american stainless conicals from PA

augiedoggy · Sep 7, 2015

milldoggy said:
Cool, thanks for the info. Added a conical to my Xmas list. I will need to use casters or something. Need to plan this one out. I do have a glycol chiller, so maybe coils.

I do plan on buying 50ft of stainless coil and making 2 top mounted chiller coils to cool two of these... The cooling jackets work great but I would need the extensions (16" in diameter) and the cost with shipping is pushing $100 a piece...

I had to passivate it with bar keepers friend because I had a small spot of rust form overnight from leaving the lid on with starsan solution sitting in the bottom... I will report back on whether I see any rust return.

I will say the conicals have been one of the best upgrades I have done in terms of improvement in the beer quality and ease of use.

BBBF · Sep 8, 2015

augiedoggy said:
I will say the conicals have been one of the best upgrades I have done in terms of improvement in the beer quality and ease of use.

What has improved the quality, just dumping off the trub? I'd like to get one, but my big issue is the step back in temperature control. After several years, I finally invested in a chest freezer to control fermentation temps. It seems like one step forward, two steps back for me.

dmcman73 · Sep 8, 2015

augiedoggy said:
I do plan on buying 50ft of stainless coil and making 2 top mounted chiller coils to cool two of these... The cooling jackets work great but I would need the extensions (16" in diameter) and the cost with shipping is pushing $100 a piece...

I had to passivate it with bar keepers friend because I had a small spot of rust form overnight from leaving the lid on with starsan solution sitting in the bottom... I will report back on whether I see any rust return.

I will say the conicals have been one of the best upgrades I have done in terms of improvement in the beer quality and ease of use.

Where was the rust? Was it on the weld or the area surrounding the weld?

From what I read, rust will appear on or around the weld on Stainless Steel when it was not welded properly by back purging with gas or was welded "to hot" (going to slow while welding), the chromium that keep stainless steel, stainless, is removed and it will continue to rust no matter what you do.

I could be wrong, maybe someone with better Stainless welding experience can chime in.

augiedoggy · Sep 8, 2015

dmcman73 said:
Where was the rust? Was it on the weld or the area surrounding the weld?

From what I read, rust will appear on or around the weld on Stainless Steel when it was not welded properly by back purging with gas or was welded "to hot" (going to slow while welding), the chromium that keep stainless steel, stainless, is removed and it will continue to rust no matter what you do.

I could be wrong, maybe someone with better Stainless welding experience can chime in.

it was not on a weld area... I have read about this too... it looked like surface contamination and has not returned since I cleaned it with bar keepers friend.

augiedoggy · Sep 8, 2015

BBBF said:
What has improved the quality, just dumping off the trub? I'd like to get one, but my big issue is the step back in temperature control. After several years, I finally invested in a chest freezer to control fermentation temps. It seems like one step forward, two steps back for me.

temp control is important but you can easily do it with a conical setup as I do.... I use a cooling jacket on my stout 12.5 gallon fermenter now and it works great... I will likely buy stainless coil and make an immersion coil for the fermenter I have now. as well as the next 2 I plan on buying.. (I setup my chiller with 4 stc1000= controllers and 4 soleniod valves to turn on or off the coolant flow. you can use your chest freezer with a cheap aquarium pump and one of these to keep a conicals temps down.
http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

Yes I believe dumping the trub and more importantly dead yeast as it builds on the bottom is the main thing that has improved my beers... some of them used to get a metallic taste and since using the conical the beers have been clean tasting. I admit I was lazy and didnt transfer to a secondary before (mainly from reading here that it wasnt needed).

dmcman73 · Sep 8, 2015

augiedoggy said:
temp control is important but you can easily do it with a conical setup as I do.... I use a cooling jacket on my stout 12.5 gallon fermenter now and it works great... I will likely buy stainless coil and make an immersion coil for the fermenter I have now. as well as the next 2 I plan on buying.. (I setup my chiller with 4 stc1000= controllers and 4 soleniod valves to turn on or off the coolant flow. you can use your chest freezer with a cheap aquarium pump and one of these to keep a conicals temps down.
http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

Yes I believe dumping the trub and more importantly dead yeast as it builds on the bottom is the main thing that has improved my beers... some of them used to get a metallic taste and since using the conical the beers have been clean tasting. I admit I was lazy and didnt transfer to a secondary before (mainly from reading here that it wasnt needed).

I have to agree with this. Since moving to a conical allowing me to dump trub and dead yeast, it has improved the taste of my beers as well. Not by huge amounts since they tasted good before, but, a cleaner taste. I thought maybe it was a placebo effect after buying the conical but after seeing someone say the same thing tells me it's not.

