DeBrewer's Home Brewery

[dmcman73]

How do you cycle the fluid through the coil? Is it an internal coil like mine? I am debating on writing a simple micro controller program to cycle the fluid through. Currently I am using an STC-1000 for testing but it will run constantly until the desired temp is reached. I assume by that point there will be places that are much colder than anticipated. I do not want to stir the fermenter so I assume that I could have it run for a number of seconds then wait for some amount of time to hopefully give it time to disperse and cool as evenly as possible. I do not want to overshoot my temps and kill the yeast. It will take longer to drop the temp but again hopefully more evenly. Thoughts?

SsBrewtech made a controller that came with the coils and a water pump. Basically the controller monitors the temp from the the top of the conical through a thermowell and then controls the pump based off the temps settings you program into it. The pump only pumps chilled (or warmed) water through the coils when needed otherwise it could make it too cold.

For chilling, I actually use an aquarium chiller. I have a cooler full of water that has two pumps in it, one for the Temp controller that only goes on when the controller tells it too an the other that stays on continuously that pumps water through the aquarium chiller. The chiller monitors the water temp as it runs through its coils and kicks on to chill when the temps rises to the program temp I set. It's been working awesome. This way if I ever need to warm, I can turn off the aquarium chiller and the pump to it and drop an aquarium heater into the cooler full of water.

 

[JonW]

For chilling, I actually use an aquarium chiller. I have a cooler full of water that has two pumps in it, one for the Temp controller that only goes on when the controller tells it too an the other that stays on continuously that pumps water through the aquarium chiller. The chiller monitors the water temp as it runs through its coils and kicks on to chill when the temps rises to the program temp I set. It's been working awesome. This way if I ever need to warm, I can turn off the aquarium chiller and the pump to it and drop an aquarium heater into the cooler full of water.

I looked at those, but was worried that they wouldn't be able to keep up with the volume. What size chiller are you using? Do you have any stats on the cooling ability? e.g. what bath temp do you maintain, how long does it run, how long does it take to crash cool, etc. ???

 

[dmcman73]

I looked at those, but was worried that they wouldn't be able to keep up with the volume. What size chiller are you using? Do you have any stats on the cooling ability? e.g. what bath temp do you maintain, how long does it run, how long does it take to crash cool, etc. ???

This is the model I have: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048IVBT4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It goes on as much as a standard refrigerator goes on. I have a small cooler that is filled with water, about 2 gallons of water. These are rated to handle up to 105 gallons of water. Once the water is chilled, it can maintain it pretty good, at least in my setup.

It can keep up with the chilling, I set the temp on the Aqua chiller to 65 degrees F which will keep the water temp in the cooler at that temp and the temp controller on the conical will pump the water from the cooler to the coils inside the conical and I can keep my 7 gallon fermentor at 68-70 degrees with no issues and the temp never fluctuates.

I haven't tried cold crashing but given how stable it can keep the temps, I would think it would have no issues. I have pumped my wort right after cooling down from a boil into the fermenter at 80 degrees in the summer and used the controller in the fermenter to bring the temps down further prior to pitching my yeast.

 

[beerbeer95648]

I finally had a little time to work on the brewery this weekend. I finished up integrating the waste water reservoir into the home plumbing. Since it is in the basement, there are no drains in the floor. I used a reservoir and large pump to push the water up 9 feet and integrate into the plumbing. 1 1/2" PVC with a manual valve, check valve, and a few fernco. Fairly simple. I close it off manually when not in use. The check valve helps keep the reservoir empty since when the pump stops there is 9 foot of 1 1/2 pipe full of water that would flow back in.

Aside from the plumbing, I started the testing on the proof of concept for the fermenter temp controls. I bought a 3.5 cu ft Igloo freezer and filled it with 20 gallons of RV Antifreeze. I am pumping that through the coil pictured before. Initially I had the fluid starting from the bottom of the coil and working its way up but I believe that is an error. Since the fermenter is a bulb shape (higher volume of water on top), the bottom immediately got cold and the top was still warm. I plan to run another test tonight in reverse to see how it performs. I do not have a degree in thermodynamics so any input is greatly appreciated! Cheers!

Really curious how the chest freezer works out. Thinking about doing the same thing soon for my Brewers hardware jacketed conical. Keep us updated.

 

[DeBrewer]

Really curious how the chest freezer works out. Thinking about doing the same thing soon for my Brewers hardware jacketed conical. Keep us updated.

So far the freezer seems to be working out ok after a few test runs. On the warmest temp, it still freezes the RV Antifreeze. It hasn't turned to a solid block nor has it kept the pump from working. It drops the fluid temps back down fairly quickly since I have so much volume as compared to my small coil.

I am running a few tests here and there trying to get it worked out but it seems hopeful. I think my problem as of now is that he coil sits too far down in the conical. The bottom gets really cold and the top stays warm. I am going to move it up tonight and see how it goes.

 

[milldoggy]

Freezer did not leak? Did you plug the drain?

 

[DeBrewer]

Freezer did not leak? Did you plug the drain?

The drain is what I use as the outlet in the bottom. It had a screw in plug from the outside that I drilled out and pressed in a barb. I draw out cold glycol from the bottom and return it to the top. I did silicone the seams on the inside of the freezer but I am not sure that it was necessary. It has been holding the glycol fine for over a week now.


Unfortunately the freezer got a little too cold on its warmest setting. Froze the glycol. I am putting an auxiliary temp controller on it once it thaws... I raised the coil in the fermenter almost 5" and ran another test and it seems to be cooling much faster and more even. Seems to work great now. I still need to make some blankets for them.

I finally ran the system fully automated with some grain!!! Everything went fairly well. I did not associate the temp probes correctly so that caused a little hiccup but overall it went well. A little manual assistance here and there and all was well. I started off with a bunch of random specialty grain that I had laying around and supplemented in some 2-Row to get me up to around 10 lbs. I started with 7 gallons of water, lost appx. 2 gallons in absorption and dead space in the MLT and hoses. I boiled off a little over a gallon and lost a bit in the hoses and chiller. This got me down to a little over 3.5 gallons but at the appropriate gravity projected at 75% extraction. I knew this system would not be super efficient given that it is no sparge and has large runs of hoses. Ultimately I will sacrifice a little more expense on grain and water for a better repeatable product.

 

[milldoggy]

The drain is what I use as the outlet in the bottom. It had a screw in plug from the outside that I drilled out and pressed in a barb. I draw out cold glycol from the bottom and return it to the top. I did silicone the seams on the inside of the freezer but I am not sure that it was necessary. It has been holding the glycol fine for over a week now.


Unfortunately the freezer got a little too cold on its warmest setting. Froze the glycol. I am putting an auxiliary temp controller on it once it thaws... I raised the coil in the fermenter almost 5" and ran another test and it seems to be cooling much faster and more even. Seems to work great now. I still need to make some blankets for them.

Thank you. Solved my glycol line chilling issue.