Conical in the brew room.

[Fingers]

I picked up one of these today:



I'm building a single tier electric rig in the basement and I want some conicals for fermentation. The conicals will be elevated high enough to slip a corny underneath to fill. The problem is in filling the conical. I haven't come up with any easy or clever ideas to move my wort from the boil kettle to the fermenter. I have a single March pump for the system and I'd consider buying another if it made my life easier but I don't want to leave a bunch of wort in lines owing to boil kettle and pump being higher than the fermenter. Also, it would be much easier to design my room to have the kettle 15 feet from the fermenter.

I've thought about a conical apparatus on wheels but I'm concerned about the high center of gravity. I might be open to a rig that will raise and lower the conical but that has attendant design considerations as well. To throw one more wrench in the works, I plan on putting in rubber backed carpeting in the room.

Any cool ideas?

 

[philrose]

one word.... pulleys

 

[Fingers]

one word.... pulleys

That's an option, but there's also electric and electric/hydraulic. I'd still have to move the conical to the boil kettle and I've already bought the rubber backed carpet. Pulleys would have to be slung from the ceiling and ride on a track for mobility. That's a lot of structure.

 

[jppostKW]

I envision a conical stand with wheels to move around with a maybe a scissor jack or two that picks the conical up using a a board with a hole to support it and four posts to guide it up..... the jacks im looking at extend 2 ft which will be about perfect if you have the racking port up the side 6 in or so thats 30 inchs of base to port of lift plus wheels heres what i did a quicky drawing of.
first the jack

And the stand sorry for the roughness

 

[samc]

Mine sits on a rolling stand that is just tall enough to fit a tray under the drain valve to catch dumping. I don't use the tank as much as my 15 gallon soda keg so I don't have a pump for it. If I was to use it more I would buy a transfer pump http://www.williamsbrewing.com/images/product_images/J85.JPG or similar.

 

[Wayne1]

Use another pump to get the beer to the fermenter.

You don't say is you are using a CFC or an immersion chiller. A pump will help speed things up with a CFC.

Use the pump to push all the beer it can to the fermenters. When the kettle is drained, close the valve to the fermenter. Disconnect the hose from the kettle. Connect the hose to your cold water line. Turn on the cold water slowly. Go back to your fermenter and slowly open the valve. Hopefully you are using a hose you can see through to detect color changes. When the color begins to lighten, close the valve to the fermenter and shut off the water.

I use this method to push all the wort through my CFC. I do have things a bit easier as I do have filtered, cold water plumbed right on the front of my diverter panel. All I have to do is change a couple of quick disconnects and I am good to go.

You can also use CO2 or Oxygen to push the beer through the hose. I used to use Oxygen in the brewpubs I worked in.

 

[CodeRage]

Nice fingers.

If you want the fermenter stationary you need to use a peristaltic or diaphragm pump to pull from your bk and cfc or other chiller and then dump into the fermenter. This will move every bit of wort as they don't need to be primed and will happily pump air. The peristaltic pump will be the easiest to maintain sanitary wise.
If you decide to have multiple conicals it will be cheaper to do that then to build a self lifting stand for each one. You can get the pump heads on ebay relatively cheap.

 

[Fingers]

You don't say is you are using a CFC or an immersion chiller. A pump will help speed things up with a CFC.

I use an immersion chiller. I had an opportunity to buy a CFC cheap but I prefer the immersion.

Use the pump to push all the beer it can to the fermenters. When the kettle is drained, close the valve to the fermenter. Disconnect the hose from the kettle. Connect the hose to your cold water line. Turn on the cold water slowly. Go back to your fermenter and slowly open the valve. Hopefully you are using a hose you can see through to detect color changes. When the color begins to lighten, close the valve to the fermenter and shut off the water.

I use this method to push all the wort through my CFC. I do have things a bit easier as I do have filtered, cold water plumbed right on the front of my diverter panel. All I have to do is change a couple of quick disconnects and I am good to go.

Great idea. The new brew room will have water available wherever I want it. The house plumbing passes through the open ceiling of the room.

Nice fingers.

If you want the fermenter stationary you need to use a peristaltic or diaphragm pump to pull from your bk and cfc or other chiller and then dump into the fermenter. This will move every bit of wort as they don't need to be primed and will happily pump air. The peristaltic pump will be the easiest to maintain sanitary wise.
If you decide to have multiple conicals it will be cheaper to do that then to build a self lifting stand for each one. You can get the pump heads on ebay relatively cheap.

I was thinking about a peristaltic pump myself. I've been experimenting with one attached to a instrument for measuring dissolved gases in river water. I'd like to design my system so that I don't have to lift any beer until it's in the keg.

I think I'll combine the two ideas from Wayne and CodeRage and call it a solution. Thanks guys.