Chilling a conical

[nostalgia]

When I get my conical fermenters, I'm planning to temperature control them by running coolant through a stainless steel coil in the beer. I had been working on converting an air conditioner to a glycol chiller, but have been looking around at other options.

One that looks promising is an aquarium chiller. This little 1/13 HP job claims it's good for tanks up to 50 gallons for $350. It can be set from 39 to 82F, which would even be good for lagers.

I guess the only issue would be if I wanted to use it for two brews at different temps, since I assume it checks the temperature of the inbound coolant instead of the temp in the fermenter.

Anyone ever try something like this, or see any other off-the-shelf chillers that might work?

Thanks,

-Joe

 

[Airborneguy]

I actually haven't used mine yet because of this little problem. I have an upright freezer and cut the two bottom shelves out, but still can't fit my conical. I plan on modifying the base of the fermentor so that it will finally fit (I only need another 5-6 inches). Once I get around to that, I'll start using it for lagers.

 

[wired247]

You could use a 3 way solenoid valve on each tank in conjunction with a PID Temp controller and run as many fermenters as you want up to the capacity of the chiller to continue to chill.

 

[nostalgia]

You could use a 3 way solenoid valve on each tank in conjunction with a PID Temp controller and run as many fermenters as you want up to the capacity of the chiller to continue to chill.

Would there be a separate pump and coolant reservoir in this scenario? My understanding of the aquarium chillers is they run all the time so I couldn't use a valve and shut off the flow entirely.

I guess I could just use the aquarium chiller to keep a glycol reservoir cold, then have a pump/solenoid setup to run to various fermenters. That would be the same idea as my original plan with the modified air conditioner.

I was just thinking it'd be nice to use the chiller as-is, since it's got the pump and temp controller built in already.

-Joe

 

[wired247]

Would there be a separate pump and coolant reservoir in this scenario? My understanding of the aquarium chillers is they run all the time so I couldn't use a valve and shut off the flow entirely.

I guess I could just use the aquarium chiller to keep a glycol reservoir cold, then have a pump/solenoid setup to run to various fermenters. That would be the same idea as my original plan with the modified air conditioner.

I was just thinking it'd be nice to use the chiller as-is, since it's got the pump and temp controller built in already.

-Joe

If you use a three way solenoid what would happen when the tank gets down to its set point the solenoid activates and stops flow through your cooling coils and directs it back into the chiller unit instead of through the coils and back to the chiller. As far as the chiller is concerned nothing has changed as the flow has not stopped. You could just set your chiller unit at its lowest temperature setting and then run as many fermenters as practical considering you'd need a PID controller, RTD and 3 way solenoid valve plus feed and return plumbing for each one.

 

[nostalgia]

Ahhhh now I see what you mean. Thanks for clarifying,

-Joe

 

[Yooper]

I think Brewpastor posted his system a while back. I can't remember the details at all, but it seems to be what you're talking about. I think that'd be worth a search just to see what he ended up doing.

 

[stumpjumper]

I have the same situation. A big stainless conical (80 gallons) and an aquarium chiller (Red Sea 1/3 HP). Both were more or less free, so I'm trying to figure out how to make this work for fermenting. I know that the conical is huge considering the fact that i'm only doing 12 gallon batches, BUT, it was free and it looks bitchen. I would like to find a way to put the chiller/pump on a temp controller that shut it off when the temp reached the set point. Just like i do now with my fridge for fermentation. BTW, the chiller had stanky aquarium water through it, so running wort through the chiller is not an option. Two options are to create a hillbilly cool room out of styrofoam insulation panels, hook the chiller up to copper coils that sit under the conical (not submersed), and circulate the air with a small fan. The chiller, chiller pump, and fan would all be controlled by the thermostat. Other option is to run coils into the conical, but this gets tricky when your only using 15% of the conical's capacity.

 

[audger]

if you need to control several different temperature zones with a single chiller, all you have to do is use that chiller to cool a resevoir of adequate size. then you have pumps in the resevoir, one pump for each zone that you want to cool, and have those pumps activated by temperature probes located in the particular zone that pump serves. you could chill any given zone to anywhere between ambient temp, and the temp of the coolant.

i did exactly this with an air conditioner. there is a 6 gallon glycol resevoir chilled (to usually below 0) by the A/C which feeds one pump for my lagering/serving chamber (~40*) and one pump for my ferment chamber (mid 60*s). when a zone gets too cold, turn the pump off for a while. when it warms up, start circulating again.

 

[nostalgia]

i did exactly this with an air conditioner. there is a 6 gallon glycol resevoir chilled (to usually below 0) by the A/C which feeds one pump for my lagering/serving chamber (~40*) and one pump for my ferment chamber (mid 60*s). when a zone gets too cold, turn the pump off for a while. when it warms up, start circulating again.

