Super Simple 15G Plastic Conical

These conical's are are but impossible to find here in Europe. Does anyone know of a supplier on this side of the world that makes these? All we have so far that I know is SS conical's and they start in price at Euro 1000.

 

ordered mine a week ago today - havent been able to get any update via the order page on the status. figured it was just 'cause its dropshipped from the manufacturer. emailed customer service at ruralking today and got this response -

Hello,

This item is shipped directly from Ace Roto Mold. The estimated shipping date we have received from our Representative is April 10th, 2012

thats 18 days from order to ship?

hmmmmmm. I've been holding off on brewing till this gets in, might have to go ahead and brew.

 

I'm sure if you called the company they would ship to Europe granted you may pay more for shipping

 

I really want to order this but I am in the military and stationed in Spain. Does anyone know the shipping dimensions, because I can only ship USPS?

 

I really want to order this but I am in the military and stationed in Spain. Does anyone know the shipping dimensions, because I can only ship USPS?

 

FYI - email from Ruralking RE leadtime on conical orders.



With Ace Roto Mold tanks it can take a 2-3 Week Lead Time.

 

Thanks everyone. I love this thing. I also like to whirlpool my wort prior to putting in the fermenter but this time I wasn't so picky about getting some trub in the fermenter since I figured it would just fall into the sightglass to dump within the first 24 hours to reconnect the sightglass. Once I reconnected the sight glass and let the air bubble go up through the hardware and conical it actually knocked some more trub down that I guess was too thick to go through the hardware. It was minimal so on the next brew I am going to be a little more thorough with leaving behind the trub. I am mainly using the conical to collect the yeast.

 

The conical fits right in the corner of the closet so the doors are always closed. I also keep all of my carboys in there uncovered and never had a problem. It's basically dark all the time until I work with the beer. I am submitting the Zythos IPA to a contest on Saturday. We will see how the first conical batch does. Can't wait. :rockin:

 

That thing is so cool! Good job!

 

whis121 - can you give us a measurement from the lowest plastic point to the lowest point of your yeast catcher?

I'm using a different stand, and I'm interested if it would fit as is.

granted the yeast catcher is more than 2x the cost of the tank itself - but dangit, that thing is just too damn cool to not at least think about it!

great job!

 

I made a yeast catcher out of PVC as shown in this thread. It fits to the conical via an NPT to triclover adapter and has a volume of one quart.

I do 11.25 gallon batches to fill a firkin. Using S-04 yeast, I collect about 1.75 quarts per batch. I save the middle layer which is collected from the droppings of the butterfly valve and from the neck of the yeast catcher from the first yeast dump.

If the sight glass form factor is a must, it would be cheaper to copy this....


http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/new-conical-set-up-what-do-you-think-279614/index2.html#post3480471


A 16.5" length of 1.5" diameter tubing would have a volume of 16 ounces.

 

yeah, i've made the PVC thats right at a qt - but i really like the TC approach. think it could give a lot of flexibility and a lot less worry about sanitation.

PVC for now - conical should arrive today - big brew night on friday.

If it works, i'll post up picks of the stand i found/made.

 

Conical arrived last night - squeezed it into the gutted fridge.

Had an old fridge that used to be my kegerator and part time fermentation chamber. It's been replaced with a keezer. So I gutted it to see if I could fit the conical in. With some mods (removed freezer/fridge divider, coil shroud and moved the stat and fan) I can squeeze the conical in.

The stand is a patio table from garden ridge for $20 and I needed to extend the legs for my fittings - 1in sch40 and we're in business. Popped the glass out of the table and it is the perfect size for the tank.

I'll pretty it up a bit later, but tomorrow it'll have it's first brew in it!

 

Nice idea!

I found a link for what appears to be the same table.

http://www.wayfair.com/Atlantic-Outdoor-18-Glass-End-Table-50102-TNR1231.html?refid=FR49-TNR1231

 

Just recieved my conical yesterday, using it for Friday brewday

 

Brewing our 4th batch using this conical this weekend. My process is to ferment, rinse with hot water, soak with PBW for at least 24 hours, rinse again and fill with Starsans to sanitize (I reuse the PBW and Starsans for kegs and other brew days as much as possible). Scrubby never touches the tank...

