Designs for Conical Fermenter (Temp controlled, pump transfered)

[mvestel]

Hi,


We have a home brew setup and want to improve the fermenter.

We currently brew about 22 gallons, but hope to increase that to about 35gal soon. Or we will make two worts and transfer both to one fermenter.

My goal is to build an ultimate fermenter. I’m looking for designs I can compile to get my ultimate conical fermenter with glycol-jacked, etc designed so we can build it. We have access to a shop where we can weld stainless steel …

I’m soliciting advice on my current approach (Eric Lowe’s post helped) and I’m looking for actual plans:

Attributes and advantages
Conical: Save yeast from secondary to repitch so you can do Primary and Secondary fermentation in one vessel, easy to clear because cone encourages flocculation
Stainless steel (Sanitary, can make into a pressure vessel, etc.),
Pressure Vessel: Rack with CO2 to keep away from Oxygen,
Pressurized fermentation possibly, by replacing airlock with relief valve at end of fermentation
Glycol-Jacketed: heat and cool for temperature control
Transfer to fermenter via a pump.

Volume I can adjust when we design it, but I’m thinking for 44gal we need some headspace so maybe a total of 55gal conical fermenter.

Does anyone have plans for any of these components we can add to our design. Most notably, the Glycol-Jacketed design is not shown in many places. Thanks.

There was concern we had an unsafe setup in a previous post, but this is not the case as we upgraded our platform. Thanks for all the concern. Its nice to see breweres worried about safety too!

I’m posting here as I think it might be the right section.

 

[nationslargest]

I'd be interested in what you come up with. (And I think you're local so stop by for a beer and a look. Running a 1 bbl kolsch tomorrow.)

I bought a 60 gallon food grade plastic conical tank because it was way cheaper than steel ($325 with a stand). I have only two complaints: it does not take boiling water so I'm still working on my CIP procedures and it is not fully draining - more CIP issues. Otherwise so far its a dream. I can comfortably get 46 gallons in there which is the limit of the rest of my system.

I screwed around with some DIY cooling but have decided to build a two temperature walk-in fridge big enough to hold the whole fermenter. One side will be ordinary 36-38 and a separate thermostat will blow air into the other side for 50 fermentation. There is a lot of information about how to hack window air conditioners for cooling. I think it will work great but I haven't done it yet - should be cheaper than a glycol jacket and more useful.

I have a small magnetic pump that I use for transfer. It takes boiling temperature and is really a nice addition to the brew house.