american stainless conicals from PA

dmcman73 said:

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

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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..

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.

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

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

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.

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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?

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?

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

augiedoggy said:

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

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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?

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?

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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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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

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

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.

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.

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.

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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?

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?

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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.

augiedoggy said:

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.

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Thanks augie. Yes, I've seen your links to other products you're using, but having trouble picturing exactly what you're doing with them. Any chance you could post some photos, or direct me to other threads that discuss how to do this? So are you saying that in addition to the cooling jacket wrapped around the conical, that you also have insulation wrapped around that? Is it wrapped around the lower cone as well? Sorry if these are ignorant questions. I brew in a carboy and a swamp cooler right now, but would really like to get a handle on ferm temps to make better beer and to be able to brew in warm weather and maybe even take on a lager some day! I've considered spending up to $400 on a used commercial refrigerator, but even then it would still require additional $$ for modifications. $100 bucks for a couple of cooling jackets sounds pretty reasonable in comparison!

The tubing, glycol, insulation, sub pumps, AC unit etc adds up quick -- if you're aiming for a budget then carboys or buckets in a used CL fridge/chest freezer is the way to go.

iijakii said:

The tubing, glycol, insulation, sub pumps, AC unit etc adds up quick -- if you're aiming for a budget then carboys or buckets in a used CL fridge/chest freezer is the way to go.

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I definitely don't have an unlimited budget, if that's what you mean, but don't mind spending some money on my beloved hobby. I do want to move up from carboys to a stainless steel conical, but I want to explore more options than just putting it in a temp controlled fridge. Fridge or freezer takes up a lot of space, whether it's being used or not. Jacketed conical can be stored away more easily when it's not being used. I'm here to learn.

well heres my take on it... I lucked out with a free commercial chiller being tossed at work... BUT, you can easily buy a $50 craigslist window ac unit and remove the condenser, set it in a cooler full of glycol/water mixed (right now im only using water but just got glycol 2 days ago to add.) you then can use a $20 aquarium pump from harbor freight or online to circululate the coolant through the cooling coils or jacket. you will also need a temp controller like the $38 inkbird or a diy stc1000 build like I did.

I went a little more nuts and built a control panel with 4 stc1000+ units attached to 4 - $3 solenoid valves that are all plumbed into the same pvc manifold so whichever conical needs to be cooled has its own valve which opens and a common pump for all 4 pumps coolant through the manifold pipe causing just that conical or conicals that the the corespomnding temp controllers are asking for to have coolant flow. I also have 4 band heaters which plug in for each conical that I may need in the winter.

that said you could if your frugal control temps on one conical for under $100 bucks with the diy chiller or even cheaper if you just use frozen 2 liter jugs in an ice water bath for the pump... thats what many do but that method needs maintenance to swap out bottles every day.

Look at this Budget setup...[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboSC4EI0vs[/ame]

I bought the hose to try this for $10 here... http://www.ebay.com/itm/330900552367?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
and used this insulation which is like 5 times more than needed for one conical its easy to install with foil faced tape and scissors. http://www.ebay.com/itm/251905118937?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

these are the solenoid valves I used http://www.ebay.com/itm/251775467278?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT you do need a 24v dc for them though.


the real advantage to a glyol setup over a freezer conversion is expandibility to add more fermentors to the setup.

Here is my glycol chiller built from a dehumidifier, you need something like this and a temp controller to turn on the pump to push glycol through the cooling jacket

View attachment 1443232250508.jpg

Nice setup! I just got the bulk of mine done this morning:





Need to try and bend the copper some more so the two units are flush, but think I'll need an extra pair of hands. Then build a base of some sort for them, and maybe a cover for the AC... original one no longer fits with the copper bent up and out. And of course insulation and bulkheads for my pond pump, return.

Using a dehumidifier made reassembly a little easier

View attachment 1443323939161.jpg

Augie,

Have you made any progress on yours? I wrapped mine with heat tape just now:



Was hoping to get it more towards the bottom but getting it to lay flat on the cone was impossible. Same with the hose:



I haven't attached it, just loosely coiled around. Not working on the cone section. I'll try to get this to work, and maybe with the insulation it'll be fine, but I might have to scrap it and just coil some silicone tubing around and tape it in place. Since I'm planning on still doing 5gal batches a lot of the time in these I don't want to have the cooling just on the top half. But with convection and insulation maybe it'll be fine just applying it to the top. Hell, people do peltiers with just a tiny heatsink...

iijakii said:

Augie,

Have you made any progress on yours? I wrapped mine with heat tape just now:

Was hoping to get it more towards the bottom but getting it to lay flat on the cone was impossible. Same with the hose:

I haven't attached it, just loosely coiled around. Not working on the cone section. I'll try to get this to work, and maybe with the insulation it'll be fine, but I might have to scrap it and just coil some silicone tubing around and tape it in place. Since I'm planning on still doing 5gal batches a lot of the time in these I don't want to have the cooling just on the top half. But with convection and insulation maybe it'll be fine just applying it to the top. Hell, people do peltiers with just a tiny heatsink...

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I just tested my discharge hose setup.... very effective! I used #8 1/2 stoppers jammed in each end with a 2" piece of 3/8" copper tubing as a homemade barbed fitting. and put a hose clamp around the outside to compress everything.

One this though that I kind of thought would happen. The hose blows up when filled quite a bit. I'll have to insulate leaving space for this expansion.

you do not need hose wrapped around the cone area... When fermentation occurs everything churns around.