BBBF · Sep 8, 2015

It is twice the cost of the jacket, but you might be able to fit this through the lid without modification.

http://morewinemaking.com/products/cooling-snake-06-meters.html

augiedoggy · Sep 9, 2015

so I bought 100ft of 3/8" 316 stainless coil for $58 with shipping yesterday and some compression fittings (ebay)... I plan on putting 30ft in each fermenter (doing 3 of them) and using the other 10ft for other projects)

I also discovered this cheap discharge hose as well as the pvc stuff sold at home depot works well when wrapped around the conical.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-5-25-Ft-Discharge-Hose-/330900552367?hash=item4d0b35baaf

there is a youtube video of a guy using the pvc stuff on a stout conical and he lagers with it fine...
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboSC4EI0vs[/ame]

I have a v vessel im going to use it with since the stainless coil wont fit well in the tiny opening.

augiedoggy · Sep 9, 2015

dmcman73 said:
I have to agree with this. Since moving to a conical allowing me to dump trub and dead yeast, it has improved the taste of my beers as well. Not by huge amounts since they tasted good before, but, a cleaner taste. I thought maybe it was a placebo effect after buying the conical but after seeing someone say the same thing tells me it's not.

Curious? you you own a Delorean ? I saw the "DMCman" and it jumped out

dmcman73 · Sep 9, 2015

augiedoggy said:
Curious? you you own a Delorean ? I saw the "DMCman" and it jumped out

Yes, yes I do. I am actually restoring it. As you can see, I'm all about the stainless....lol

augiedoggy · Sep 9, 2015

dmcman73 said:
Yes, yes I do. I am actually restoring it. As you can see, I'm all about the stainless....lol

I was gonna make a stainless joke!

I'm restoring an old 74 stingray I bought a few years ago myself... its almost ready for paint. had a kit car before this one which was fun too..

dmcman73 · Sep 9, 2015

augiedoggy said:
so I bought 100ft of 3/8" 316 stainless coil for $58 with shipping yesterday and some compression fittings (ebay)... I plan on putting 30ft in each fermenter (doing 3 of them) and using the other 10ft for other projects)

I also discovered this cheap discharge hose as well as the pvc stuff sold at home depot works well when wrapped around the conical.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-5-25-Ft-Discharge-Hose-/330900552367?hash=item4d0b35baaf

there is a youtube video of a guy using the pvc stuff on a stout conical and he lagers with it fine...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboSC4EI0vs

I have a v vessel im going to use it with since the stainless coil wont fit well in the tiny opening.

That plastic discharge hose isn't a very good heat exchange. What would be better is copper tubing wrapped around the conical.

augiedoggy · Sep 9, 2015

Yes but then there is also less surface area contact and in my case the v vessel is already plastic. I was also hoping the vinyl wrap would help with insulating properties... I guess it won't hurt to try copper too though and see which performs best

cowboy1 · Sep 15, 2015

augiedoggy said:
I already have a 12.5g stout... I use one of these with a glycol chiller setup which works well.
http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html
I built a 4 port control system with 4 stc1000+ units to control temps alaong with 4 heat bands.

The nice thing about this conical is its only 32" tall and 16" or so in diameter so it would fit in a fridge if needed...

I just run a silicone hose to it from my chiller since they sit less then 5 ft from it. I do believe casters will mount up fine though... it actually has rubber or thick felt feet on it now.

I just bought one of these fermenters today. I have a glycol chiller and looking for cooling ideas.
Are you able to maintain cold crash temps with this jacket? Does the fermenter sweat when cold crashing?

augiedoggy · Sep 16, 2015

cowboy1 said:
I just bought one of these fermenters today. I have a glycol chiller and looking for cooling ideas.
Are you able to maintain cold crash temps with this jacket? Does the fermenter sweat when cold crashing?

Yes it sweats and it does maintain Temps but I just purchased foil bubble insulation to wrap it.

cowboy1 · Sep 16, 2015

augiedoggy said:
Yes it sweats and it does maintain Temps but I just purchased foil bubble insulation to wrap it.

Do you plan to wrap the stand with the insulation or just the fermenter and set it into the stand? I need to figure out how to keep this from dripping when I cold crash or lager. I will have it in my living room on hardwood floors. I plan to have a catch pan but still don't want it to drip all the time.

augiedoggy · Sep 17, 2015

cowboy1 said:
Do you plan to wrap the stand with the insulation or just the fermenter and set it into the stand? I need to figure out how to keep this from dripping when I cold crash or lager. I will have it in my living room on hardwood floors. I plan to have a catch pan but still don't want it to drip all the time.

im hoping the insulation minimizes the sweating but I just plan on wrapping the conical tanks thats why I like having the tanks that pull out of the stand.

cowboy1 · Sep 17, 2015

augiedoggy said:
im hoping the insulation minimizes the sweating but I just plan on wrapping the conical tanks thats why I like having the tanks that pull out of the stand.

