Love my speidels, but...

morning everyone,

I have a 2 stage question


Anyone who has used speidel fermenters probably liked them for one reason or another. I like both of mine very much... Until my recent batch where I ended up with a ton of sediment from double dry hopping with whole cone.
I knew what I was getting myself into but now I'm second guessing myself for buying the 2nd speidel vs that conical I was eyeballing a year ago.

I don't brew every batch with whole cone but it was annoying enough to have the spigot continuously blocked in the fermenter.

Has anyone ever left their speidel for a decent conical and missed the speidel. (my main concern is trub separation and ease of use)


Has anyone created anything for the speidel to keep trub separated from the spigot?

Look up "Speidel stainless racking arm". Basically, you buy the stainless racking arm from SS Brew Tech and mount it in the cap of your Speidel, and replace the stock spigot. Then you can rotate the arm above the trub layer. I've done it on all three of mine, along with replacing the included airlock with a 2-hole rubber stopper for a thermowell and airlock. Never been happier! If you need a second cap (long-term storage?), they're about $5.

eulipion2 said:

Look up "Speidel stainless racking arm". Basically, you buy the stainless racking arm from SS Brew Tech and mount it in the cap of your Speidel, and replace the stock spigot. Then you can rotate the arm above the trub layer. I've done it on all three of mine, along with replacing the included airlock with a 2-hole rubber stopper for a thermowell and airlock. Never been happier! If you need a second cap (long-term storage?), they're about $5.

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I've done this as well, and also try these http://arborfab.com/Dry-Hoppers_c_15.html

Whaaat! I didn't even know that was an option. Thanks for the help

eulipion2 said:

Look up "Speidel stainless racking arm". Basically, you buy the stainless racking arm from SS Brew Tech and mount it in the cap of your Speidel, and replace the stock spigot. Then you can rotate the arm above the trub layer. I've done it on all three of mine, along with replacing the included airlock with a 2-hole rubber stopper for a thermowell and airlock. Never been happier! If you need a second cap (long-term storage?), they're about $5.

Click to expand...

After just having finished a 100% brett fermented IPA that had 200g of dry hops (close to 400g total) in a 6 gallon batch I was looking into this due to the crazy amount of trub/sediment that prevented me from using my spigot. It was not fun breaking out the old auto siphon that day.

My question though is how do you see inside the Speidel to know where to position the racking arm?

drgonzo2k2 said:

My question though is how do you see inside the Speidel to know where to position the racking arm?

Click to expand...

I usually set my racking arm so that when the spigot is straight (with the on/off knob on top) the arm is straight out to the right. So for example, if I rotate the spigot 90° to the left the arm should be pointing straight up. I don't usually need to rotate that much, and usually end up rotating back down toward the trub as the fermenter empties.

Not sure if that answered your question entirely, so I'll add some more. On my Speidels (so I assume yours as well) I can see the trub layer, so if I know about how the arm is positioned with regard to the valve I can estimate how far to rotate the arm.

eulipion2 said:

Not sure if that answered your question entirely, so I'll add some more. On my Speidels (so I assume yours as well) I can see the trub layer, so if I know about how the arm is positioned with regard to the valve I can estimate how far to rotate the arm.

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Thank you very much! Yes that does make sense. I will definitely be giving this a try on one of my Speidels to see how it works out.

For a step by step https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=449546

Thanks, I'll be giving this mod a shot soon!

NorCal brewing has also made a bunch of full stainless parts for the Spiedels including a racking arm, a racking arm with thermowell, blow off cap with and without thermowell, etc. I'm waiting until he finishes his custom gasket before I order but people seem happy with them as is

I saw those when they first came out. My only complaint was that you couldn't rotate the racking arm. Have they made a rotating arm?

You can rotate it the same way you can rotate the stock valve. Just loosen the cap until it can turn. It's the reason I'm waiting for his captive gasket as it seems some people have had sealing issues with the stock one

Completed this modification yesterday, pretty darn happy with it.

Here it is next to the SS Brewtech thermowell that I've also installed in my Speidels:





FYI I could not get a good seal on the inside with the included O-ring no matter how much I fiddled with it. I ended up going with a 1/2" ID, 3/32" width O-ring that I had laying around for my Blichmann kettle, and that did the trick.

It seemed to always want to bulge out from the Hex nut, preventing a seal. I had a bit of a problem like this when installing the thermowells previously, but I was eventually to get it to seal with the included O-ring. No problem at all with the seal on the outside though.

For reference, here is the specific McMaster-Carr part I used.

For the installation I just drilled a 1/2" hole right in the center of the cap where the little divot is. Then I used a small hand file to widen it a bit. Took all of about 5 minutes.

Have you tried propping up the fermenter during fermentation?
I just wedge a scrap 2x4 under the spigot side and the sediment settles away from the spigot pretty well.
I was able to drain 99%+ of the last batch, straight through the liquid post.
But, I usually dry hop in kegs so that helps but I have had success dry hopping in the fermenter and following up with a cold crash.
It would be beneficial mod or no mod.

Jwin said:

Have you tried propping up the fermenter during fermentation?
I just wedge a scrap 2x4 under the spigot side and the sediment settles away from the spigot pretty well.
I was able to drain 99%+ of the last batch, straight through the liquid post.
But, I usually dry hop in kegs so that helps but I have had success dry hopping in the fermenter and following up with a cold crash.
It would be beneficial mod or no mod.

Click to expand...

Well, no, because that would be much easier and cheaper than drilling holes into your expensive fermenter!

Last week...
I just put the 2x4 opposite the spigot once the liquid level neared the spigot.
This batch got full trub in the fermenter as well

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