I only use one thin wrapped layer around the base right above the cone to apply heat tape... I fine a lot is not needed.

my homemade 4 port manifold with the $2.19 solenoid valves works well too!! very excited. I just have to pick up some pipe insulation tomorrow as its sweating pretty bad.


looks like I bought 100ft of 3/8 stainless tubing for nothing

Nice, glad to hear. My worries is that on a 5gal batch it wont be up above the cone too much, but I havent measured how much that holds. Probably only a few gallons and my fears are overblown.

I'll wrap it around just the top and test it out soon. I somehow dont have any 1.2" tubing on hand to test it out. You just using silicone? Not sure if it's worth worrying about what kind of hose can handle single digit temps.

So you leave your pump running at all times and have the manifold open/close? I'm only running two conicals so I might just buy a second pump instead for $20. Probably spend half that on pipe fittings to make a manifold. Then the extra electricity...

Also, definitely happy to hear the hose balloons when filled. I was worried when it was wrapped around it'd constrict too much.

iijakii said:

Augie,

Have you made any progress on yours? I wrapped mine with heat tape just now:

Was hoping to get it more towards the bottom but getting it to lay flat on the cone was impossible. Same with the hose:

I haven't attached it, just loosely coiled around. Not working on the cone section. I'll try to get this to work, and maybe with the insulation it'll be fine, but I might have to scrap it and just coil some silicone tubing around and tape it in place. Since I'm planning on still doing 5gal batches a lot of the time in these I don't want to have the cooling just on the top half. But with convection and insulation maybe it'll be fine just applying it to the top. Hell, people do peltiers with just a tiny heatsink...

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Where can I find that heat tape that you are using?

It's called "Flexwatt" heat tape. I bought mine from http://www.bigappleherp.com/

There's other sites as well.. I didn't really shop around to be honest so not sure if that's the best place or not.

I used the 3" wide, 10 ft per conical for 60 watts. I think that's enough, but haven't tested it yet. If I had known I couldn't get it to lay flat on the cone I'd have just gotten a few feet of the larger diameter stuff.

iijakii said:

Nice, glad to hear. My worries is that on a 5gal batch it wont be up above the cone too much, but I havent measured how much that holds. Probably only a few gallons and my fears are overblown.

I'll wrap it around just the top and test it out soon. I somehow dont have any 1.2" tubing on hand to test it out. You just using silicone? Not sure if it's worth worrying about what kind of hose can handle single digit temps.

So you leave your pump running at all times and have the manifold open/close? I'm only running two conicals so I might just buy a second pump instead for $20. Probably spend half that on pipe fittings to make a manifold. Then the extra electricity...

Also, definitely happy to hear the hose balloons when filled. I was worried when it was wrapped around it'd constrict too much.

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no I wired in dual relays which turn the 220v pump on in my chiller every time one of the conicals needs cooling as well as 24v to whatever valve needs to be opened.... and at that time only the open solenoid valves get flow.

I see. Still might go that route over double pumps.

How did you secure the lay-flat? Was wondering on if taping it in place would work or if when it balloons it'd pop it off.

Why even use the heat tape? You can just heat the water/glycol and pump it through the system as you would to cool it... Unless I'm missing something?

iijakii said:

I see. Still might go that route over double pumps.

How did you secure the lay-flat? Was wondering on if taping it in place would work or if when it balloons it'd pop it off.

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Still working on that the insulation will help but I may sparay something tacky on it so it doesnt drop (at least where the insulation meets the hose.the correct tape will still do this job too.. the hose stays in place fairly well except at the ends.

as far as the heaters... you need them sometimes to ramp up temps or even keep temps at a minimum it the winter months depending on where your brewing... I have used them to warm the yeast a bit during the diacetal rest and it helps the fermentation get going again.

dmcman73 said:

Why even use the heat tape? You can just heat the water/glycol and pump it through the system as you would to cool it... Unless I'm missing something?

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What if I want to lager one while having a second at ale temps during the winter?

Just more flexible having the heat tape and glycol just for cooling.

iijakii said:

It's called "Flexwatt" heat tape. I bought mine from http://www.bigappleherp.com/

There's other sites as well.. I didn't really shop around to be honest so not sure if that's the best place or not.

I used the 3" wide, 10 ft per conical for 60 watts. I think that's enough, but haven't tested it yet. If I had known I couldn't get it to lay flat on the cone I'd have just gotten a few feet of the larger diameter stuff.

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Thanks for the link I may get some of this when the electric clip-plug units get restocked.

So I did some more work and testing on my setup... The connections to the new AHB conical are temporary since I need more hose as well as hose insulation and quick disconnects but I was able to test the cooling capabilities of the discharge hose and I must say it works very well!

I found a 3rd conical (7 g stout clone) on craiglist yesterday sold by a member here. now I only have room for one more, please disregard the mess I have been doing a lot of work to the brewery and things are in total disarray. I also plan on securing the insulation on the top under the silicone ring like I did on the stout so it stays nicely in place and prevents the cold from escaping.

Looking good! And thanks for reporting that the discharge hose works well. I haven't done anything further on mine. Building a ****ty table for them right now. Also working on new control panel.

How did you secure the hose? I tried coiling mine the other day and couldn't get it to stay up with only one pair of hands. Need to have the wife help. Think I'll just do some loose tape until I sandwich it all with insulation.