I bought the plastic conical largely for economic reasons - by my calculations I can buy ~2 1/2 replacements before I spent the same thing on stainless! Based on the my process, how long do you think I'll be able to use the same fermenter until my first infection(I'm assuming that the probability increases as the plastic ages and cracks appear creating new bug condos)? Any suggestions for improving my process?

 

Sorry I have been away a while, had training at work so haven't signed on. Haha. I'll take the measurements tonight and post it. I also recently put casters on it and the only heavy thing I have had to pick up lately is the keg or a carboy to cold crash, if needed.

BTW I have to say good find on table, anonymousbrew. I searched for a while and just said screw it and went with the stand from RuralKing.

 

just bought a CIP spray ball and a long thermowell from brewershardware. I'm planning on sealing the lid with weather stripping as shown in this thread as soon as the Kolsch is racked to keg.

looking forward to running some hot oxy through the spray ball and being able to control based on the internal liquid temp vs extrapolating off of ambient inside the fridge. I'll post up pics of the sealed lid with thermowell and sprayball when done.

 

Sorry the picture isn't that great but I took it as I was leaving to go to work and didn't check it after I took it. At a glance it looked ok so I left. From the ground up to the bottom of the sight glass is 7" then it is another 10" to the bottom plastic of the conical. Total space from the ground to the bottom plastic is 17". You can see one of the casters in the picture which is something I would suggest to anyone who has a conical to get if your setup allows mobility.

P.S. I absolutely love the TriClover fittings. They make everything soooo easy.

 

Hey everybody,

I just got the conical and I am trying to figure out how to set it up. I planned on getting SS fittings for the bottom as there were concerns about byproducts from the conical before it was determined to be safe. I notice however, that quite a few of you use PVC instead. Do you notice anything "off" from using pvc?

Also how do you run your ferments? After a lot of digging through the threads I have noticed someone say to just leave the valve open during fermentation(makes sense that the trub would just collect in the catch) and other people say they do a dump at such and such times.

So is it best to let the valve stay open and then close it after X amount of time or to leave it closed then dump and air bubble?

 

Just filled mine for the first time today, 10 gal Blonde Ale, i just left my valve open to collect in the pvc catcher. Used harvested Bell's Oberon yeast, can't wait to try it!

 

If you close it then you would be creating a lot of pressure in it and I have a sight glass which would probably bust. Mine stays open. I allow the trub to collect till the next morning (I do night brews) then close the valve, dump the trub, Clean, sanitize, connect sight glass, open valve which lets a bubble go through but doesn't bother the fermentation since this all happens within the first 12-18 hours. The yeast collects nicely in the sight glass. Be sure there are no hops in the conical from the kettle bc it will clog the path through the valve. I whirlpool then strain the last part if I am low on wort during the transfer from the kettle to conical.

 

Thanks whis. That is exactly what I was looking for.

 

HIGHLIGHTED POSTS

from this very thread....

Interesting Links...

- http://www.northchautauquahomebrewers.com/ferment/ferment.htm
- http://www.norwesco.com/page.cfm?menu=63
- http://newstore.vvessel.com/proddetail.php?prod=VVS001

 

subscribed

 

Thank you for the collective post, I've been neglecting this thread since I started my automated design. It is amazing what do it yourself first to do on a budget

 

Fantastic thread. Subscribed!

 

Great thread! I'm just getting back to brewing and will be doing 22 gal batches. I'll be making one of these fermenters in the future. Walk in cooler build must come first though. That'll get done sometime this summer.

 

I ordered two 60 gallon inductors. I requested the model with full drain and a 1.5 inch fpt connection at the bottom. I ended up receiving the version with the 2 inch mpt. I wanted to send them back but they told me to keep them since shipping was so high. Anyway, I'll see what I can do with these, even if they are not ideal (they are also 30 inches in diameter instead of 24). I had purchased fittings for the 1.5 inch fpt (1.5 inch mpt to 1.5 inch tri-clamp). Any ideas of fittings I could use to attach to the tank's 2 inch mpt to get me to 1.5 inch tri-clamp?

