design idea for floating dip tube

[twd000]

I'm looking for a cheaper DIY alternative to the Clear Beer Draft System or the Cask Widge.

I've seen some DIY designs that look pretty promising. Hoping I can simplify by eliminating some parts to lower the cost (I have 10 kegs to retrofit so it adds up)

My idea centers around the wine filter shown here: http://think.gusius.com/diy-keg-floating-dip-tube/

Rather than buy a stainless ball for the float, my idea is to remove the cap from the filter piece, and insert a 20mm sous vide ball:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/250-Count-...963419?hash=item4d9139c25b:g:CMcAAOSw6cBcq7pH

Then simply run silicone tubing from a short gas post straight to the filter and be done with it.

Liquid out post --> short gas tube --> silicone tubing --> wine filter barb --> 20mm sous vide ball --> wine filter cap

How's that strike ya? Any deal breakers?

questions:

1. can anyone with the wine filter tell me which size they bought? There is a Small, Medium, Large option with 7mm, 10mm, 11mm barb:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PC...231554.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.c6df3c00xbJAkV

2. will the opening on the wine filter accomodate a 20mm sous vide ball? The drawing shows 27mm overall diameter for the wine filter body, but no indication of the inner diameter.

3. what is the correct size for the silicone tubing? 6mm ID x 8mm OD? or 6mm ID x 10mm OD?

 

[McKnuckle]

Your idea is cool, no doubt, but these William's Brewing "top draw" floating dip tubes cost only $20 and work great. It's half the price of a CBDS unit. The tubing is 0.26" ID with a wall thickness of 0.045".

 

[twd000]

Your idea is cool, no doubt, but these William's Brewing "top draw" floating dip tubes cost only $20 and work great. It's half the price of a CBDS unit. The tubing is 0.26" ID with a wall thickness of 0.045".

thanks for the reply. Looks like 6mm/9mm is the closest metric match

No doubt the Top Draw is a nice design. Any problems ingesting dry hops since it doesn't have a screen filter?

I'm thinking I can build my units for less than $10/unit

10x wine filters with stainless mesh screens: $12
250 sous vide balls: $10
20' length of 6mm silicone tubing: $22
10x gas-side diptubes: $19.90 + shipping
total: $64/10 = $6.40/ea

 

[McKnuckle]

The CBDS has an available hop screen (pricey), but the William's unit does not. I wouldn't throw hops in the keg commando style using that product. A stainless canister or bag would work though. I have used mine so far with lagers, so no dry hops. I actually ferment in the keg, build up a little pressure at the end of fermentation, lager and serve without transferring it at all.

Your idea is cool - I'll restate that! Curious to see if you build one and test it.

 

[hopjuice_71]

Sounds like you could do it economically, so go for it. Personally, I try to avoid plastic bits and pieces. I use the "top draw" system, though I just purchase them as the floating dip tube replacements for the fermentasaurus ($15 CAD). I mainly use them in the kegs I ferment in. I put a little cone of stainless steel mesh over the intake to keep stuff out. The mesh is harvested from a broken keg-hopping canister, so it is very fine and does a fantastic job of excluding even fine hop particles.

 

[twd000]

The CBDS has an available hop screen (pricey), but the William's unit does not. I wouldn't throw hops in the keg commando style using that product. A stainless canister or bag would work though. I have used mine so far with lagers, so no dry hops. I actually ferment in the keg, build up a little pressure at the end of fermentation, lager and serve without transferring it at all.

Your idea is cool - I'll restate that! Curious to see if you build one and test it.

Yeah I'm on the same page as you - planning to ferment and serve from the same keg without transferring. I picked up a spunding valve and planning to set that at 30 psi on the last couple days of fermentation, then chill and serve

 

[twd000]

Sounds like you could do it economically, so go for it. Personally, I try to avoid plastic bits and pieces. I use the "top draw" system, though I just purchase them as the floating dip tube replacements for the fermentasaurus ($15 CAD). I mainly use them in the kegs I ferment in. I put a little cone of stainless steel mesh over the intake to keep stuff out. The mesh is harvested from a broken keg-hopping canister, so it is very fine and does a fantastic job of excluding even fine hop particles.

Yeah plastic is definitely less durable over time compared to stainless. Though I am less worried about scratches than most people seem to be. If it fails I can reuse the gas dip tubes and silicone tubing and just buy the stainless floats. This is at least food grade stuff since it's made for sous vide and wine filtering.

How do you secure the screen cone to the tubing? Just crimp and fold?

 

[hopjuice_71]

How do you secure the screen cone to the tubing? Just crimp and fold?

I take a small square of mesh, roll it into a tube of a diameter that slides over the intake tube, then crimp one end. The edges of the mesh tube overlap enough that I don't have to crimp them. It is obviously quite important that the mesh tube fits quite snugly onto the intake tube. I secure the mesh tube onto the intake tube by making two holes in my mesh tube so that they align with the holes in the intake tube (after the ring that attaches the float ball to the intake tube via these holes has been removed). I then put the ring back on through the holes of the mesh tube and the intake tube.