I think I want do the same and use a black foam insulation to wrap the fermenter and then after it is in the stand use a small removable wrap with Velcro to cover the stand area. Not to big of a deal Fall - Spring, but Summer in VA can be very humid and a 35 degree fermenter will sweat like crazy. I will have a better idea after it arrives. Thanks for the starting this thread to these fermenters. I think it was a great deal.

cowboy1 · Sep 18, 2015

Purchased on Tuesday and it was on my porch today., very quick for $35.00 shipping. It came well packaged wrapped in a flannel bag and looks to be a good quality product. I will low pressure and vacuum check in the next few days. One thing I have noticed is the outlet valve sits close to the floor may need to set it up on something higher in order to get a trub/yeast collector under it.

wasitim · Sep 21, 2015

I have one of these arriving Friday. I'm looking at punching holes in the top and silver soldering in a couple 1.5" SS couplings to connect the SS coils from one of my 3 plastic conicals.

Has anyone tried silver soldering with these kettles?

Am I correct in assuming these are 2mm thick?

augiedoggy · Sep 21, 2015

wasitim said:
I have one of these arriving Friday. I'm looking at punching holes in the top and silver soldering in a couple 1.5" SS couplings to connect the SS coils from one of my 3 plastic conicals.

Has anyone tried silver soldering with these kettles?

Am I correct in assuming these are 2mm thick?

I actually have 100ft of stainless coil and am considering doing the same thing... I might bite the bullet and have it welded

But before I do any of that I plan on wrapping this around the outside and trying it... http://www.ebay.com/itm/330900552367?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

It came a couple days ago and the vinyl walls are very thin, I seen a video I may have linked earlier where the guy lagers in the summer in his garage using this stuff from the home depot wrapped around a stout conical...

I have a similar material used in the cool-zone jacket I bought for my stout conical.
Yesterday I insulated my stout conical with 2 layers of double bubble reflective foil http://www.ebay.com/itm/251905118937?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

and it works VERY WELL to hold temps and prevent my chiller from constantly running... I set my temp controller down to 55 and it had no problems reaching it quickly and holding it. (And I'm happy to see theres not condensation dripping off of it!) I'm going to brew a vienna lager possible later today.

cowboy1 · Sep 21, 2015

If you are worried about the welding or silver soldering you might look at SS bulkhead fittings you can take them apart to clean them.

augiedoggy · Sep 21, 2015

cowboy1 said:
If you are worried about the welding or silver soldering you might look at SS bulkhead fittings you can take them apart to clean them.

honestly after seeing how well my cool zone cooling jacket cools my stout conical now that I insulated it I think the discharge hose followed by the same insulation will work great and I wont have to deal with cleaning the coil in the fermentor... either way... at least the 100ft of 3/8 stainless coil was ony $60 with shipping.. I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

I have a Vienna lager sitting in my stout conical now at 55 degrees and the chiller stays off for what seems like hours at a time. I took it down to 50 with no issues earlier today and once my glycol arrives I can set my chiller to a colder temp and likely coldcrash and lager in the upper 30s with it.

iijakii · Sep 24, 2015

I just got my two 12.5 American conicals in. They were packaged excellent and the quality looks great. Very happy with them so far.

Have an AC unit I'm turning into a glycol chiller and will try the discharge hose like Auggie and that youtube video. One note is that, yeah, the discharge port is pretty low to the ground.. wish they had just put the legs longer by an inch or two. Don't really feel like spending $20 on a TC 90 elbow. The conical does tilt and rock in the base a bit, so might be fine to just angle it back when dumping so I have more room. Hell, maybe later on I'll fab up a nice stand for both of them + to house my glycol setup.

augiedoggy · Sep 24, 2015

iijakii said:
I just got my two 12.5 American conicals in. They were packaged excellent and the quality looks great. Very happy with them so far.

Have an AC unit I'm turning into a glycol chiller and will try the discharge hose like Auggie and that youtube video. One note is that, yeah, the discharge port is pretty low to the ground.. wish they had just put the legs longer by an inch or two. Don't really feel like spending $20 on a TC 90 elbow. The conical does tilt and rock in the base a bit, so might be fine to just angle it back when dumping so I have more room. Hell, maybe later on I'll fab up a nice stand for both of them + to house my glycol setup.

