM you?

Lastley, where in Michigan are you located? I am here in West Michigan. I was born and raised 20 miles south of Detroit and then moved to the West side of the state in 1996. I work in Grand Rapids but live in a small town about 20 miles from Lake Michigan.

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i do not have a price figured out for a 7.5 gallon yet but i can tell you the 20 gallon ones i am building now are 15" diameter and 32" height without the legs i realize this is probably going to be top heavy which i am going to compensate for by mounting the legs higher and i am actually thinking i am going to weld tapped pads on so the legs can be bolted instead of welded this way if you wanted shorter legs or longer it wouldn't be hard to change. The price i have figured on the 20 gallons is $400-$450. But off the top of my head i would say the selling price for the 7.5 gallon would be around $250-$275. I have started building them and will upload pictures a little later this evening so everyone can see the progress.

And to answer your question i live about an hour north of Detroit near Port Huron.

laredo7mm said:

I think that 8 gallons would be perfect. I have almost bought the Speidel 30L fermenters a couple of times but I really like the thought of using stainless, but the price is usually a turn off. My only dimensional requirements are 29" or less in height and 17" (14" would be ideal so I could fit three wide in my ferm chamber) or less in diameter so I might have to forgo the bottom dump valve assembly and have some shorter legs.

I brew 5 gallon batches but start with 6 gallons. A half gallon loss from kettle to carboy and another half gallon loss from carboy to keg, I end up with 5 gallons. 5.5 gallons or so in a 6 gallon better bottle is really tight. I like my wheat beer with WY3068 so a blow off tube is required. I think last time I lost about a liter due to blow off.

I really despise racking in general. If the stainless conical has a loss of 0.75 gallons, hell, even 1 gallon, it would be a small price to pay to not have to rack from carboy to keg. I have been overshooting my OG numbers lately anyway so I could just add a bit more water in the beginning to make up for any extra dead space in the fermentor and not miss my OG.

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Also i could build one at 14" diameter and 16" height from bottom of cone to top would give you roughly 8 gallons.

Sorry guys didnt get a chance to upload pictures yesterday but here are a couple

this one is after the material rolled


and this is a close up of the welds these are not finished and will be cleaned up but to get an idea of what the welds look like inside the fermenter

I will upload more later once they are cleaned up. I also realize the pictuee quality isnt very good the camera on my phone isnt very good. Ill try to get better pictures

I'd be very interested in a 20 gallon stainless conical for $400 :rocking:

This is the place that spins them. https://www.toledometalspinning.com

PS: the Pics (above) failed to upload

The pics are showing fine for me are they still not showing?

I don't see any pictures

No images here either. Tried 3 different browsers.

I can see them

Sorry guys its weird i can see them perfectly fine ill upload them to google photos and provide the link here