Conical Temperature Control?

[thegerm]

So... I'm 33 years old but my dad, god bless him, still loves blowing cash on me for christmas. So he just had a 7 gallon stainless conical fermenter shipped to me. Arrived today, early christmas this year I guess. I live in a 850ish square foot apartment. I really push the limits of indoor apartment brewing already with stovetop full boils with heat sticks, and a 7 sq ft temp controlled chest freezer, as well as my mash tun, mill, pump, and other assorted buckets and containers with gear and equipment all over the place. The swmbo tolerates all of it just barely.

In the winter when the tap water temp drops down to 58-60 I can use a 20 gallon plastic storage container as a water bath as manual temperature regulation... or if I'm determined to lager, I can pull my kegs out of my keezer temporarily and drop my carboy(s) in there.

I can't immerse this conical in a water bath, though... and putting a conical in my chest freezer just seems stupid. I'll have to do a headstand to get down in there to harvest yeast... which I guess is the big advantage of using a conical after all. So that really doesn't seem practical at all.

So anyway, I don't know what to do with this thing. It's very nice and I want to be able to get a lot of good use out of it, but I can't see how to use it without sacrificing the quality of the beer, since I won't be able to control the temp at all and our apartment is pretty warm... like 72-74 all the time. If it was colder in our place I could wrap a heater around it and that would be awesome. but our place is hot.

Thoughts? I'd hate to have to turn around and sell the thing, but I can't think of a more reasonable option right now.

 

[dezman]

Sounds like a tough situation. The only thing i can think of is doing a glycol jacket type thing but im not sure how to go about it and think its pretty expensive. I think if it was me i'd suck it up and stick it in the freezer rather then sell but thats up to you. Mabe search the DIY forms if you are handy and see if anyones done something that can work for you. Good luck

 

[Shockerengr]

what model of conical is it? or can you add a pic?

 

[thegerm]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONICAL-FER...aultDomain_0&hash=item43aacb3b63#ht_720wt_922

35.5" high and 16.5" wide. It's not the fanciest conical ever but pretty cool still.

 

[bullywee]

maybe buy or build something like this http://brewhemoth.com/immersion-chiller utilize the cooler-ice-bath/aquarium pump/temp controller method

 

[Shockerengr]

nice, I'd suggest one of two things for cooling.

1) wrap some copper coils around it, and pump ice water through it.
2) put a SS immersion coil in it, and plump ice water through that.

nybrewsupply.com has good prices on SS coils, but you'd have to drill holes in the lid

for the water supply a cooler with a small pond pump would work. just add ice and use a controller to turn the pump on and off.

wrapping the conical in insulation will help reduce the amount of ice you need.

 

[thegerm]

Fine ideas, thanks for the advice.

 

[cfrazier77]

I talked to nybrewsupply.com and they will custom bend a SS coil for you. This way the in and out posts would be 180 degrees apart.

 

[TwoCanSam]

I made a 6' immersion coil using 3/8" stainless and silver soldered it through the 4" sanitary cap on my fermenter, which is a Sabco keg unit. I run well water (variable temp during the year but always under 60F) through the coil, controlled with a Ranco and solenoid valve. For heating I use a silicone heating pad under the fermenter, controlled by the same Ranco. This setup works great for ales but I'd have to use recirculated ice water or glycol for lagers and probably use a longer coil.

Looks like a sheet metal top on your fermenter. You could use Swagelok fittings to install a coil if you didn't want to weld or solder.

 

[CamelToeJoe]

Got any pictures of that setup?

 

[SAMBUCA]

This is what I use. www.thekegchillwrap.com but I`m fermenting in a 50L keg and won`t get the beer as cold as they claim.

 

[TwoCanSam]

Here are a few pictures...

The fermenter is a Sabco select sankey that I ordered without the cap and spear (at a significant savings). I bent and silver soldered the 3/8 stainless tubing through the sanitary cap (ordered from GW Kent) and added Swagelok fittings to the ends. The other fitting on the top of the fermenter is for a 3/8 thermowell, which I also made. I have a ball valve on the well water line to throttle flow if necessary. The last photo shows the 90W silicone heater pad. When in use, the pad is on an aluminum sheet under the fermenter. The whole setup is controlled with a Ranco 2-stage controller. I've run a saison up to 85F with no problems. Cooling works great down to at least 64F, which is where I start most of my ferments. I'd guess that as long as the well water is a few degrees cooler than setpoint this system will control temps in range.

When fermentation is complete I pull the thermowell and connect CO2. The airlock is removed and replaced with an adjustable stainless racking cane. A couple of PSI and the beer is transferred to secondary or to kegs. I have a sprayball and pump setup for cleaning kegs which works great.

If anyone's interested in a similar setup I'd be willing to provide further instructions as well as do some bending and soldering.

 

[CamelToeJoe]

That is a thing of beauty.

Thnx for sharing.

 

[Flomaster]

SS coil, pond pump, ice water, mini fridge and you are good to go.

-=Jason=-