 

2" FPT x 1.5" FPT reducing coupling

or 2" coupling and a 2" MPT x 1.5" FPT bushing

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Reducing-Coupling-1LTU4

or
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Coupling-1LRZ4
and
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Hex-Bushing-1LTH1

 

Well I was hoping to have mine set up this weekend but the tank was backordered at Agrimart plus the tri clover cap was backordered at Brewers Hardware so it held up that order. But the Bargain Fitting's order cane super fast as usual!

 

After researching I discovered that they do make 2 inch female npt to 1.5 inch tri-clamp adapters (rare) or you can use 2 inch female npt to 2 inch triclamp adapters mated to a 2 inch to 1.5 inch tri-clamp reducer. I'll go one of those routes.

 

For those not doing tri-clamps, I just came upon this deal for poly valves.
http://www.fairbankequipment.com/in...,Valves,Banjo.Valves,Banjo.Bolted.Ball.Valves
I think they screwed up on the pricing, but they just sold me 2 for $18 each yesterday, and shipped them today. From Wichita to Omaha with some other fittings thrown in, shipping was $14, so not cheap but not rapacious. That's still $25 each delivered to my doorstep.

 

I'm considering building one of these (15g version), but I'm also considering building a fermentation chamber based on some form of heating and a dorm fridge. A couple questions:

- Does anybody foresee any issue with using a dorm fridge for a space large enough to house one of these tanks at lagering temperatures? It will be located in my basement, which stays in the high 60s in the summer.

- Ultimately, I would like to have a two-section ferm chamber, with the side closer to the fridge used for lagering, and the side further away used for ales. I plan on using controlled fans to direct air from one side to the other. Would this kill my fridge?

 

My first batch was great success. I think my yeast catcher was too small as I ended up clogging the valve with yeast/trub even after removing the yeast catcher at 5 days. I need to install a racking valve, I had to blow co2 up the valve to open a hole to tranfer which was no fun. Beer tastes great though!

 

Anyone looking for a way to cool these conicals, check out our solution. It has maintained temps within our temp range of 63 +/- 1 F for the past 3 days now. Ambient temps have been in the 80's. Will be modifying it soon though with a dorm fridge instead of a cooler.
Thoughts?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/15-gallon-conical-fermenter-cooling-system-333151/

 

I used a fair sized fridge (top freezer type) I picked up off of Craigslist, though had to look at one or two before I found one that would fit the 19" (IIRC) diameter. I had to remove the plastic panel from the inside of the door. That is just screwed to the door with multiple several sheet metal screws, so removing it was tedious, not hard. There is not a lot of clearance vertically without removing the divider between the freezer and the fridge, but I get by. Actually, I have two of these now ($50 &$60). I had to fabricate stands for the conical to fit the bottom of each fridge. This means two temperature controllers, but it also means that I am certain that the fridge can deliver the goods, and that primary fermentation or lagering are at their desired temperatures. If you haunt Craigslist a while, I suspect you can get to this point without much more cost than the dorm fridge plus lumber, insulation, hinges and latch and weatherstripping for your fabricated door, and so on, as well as time and hassle and the seemingly inevitable "gotchas" accompanying such projects.

 

I wheel mine into a pantry that will have a window ac some day, for now I just put a cooler full of Ice in the pantry to keep temps down. works pretty good until I can find a cheap AC unit.

 

How thick are the walls of these? Any chance of chilling/heating with a jacket?

 

walls are pretty thick, i would think that a jacket would be pretty inefficient.

I dropped a thermowell ( http://www.brewershardware.com/16-Stainless-Steel-Thermowell.html ) through the lid of mine and simply sealed it with an o-ring.

use the ebay temp control on a full sized fridge with the divider between the freezer/fridge removed (so its just one big box). Works GREAT at keeping temps and because i'm measuring the wort temp vs air temp, i know whats going on inside, and the thermal mass of 12Gals keeps things from cycling too fast.

I would think you could do the same thing with a well insulated box using a dorm fridge. I also have a big fan i put in the bottom thats tied into the power of the fridge so that anytime the compressors running, the fan is REALLY moving the air around in there. Noticed a big difference in cool down times when i added that.