This is just what I was thinking of doing with the aquarium chiller. The chiller will keep a cooler full of coolant at some low temperature. Then there will be separate, temperature controlled aquarium pumps that will run the coolant through coils in the fermenters.

Then I don't need fancy plumbing or solenoid valves, just relatively inexpensive pumps and temp controllers.

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Also, thanks for all the suggestions

-Joe

 

[wyzazz]

This is just what I was thinking of doing with the aquarium chiller. The chiller will keep a cooler full of coolant at some low temperature. Then there will be separate, temperature controlled aquarium pumps that will run the coolant through coils in the fermenters.

Then I don't need fancy plumbing or solenoid valves, just relatively inexpensive pumps and temp controllers.

-Joe

How about the "Ebay Aquarium Temperature Controller"? I have 2 of them, they were relatively easy to wire and seem to work well, if you don't mind working in Celcius.

 

[wyzazz]

This is just what I was thinking of doing with the aquarium chiller. The chiller will keep a cooler full of coolant at some low temperature. Then there will be separate, temperature controlled aquarium pumps that will run the coolant through coils in the fermenters.

Then I don't need fancy plumbing or solenoid valves, just relatively inexpensive pumps and temp controllers.

-Joe

How about the "Ebay Aquarium Temperature Controller"? I have 2 of them, they were relatively easy to wire and seem to work well, if you don't mind working in Celcius.

Or you could even go the BCS-460 route if you were thinking of doing lots of fermenters.

 

[nostalgia]

I've got a temp controlled fridge - I'll probably steal the Love controller from that guy and sell the fridge to help offset the cost of the Brewhemoth I just bought

-Joe

 

[Celticway]

I have my conical in a standup Freezer. It is efficient and accurate with my ranco controller. Maybe for some reason it is not an option for you, but it is a great one!

 

[nostalgia]

It was definitely one of the options I was looking at, Celtic, but a few things made me go the internal chiller route. A big one is space.

In other news, how are you liking the Brewhemoth?

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Also, how long a thermowell did you need? I'm doing the exact same thing with the TC tee.

-Joe

 

[Celticway]

Also, how long a thermowell did you need? I'm doing the exact same thing with the TC tee.

-Joe

I went with a 24". http://www.brewershardware.com/24-Tri-Clover-Thermowell-TWTCCAP24.html

As far as the Brewhemoth, I like it. The welds are not the best in the world to say the least, so I soak mine filled to the brim with OXY solution, then I do the same with Star San. Probably a bit wasteful, but at least I know that it's safe for my beer. Losing a 20 gallon batch would suck. Functionally however, I love it. Bieng able to hold pressure is nice so I can trasfer via CO2 into my already closed, purged kegs.

 

[Celticway]

By the way, a funny thing; I went with a new standup freezer (just dont trust used ones) and it was almost twice the price of the fermentor! Go figure.

 

[nostalgia]

Thanks for the info - I had that thermowell in my cart already

I was actually thinking of sanitizing it with boiling water. I've got an electric HLT that's always got extra water in it after sparging. Cranking that up near boiling and pumping into the fermenter would be easy sauce.

-Joe

 

[Celticway]

Thanks for the info - I had that thermowell in my cart already

I was actually thinking of sanitizing it with boiling water. I've got an electric HLT that's always got extra water in it after sparging. Cranking that up near boiling and pumping into the fermenter would be easy sauce.

-Joe

Sounds good. When is yours coming?

 

[Celticway]

One thing i am starting to consider is a rotating racking cane. Not for the intentional use per say, but I always have a ton of Yeast/Trub come out of the racking port. Even when I cold crash and bang on the sides every night to try and get it to settle, there is still alot coming out of it.

 

[nostalgia]

I ordered it today, and they say 20 day lag time. I'm sure I'll find quibbles like the trub coming out the racking port, but for the money I don't think there's a better fermenter out there.

-Joe

 

[Celticway]

Yeah, I think you are correct. Good luck, you'll enjoy it. Let's us know how your cooling option works.

 

[nilo]

Here's a cheap solution for those with a spare freezer. I'm not cooling a conical but it would work just the same. I use a PID controller switching an aquarium water pump to circulate the cooling fluid. It can cool 5gals pretty quick and on a SS conical it would be even more efficient.

 

[nilo]

Few more pics

 

[wyzazz]

Now that's a Better Bottle with a few holes in it!

 

[nostalgia]

I love the RTD, digital thermometer AND stick-on thermometer. That is someone who is serious about temp control

Nice work!

-Joe