I just bought two elbows for my two conicals and got them a few days ago...$10 each shipped... took just over a week to arrive.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271436429859?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

BBBF · Sep 25, 2015

If you just need a few more inches, casters would look nice.

augiedoggy · Sep 25, 2015

There is enough space under it for a container to catch dumped yeast without the elbow but the elbow makes it easier.

They made it low so it would fit in many fridge/fermentation chamber setups. (at least thats what the seller said somewhere in the description)

I noticed this conical in the coolzone site now, http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/conical-cooling-jacket.html The unfortunate part is they really made the "conical" jackets for keeping 1 gallon jugs cool and you need 2-3 of these very small expensive jackets compared to the 320sqinches of cooling found in their single original jacket sold for carboys... I guess marketing has won over engineering here since it would take $100 worth of jackets plus adapters to cool one of these conicals correctly...

Hopefully they will see they would sell more if either the pricepoint was more attractive or size of a single unit was large enough to work on its own. the larger one really works well on my stout conical. if I had a way to reliably melt the plastic I could make one of these from a shower curtain.

I wonder how the plastic welding kit from harbor freight would work here

I did get a lot done on my 4 fermenter solenoid valve controlled manifold for my glycol chiller setup yesterday... I hope to be testing it by monday. then I can test the cheap discharge hose idea... I found a # 8 1/2 rubber stopper fits in the end of the hose perfectly so a hoseclamp and some 3/8 copper for a nipple should finish the ends up well.

BBBF · Sep 25, 2015

That's a shame. The cool jackets looked like the best, off the shelf product until hearing you needed 3 of them.

I'l love to know if the peltier plate from stout would fit on this conical. Or maybe the american stainless guy could get something similar made in china.

TxBigHops · Sep 25, 2015

augiedoggy said:
There is enough space under it for a container to catch dumped yeast without the elbow but the elbow makes it easier.

They made it low so it would fit in many fridge/fermentation chamber setups. (at least thats what the seller said somewhere in the description)

I noticed this conical in the coolzone site now, http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/conical-cooling-jacket.html The unfortunate part is they really made the "conical" jackets for keeping 1 gallon jugs cool and you need 2-3 of these very small expensive jackets compared to the 320sqinches of cooling found in their single original jacket sold for carboys... I guess marketing has won over engineering here since it would take $100 worth of jackets plus adapters to cool one of these conicals correctly...

Hopefully they will see they would sell more if either the pricepoint was more attractive or size of a single unit was large enough to work on its own. the larger one really works well on my stout conical. if I had a way to reliably melt the plastic I could make one of these from a shower curtain. I wonder how the plastic welding kit from harbor freight would work here

I did get a lot done on my 4 fermenter solenoid valve controlled manifold for my glycol chiller setup yesterday... I hope to be testing it by monday. then I can test the cheap discharge hose idea... I found a # 8 1/2 rubber stopper fits in the end of the hose perfectly so a hoseclamp and some 3/8 copper for a nipple should finish the ends up well.

augie, you've really got me thinking about one of these conicals, especially now with the cooling jacket talk. I don't have a fermentation chamber, but with the jackets, I don't need one. I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but I'll ask anyway. The cooling jacket is only at the top part of the conical, leaving the bottom of the cone exposed to the warmer ambient air temp. Is this okay because the cooled wort then drops to the bottom of the cone, pushing warmer wort at the bottom up to be cooled? I'm picturing a constant circular flow from the bottom up to the top, then cooled and dropping back to the bottom. I'm also thinking this "flow" probably enhances the overall fermentation of the beer, yes?

augiedoggy · Sep 25, 2015

TxBigHops said:
augie, you've really got me thinking about one of these conicals, especially now with the cooling jacket talk. I don't have a fermentation chamber, but with the jackets, I don't need one. I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but I'll ask anyway. The cooling jacket is only at the top part of the conical, leaving the bottom of the cone exposed to the warmer ambient air temp. Is this okay because the cooled wort then drops to the bottom of the cone, pushing warmer wort at the bottom up to be cooled? I'm picturing a constant circular flow from the bottom up to the top, then cooled and dropping back to the bottom. I'm also thinking this "flow" probably enhances the overall fermentation of the beer, yes?

yes, I wrapped my stout conical in double bubble foil faced insulation and it makes a huge difference...I have 11gallons or Vienna lager fermenting at 51 degrees right now with the conical sitting in a 76 degree room. the chiller does not run much. the yeast activity keeps everything churning.

I have yet to insulate my AHB conical because I'm still experimenting with cooling options like a stainless coil or a discharge hose wrapped around it.. I dont want to spend $100 for 2 of the jackets for one conical and the larger carboy jacket that fits my taller/slimmer stout setup wont fit this conical.

american stainless conicals from PA

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Supporting Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads