So I recently got rid of my SS brewtech 14 gallon unitank and switched to the Brewers Hardware 15 gallon jacketed conical. It has been quite an experience so far and I thought I would share some of my initial Impressions with everyone. I will follow up again within the next few weeks after fermenting with it for the first time.
I wanted to upgrade because of some of the concerns I had with my process and the SS brewtech. My single biggest complaint on the SS brewtech was the submerged coil as opposed to being jacketed. I like to be able to brew 5 to 7 gallon batches on occasion and I was completely unable to achieve adequate cooling with the coil. Even one time on a 10 gallon batch it managed to completely form a ball of ice around the coil. This was for a roughly 5.5% ABV Czech Pilsner. The neoprene jacket was somewhat effective but when storing the conical at lower temperatures it struggled tremendously with condensation.
The first thing you notice is the shipping. This thing comes FedEx freight on a pallet in a wooden crate. Seriously impressive. FedEx was kind enough to not secure mine in the delivery truck so it tipped over. It did get a very small dent in the front top lip from the fall. It's not big and it's very hard to photograph, but does definitely annoy me.
Coming from the SS brewtech there were a few things I was used to and I wanted to maintain with the new tank. One of those was mobility. I had casters on the SSBrewtech and due to its lightweight construction it was quite easy to move around. My Brew area is about 20 feet away from the fermentation room / closet.
The Brewers Hardware conical is substantially heavier. I don't know the exact weight but I know it's well north of a hundred pounds. The legs have Tri clamp fittings on the bottom, 1.5". This makes it a little more challenging to add casters. Morebeer.com does cell Tri clamp casters, however I was concerned that without a cross brace and that heavy of a weight that it could be a problem bouncing across my tile floor. I also like to use a sight glass underneath the dump valve so I can monitor fermentation and see when my trub and yeast gets compacted. To do this I needed leg extensions. I bought three 8 inch long Tri clamp spools. Obviously though for an already top-heavy tank if I was going to be making it taller I needed to widen the base and provide cross-braces. So after exploring a metal scrap yard I found a nice piece of 14 gauge stainless sheet that I was able to clean up and weld 3 Tri clamp ferrule to it to attach the legs. Rather than welding on casters I chose to bolt them on in case they ever got stuck or rusted. The base that I made is about 24 by 22 in. The thing is incredibly stable with the three legs and 3 casters. I bought basic locking casters for about $4 each from Harbor Freight. I've used them on a workbench before and I know they can handle the weight.
The Brewers Hardware conical does not come with a racking cane, and instead comes with a 90 degree Barb Tri clamp fitting to attach hose to. This makes it impossible to close off the fermenter for carbonating without removing the barbed fitting at the top and potentially exposing oxygen. I had Brewers Hardware custom make a racking cane that attaches to a tri clamp tee and clamps to the leg. This left me with the top 1.5" port still being available on top of the tee. Having a TC on the bottom of the racking cane allows me to attach a valve or another tee or cross as needed at the bottom of the racking cane. I am extremely glad I did this, the quality of their welds are fantastic and frankly it looks awesome.
I added a 24" long TC thermowell to the lid TC port as well. This works great for reaching down into the cone for temp readings on smaller batches. It does however mean I can only rotate my racking cane one direction without hitting the thermowell. Not a big deal but something I need to remember. I think I'm going to make a label with an arrow showing which direction is ok to twist.
It does not come with a pressure relief valve, pressure gauge, or diffusion stone. Fortunately, Spike Brewing has this part really figured out. I got Spike's pressure gauge prv manifold, which I put above the tee where the racking cane is. This gives me a corny post for adding gas for pressure transfers, a gauge to measure my overall tank pressure, as well as a 15 psi prv. All while only taking up one Tri clamp port. I also bought the Spike Brewing diffusion stone tri clamp tube. I intend to attach this to my racking cane valve for inserting oxygen or diffusing CO2.
One of my concerns which I have not had a chance to test yet, is the amount of volume below the racking cane. This could become an issue when trying to make a 5-gallon batch. I'm not sure if this will work well or not but I am considering using a small piece of silicone tube with a BrewHardware.com cam and groove barbed male fitting pressed into the end to add weight. This should allow pickup lower into the cone. At the expense of keeping the racking cane pointed vertically. This will need to be tested to see if it works well. It may work best with a trub dump out the bottom first.
On the back side of the tank are two 1/4" fntp connections for the glycol hookup. The bottom should be the input and the top the output. I keep my homemade A/C chiller in the unfinished part of my basement on the other side of this room. I used a washer and dryer hookup box on the wall to bridge the plumbing. I ran PEX pipe inside of pipe insulation, inside of 1.5" PVC that I painted. Then using some colder brand quick disconnects connected to some Spike Brewing insulated tubing I was able to connect everything without a condensation or heat loss problem. I 3D printed a drip tray to go under the pipes by the washing machine connection box and where the tank connects. This way any condensation that forms in the brass connections we'll have a place to drip and hopefully evaporate.
To control everything I built a 3D printed enclosure with a Raspberry Pi running craft beer pi software. It works wonderfully and is able to control the glycol chiller, the conical glycol pump, a second conical glycol pump if I ever get another conical, and a submersible aquarium heater if I need to warm the glycol.
Overall, it is a seriously heavy duty tank. It is absolutely gorgeous if that matters to you. While I haven't had a chance to ferment beer in it, I have no doubt from my experience with other conicals that it will work wonderfully. It certainly cost more than the Spike or SS brewtech options. That said, it is absolutely worth the extra money, just in terms of build quality alone.
There is very little information about this conical available and I was nervous to buy one without more info so it hope this helps anyone else who has been considering it.
I wanted to upgrade because of some of the concerns I had with my process and the SS brewtech. My single biggest complaint on the SS brewtech was the submerged coil as opposed to being jacketed. I like to be able to brew 5 to 7 gallon batches on occasion and I was completely unable to achieve adequate cooling with the coil. Even one time on a 10 gallon batch it managed to completely form a ball of ice around the coil. This was for a roughly 5.5% ABV Czech Pilsner. The neoprene jacket was somewhat effective but when storing the conical at lower temperatures it struggled tremendously with condensation.
The first thing you notice is the shipping. This thing comes FedEx freight on a pallet in a wooden crate. Seriously impressive. FedEx was kind enough to not secure mine in the delivery truck so it tipped over. It did get a very small dent in the front top lip from the fall. It's not big and it's very hard to photograph, but does definitely annoy me.
Coming from the SS brewtech there were a few things I was used to and I wanted to maintain with the new tank. One of those was mobility. I had casters on the SSBrewtech and due to its lightweight construction it was quite easy to move around. My Brew area is about 20 feet away from the fermentation room / closet.
The Brewers Hardware conical is substantially heavier. I don't know the exact weight but I know it's well north of a hundred pounds. The legs have Tri clamp fittings on the bottom, 1.5". This makes it a little more challenging to add casters. Morebeer.com does cell Tri clamp casters, however I was concerned that without a cross brace and that heavy of a weight that it could be a problem bouncing across my tile floor. I also like to use a sight glass underneath the dump valve so I can monitor fermentation and see when my trub and yeast gets compacted. To do this I needed leg extensions. I bought three 8 inch long Tri clamp spools. Obviously though for an already top-heavy tank if I was going to be making it taller I needed to widen the base and provide cross-braces. So after exploring a metal scrap yard I found a nice piece of 14 gauge stainless sheet that I was able to clean up and weld 3 Tri clamp ferrule to it to attach the legs. Rather than welding on casters I chose to bolt them on in case they ever got stuck or rusted. The base that I made is about 24 by 22 in. The thing is incredibly stable with the three legs and 3 casters. I bought basic locking casters for about $4 each from Harbor Freight. I've used them on a workbench before and I know they can handle the weight.
The Brewers Hardware conical does not come with a racking cane, and instead comes with a 90 degree Barb Tri clamp fitting to attach hose to. This makes it impossible to close off the fermenter for carbonating without removing the barbed fitting at the top and potentially exposing oxygen. I had Brewers Hardware custom make a racking cane that attaches to a tri clamp tee and clamps to the leg. This left me with the top 1.5" port still being available on top of the tee. Having a TC on the bottom of the racking cane allows me to attach a valve or another tee or cross as needed at the bottom of the racking cane. I am extremely glad I did this, the quality of their welds are fantastic and frankly it looks awesome.
I added a 24" long TC thermowell to the lid TC port as well. This works great for reaching down into the cone for temp readings on smaller batches. It does however mean I can only rotate my racking cane one direction without hitting the thermowell. Not a big deal but something I need to remember. I think I'm going to make a label with an arrow showing which direction is ok to twist.
It does not come with a pressure relief valve, pressure gauge, or diffusion stone. Fortunately, Spike Brewing has this part really figured out. I got Spike's pressure gauge prv manifold, which I put above the tee where the racking cane is. This gives me a corny post for adding gas for pressure transfers, a gauge to measure my overall tank pressure, as well as a 15 psi prv. All while only taking up one Tri clamp port. I also bought the Spike Brewing diffusion stone tri clamp tube. I intend to attach this to my racking cane valve for inserting oxygen or diffusing CO2.
One of my concerns which I have not had a chance to test yet, is the amount of volume below the racking cane. This could become an issue when trying to make a 5-gallon batch. I'm not sure if this will work well or not but I am considering using a small piece of silicone tube with a BrewHardware.com cam and groove barbed male fitting pressed into the end to add weight. This should allow pickup lower into the cone. At the expense of keeping the racking cane pointed vertically. This will need to be tested to see if it works well. It may work best with a trub dump out the bottom first.
On the back side of the tank are two 1/4" fntp connections for the glycol hookup. The bottom should be the input and the top the output. I keep my homemade A/C chiller in the unfinished part of my basement on the other side of this room. I used a washer and dryer hookup box on the wall to bridge the plumbing. I ran PEX pipe inside of pipe insulation, inside of 1.5" PVC that I painted. Then using some colder brand quick disconnects connected to some Spike Brewing insulated tubing I was able to connect everything without a condensation or heat loss problem. I 3D printed a drip tray to go under the pipes by the washing machine connection box and where the tank connects. This way any condensation that forms in the brass connections we'll have a place to drip and hopefully evaporate.
To control everything I built a 3D printed enclosure with a Raspberry Pi running craft beer pi software. It works wonderfully and is able to control the glycol chiller, the conical glycol pump, a second conical glycol pump if I ever get another conical, and a submersible aquarium heater if I need to warm the glycol.
Overall, it is a seriously heavy duty tank. It is absolutely gorgeous if that matters to you. While I haven't had a chance to ferment beer in it, I have no doubt from my experience with other conicals that it will work wonderfully. It certainly cost more than the Spike or SS brewtech options. That said, it is absolutely worth the extra money, just in terms of build quality alone.
There is very little information about this conical available and I was nervous to buy one without more info so it hope this helps anyone else who has been considering it.
