Conical in and out of a freezer

[user 40839]

So I have a Morebeer 15 gallon conical, and am loving it. Only problem I have is the way my garage is set up, my brewing happens about 20 feet away from the fermentation chamber. When I bought the tank, I opted for the (spendy) additional wheels, with the thought of being able to just use a sheet of plywood as a ramp, and just roll it up and in - but the bottom of the freezer I'm using is about a foot high, and even using a 7' long piece of 1" ply, I had wort sloshing out of the top (as well as a dangerous looking bend in the middle of the ramp as I rolled it in.)

Next brew day I just linked an arseton of hoses together, and counted on my pump to do the work. This caused more issues, constantly losing prime, running back and forth between the conical and the Brutus, hoses kept slipping, losing wort, and generally being a pain in the arse.

Finally, the current option is just filling my old Ail Pails (knew I'd find a use for 'em!), carrying them over, and pouring them in. A low tech solution, but it seemed to work, at least. But would like to come up with a better way of being able to wheel a full 15 gallon conical in and out of the freezer with a minimum of hassle. Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[DaleP]

I know what you are talking about. I use a 3/4 gallon pitcher to transfer from the kettle on the patio, to the fermenter in the brew room. Only about 30 feet and one door, a lot of trips for a 20 gallon batch!

 

[Windsors]

Can you put wheels on the ferm chamber ?

 

[zymurgy101]

Hi Ubermick!

Recently, I also purchased a "fermentation chamber" (Frigidaire 13.7 upright) for my conical and was worried about the same thing...how to get the wort into the conical. However, I had no issues with my March pump pushing the wort through my plate chiller and into my conical which is located in my house about twenty-ish feet from my kettle in the garage. I'm just pumping through 1\2" silicone tubing and have no issues. My opinion is that you really don't want to move the conical once it is full of wort...that could be dangerous! My conical is sitting on its casters in the freezer, which provides just enough height to gravity feed into kegs and for the yeast harvester. It sounds like you need to get better couplings on your hoses or buy one length of silicone hose which will reach from your chiller to the conical.

Cheers!



Jeff

 

[Foosinho]

1) Build a platform 6 inches tall that you can crank up with a floor jack. Use a ramp to wheel the fermenter onto the elevator, raise the elevator, and then roll the fermenter into the chamber.

2) Build a longer, sturdier ramp (maybe with a 90 degree turn) that won't sag and won't be a steep. Build it in two pieces so you can pull it up between uses.

FWIW, this is a problem I'm probably going to be dealing with myself, once I get my garage sorted in my new house. I was planning on using 5 gallon buckets and a little manual labor.

 

[Bossbrew]

I have 3 dedicated "Wort Moving Devices" (WMDs) also known as plastic buckets, that I use to transfer from my chiller to my conical. This takes care of aeration for most beers as well.

Dave

 

[JetSmooth]

1) Build a platform 6 inches tall that you can crank up with a floor jack. Use a ramp to wheel the fermenter onto the elevator, raise the elevator, and then roll the fermenter into the chamber.

I was envisioning something like this as well. Like a lift-gate on the back of a truck.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I think your problem, as zymurgy101 pointed out, was the multiple hoses. Just buy 1 long length of hose and the pump should do fine.

I'm starting to look more and more towards a conical, but a chamber large enough to store one is what I'm struggling with.

 

[zymurgy101]

For me, building platforms, ramps and using jacks adds too much complexity to my brew day. A silicone hose is (probably) cheaper, requires no building, and less storage area. I do have two hoses from the chiller to the conical, but they are connected via a blingmann quick connect and I have never had an issue with spillage or losing prime. Moreover, you should not lose prime because the kettle should be gravity feeding the pump. Once all of the wort is transferred out of the kettle, I close the ball valve on the pump and then pinch the hose connected to the plate chiller with my finger (to prevent backflow) and disconnect from the plate chiller. I then raise the hose above my head, release the pinch and allow all of the precious wort in the hose to flow into the conical.

IrregularPulse, like Uber, I have a 14.5 MoreBeer conical with casters and it fits perfectly into a Frigidaire 13.7 cu ft freezer from Lowes. I only removed the metal shelves, basket and the shelf retainers on the door...which took me all of five minutes. I thought I would need to remove the door panel like shown on the blichmann website, but that was not the case.

Hope this helps!

 

[IrregularPulse]

I don't think swmbo would go for a $450 freezer to house a new $600 conical Conical is probably far far in my future.

 

[outside92129]

Or you could dig a 1' hole in the garage to put the freezer in : )

 

[Foosinho]

Or you could dig a 1' hole in the garage to put the freezer in : )

Points awarded for outside-the-box thinking. Points deducted for low WAF ("you want to do WHAT?!?!?!")

 

[Tinga]

set up a car jack so you can wheel the conical up to the fermentation chamber jack up the conical and then wheel the jack close enough to the fermentation chamber to push the conical the rest of the way in. kinda sorta like getting a gurney in an ambulance.

 

[samc]

Pully/hoist gizmo right above fridge, lift push/release.

slowly of course.

 

[Phunhog]

I think another potential solution would be to get a chest freezer. You could get a cheap chain hoist or even make your own 5:1 pulley system. You could raise and lower it into the freezer pretty easily. You would just have to make some sort of sling for the conical. That is another reason why I like fermenting in old Sanke kegs...absolute bomber attachment points for lifting kegs into a freezer.

 

[user 40839]

I'm absolutely sold on the idea of taking a jackhammer to the garage floor, and recessing the freezer so I can just wheel in and out!

I think the plan is going to be building a platform on locking casters the same height as the freezer hump, set the conical on that, fill it up, then wheel it over, rolling it off the platform and into the freezer. I have a second conical (plastic... I'm not made of money!) that needs to get in and out of there too, as well as a sanke fermenter that this would work on. Although the idea of setting up a winch/pulley kinda intrigues me as well...

Chest freezer wouldn't work, given the size of the fermenters. It'd have to be one pretty damn big freezer!

 

[JetSmooth]

I'm absolutely sold on the idea of taking a jackhammer to the garage floor, and recessing the freezer so I can just wheel in and out!

I think the plan is going to be building a platform on locking casters the same height as the freezer hump, set the conical on that, fill it up, then wheel it over, rolling it off the platform and into the freezer. I have a second conical (plastic... I'm not made of money!) that needs to get in and out of there too, as well as a sanke fermenter that this would work on. Although the idea of setting up a winch/pulley kinda intrigues me as well...

Chest freezer wouldn't work, given the size of the fermenters. It'd have to be one pretty damn big freezer!

Nice idea! And you can use it as a dolly/platform for other stuff when not transporting the conical.

The brains in this forum amaze (and terrify) me sometimes!

 

[Layne]

I'm absolutely sold on the idea of taking a jackhammer to the garage floor, and recessing the freezer so I can just wheel in and out!

I think the plan is going to be building a platform on locking casters the same height as the freezer hump, set the conical on that, fill it up, then wheel it over, rolling it off the platform and into the freezer. I have a second conical (plastic... I'm not made of money!) that needs to get in and out of there too, as well as a sanke fermenter that this would work on. Although the idea of setting up a winch/pulley kinda intrigues me as well...

Chest freezer wouldn't work, given the size of the fermenters. It'd have to be one pretty damn big freezer!

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