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You'd need at least 3 of them and 3 additional pumps to handle the chiller and 3 conicals. It'd work, but you'd end up spending more money than just building a BCS based controller. This way you also only have one interface to deal with for administrating the entire system.

Look over your sanitation steps again. There are startup breweries out there using the 10BBL versions of these that are working just fine. I'd highly suggest a spray ball though as it will get cleaner everywhere. I have a lid I use just for a spray ball and PBW. I also have a tri-clover...

I use the rotating one from brewer's hardware. Works like a charm.

Glad to hear it's useful. Between grad school and work I haven't had a ton of time to work on the website lately. I just finished the first part of the controller page though. Hopefully, I'll get some time to draw up wiring diagrams in the near future.

Probably around $2k-$2500. You could cut the price significantly by getting rid of the tri-clover fittings though.

Glad to help. If you end up building one, let me know if you need clarification on any of the instructions.

Right here: http://plasticconical.com/ Haven't had time to finish the controller instructions yet, but everything else is there.

Parts list is available here: http://plasticconical.com/glycol-chiller Any submersible pump around 1/6 HP will work fine. You can go above that, but it's unnecessary. I think I paid ~$40 for the pump I'm using.

I suppose you could do it with 4 STC-1000's, but at that point you're saving ~$80 on the cost of the BCS-460, which would be offset by the extra 3 pumps you'd need to buy. You'd also lose the ability to automate lagering schedules, graph temps over time, and a web interface. You'd have to...

haha, yup. The quick disconnects mean you can also disconnect and fill one of the fermenters while the others are working.

Much better:

Well, it looks like it wasn't the glycol left in the lines causing the drop. The blonde was finished today. I replaced it with an oktoberfest lager and the same thing happened. I think I found out what the problem is though. I think it's the 12V driver card having a bit of signal bleed from a...

The AC unit is really overkill for 3 10 gallon conicals, but it's the smallest unit that's available. I know of at least one brewery using a 14k BTU AC unit to chill 3 10 barrel fermenters. The hysteresis is set to 8 deg F for the glycol to minimize the cycling of the A/C unit. As long as you...

I could, but the curve would change if I changed the glycol temp. As it is, I just set it a degree or two higher than I want it to ferment at and set the hysteresis to 1 degree. Works pretty well. I've slowly been putting together instructions to build one here: http://plasticconical.com/...

the CO2 released by the yeast during fermentation does a pretty good job at keeping the wort moving. So, you shouldn't see any difference between the two. As someone else said, it's probably the age of the beer by the time you get to the second keg.

It's a mixture of ~30% glycol and 70% water. You can keep the temperature around freezing, but at the evaporator coil, it will be significantly below freezing. For instance, for a test run I ran water through the system as I didn't want to waste glycol if there were any leaks. I kept it at 40...

A bit of an update to the project. The decoction hef I did came out great and is being shipped out to competition. We'll see how much of a difference it makes in scores. The system seems to have settled in to a pretty decent rhythm: That's with a czech pils, blonde ale, and weizenbock in the...

Up to ~600lbs after the latest shopping spree at brew brothers. Using it as fast as my fermenters will allow though.

1/4 hp pump circulating PBW via a spray ball. Open the dump valve and racking valve with hoses connected to the bucket the pump is in to circulate water through the fittings. I also take the ball valve on the racking arm apart after every brew and drop it in some pbw for a couple hours...

Working on it. Hef should be ready in about a week :)