 

[hopjuice_71]

Yeah I'm on the same page as you - planning to ferment and serve from the same keg without transferring. I picked up a spunding valve and planning to set that at 30 psi on the last couple days of fermentation, then chill and serve

I switched to fermenting entirely in kegs with spunding a couple of years ago. It was game changing for me. More recently I started using the floating dip tubes in the fermenter kegs, simply thinking it would help make life easier when transferring to serving kegs, particularly with heavily dry hopped beers (was using cut dip tubes and bagged dry hops). The floating dip tubes work so well, even going commando with huge dry hop charges, I find myself occasionally deciding to serve the beer directly from the fermenter (bit of laziness there too...). The beer is certainly fresh and tasty. I've yet to determine if there is any impact of the beer sitting on all that gunk - trub, yeast, lots of dry hops - for an extended period of time.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

@twd000 did you ever get this to work? I planned on getting 5-6 Top Draw systems from Williams, but they're out of stock and the 'back in stock' date keeps get moving back (as of now, it won't be available for another 2 months or so). I'm looking into options for building my own, preferably without using aliexpress.

 

[twd000]

@twd000 did you ever get this to work? I planned on getting 5-6 Top Draw systems from Williams, but they're out of stock and the 'back in stock' date keeps get moving back (as of now, it won't be available for another 2 months or so). I'm looking into options for building my own, preferably without using aliexpress.

yes, I converted 8 kegs to DIY floating dip tubes and they work. Not perfectly, but really well. I have been fermenting 4 gallons per keg, then spunding to carbonate and serving right from the same keg without transferring. I have not detected any off flavors due to sitting on the yeast cake/trub.

One modification I made was to put two stainless steel split-ring washers inside the wine filter to prevent the sous vide ball from blocking the inlet. I have not had any clogs since making that adjustment.

The wine filter does a great job of filtering out dry pellet hops without clogging. I have 1 oz of dry pellet hops in a Janet's Brown Ale and it pours clear and smooth.

The only problem I have had, on 3 of my 8 kegs - is that they will pour foam. I think it is due to the wine filter suspending sideways at the surface which sucks in foam at the liquid/gas boundary. I was able to open the keg and wiggle the hose until the wine filter sinks vertically again. The other 5 kegs poured correctly, all the way down to the last 1/4" of beer on top of the yeast cake. It's a great way to preserve yeast under beer for re-pitching.

I'd like to play around with neutral buoyancy by trying different lengths of silicone hose, and hanging weights at the center of the hose loop, so the wine filter always hangs vertically.

But overall I'm very happy with my cheap DIY floating dip tubes and it has simplified my process and reduced cold-side oxidation.

 

[brew703]

I also purchased the CBDS with screen and it's pricey but works. I also bought a floating dip tube from Ebay to use for fermenting in kegs. I attempted this over the weekend. Went to take a gravity reading using my picnic tap with the keg pressurized to 10 PSI and could not draw anything. I've been having issues with a couple of my keg post (liquid) where the poppet would get stuck. Well that happened again and I had beer squirt all over my office. Big mess. Not sure what caused my issue. I ended up replacing the floating dip tube with the regular one and still could not draw a sample.
So I ended up dumping my wort into my SSBT bucket to complete fermentation. Since I did this, fermentation has picked back up so hoping no infection or oxidation has set in.
Now back to trying to figure out what happened.

 

[twd000]

I also purchased the CBDS with screen and it's pricey but works. I also bought a floating dip tube from Ebay to use for fermenting in kegs. I attempted this over the weekend. Went to take a gravity reading using my picnic tap with the keg pressurized to 10 PSI and could not draw anything. I've been having issues with a couple of my keg post (liquid) where the poppet would get stuck. Well that happened again and I had beer squirt all over my office. Big mess. Not sure what caused my issue. I ended up replacing the floating dip tube with the regular one and still could not draw a sample.
So I ended up dumping my wort into my SSBT bucket to complete fermentation. Since I did this, fermentation has picked back up so hoping no infection or oxidation has set in.
Now back to trying to figure out what happened.

sorry to hear about your stuck poppet. Has this happened with both floating dip tubes and standard dip tubes? Are you dry-hopping in the keg without any filter/screen?

Can you post a link to the item you bought on eBay so I can compare it to my design?

 

[brew703]

sorry to hear about your stuck poppet. Has this happened with both floating dip tubes and standard dip tubes? Are you dry-hopping in the keg without any filter/screen?

Can you post a link to the item you bought on eBay so I can compare it to my design?

It's the Fermentasarus floating dip tube. I bought it from Ebay and it shipped from China. Took a month to come in but it was cheaper $16.
Yes to the other questions. I've only dry hopped in a keg one time and used a hop sack.