DIY glycol chilled plastic conical fermenters
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Gotcha. That's worth the trouble, I suppose. I just use a whole house carbon filter, but it's not nearly as good as RO. I'll sit back and continue to enjoy your build.
For water, I have a inline house water filter and water softener setup. Then on my sink, I have a dual filter setup. So days before brewing, I fill up a bunch of 2 1/2 gallon water jugs and put them in the garage. Or if I'm going to the store, I bring them with me, I think it's $0.39 / gallon to fill them.
ClaudiusB
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And the remaining conical fittings are done:
Now all that's left is the tri-clover blowoff valve fittings and the replacement ball valves. Thankfully the ball valves were shipped from China yesterday. So, hopefully the boat gets here fast.
Looking great!
I hope you won't have condensation problems with your metal connectors.
Cheers,
ClaudiusB
Nothing some foam pipe insulation won't fix if I need to.
StMarcos
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At some point I recommend rigging up some sort of temporary way to measure temperature of the beer at both the very top and bottom of the fermenter. I did this when using the brewhemoth chiller for the first few times, and found SIGNIFICANT (10+degF) differences after the ferment was done, when there was no more fermentation to stir things up. Especially when holding at lager temps in a 75degF room, there was a lot of condensation that dripped over the bottom port and grew mildew in short order. Just some things to consider....
What was your solution to fix the temperature difference?
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kchomebrew
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Very cool! Well done. I'll enjoy checking back on this one to see progress.
StMarcos
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Sold the immersion chiller and put the whole thing in a temp controlled box with a fan to circulate air inside. If I had to use an immersion chiller I would make sure it had an even amount of coil area from top to bottom. Also, a room that was close to the ferm temp would help a lot. I had first thought about just chucking a big foam box over the whole thing, then figured I should have some air circulation, and once there, figured I would just heat/chill the box directly.
I had also tried putting an old thick canvas sleeping bag over it, which helped to be able to drop temps lower and/or use less power, but condensation was still a problem and the bag would eventually get wet around the bottom. Really didn't like the mildew on my fancy triclover butterflies!
I still hope to see this chiller project with a couple of probes during the chilling period when the ferment is over. Seems like a better spread of coil than I had.
New ball valve is in place as well as the new driver board.
Unfortunately it looks like the o-rings aren't going to keep the attachment for the lid air tight. So, I siliconed that in place and am now waiting for everything to dry. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to do the trial run.
Unfortunately it looks like the o-rings aren't going to keep the attachment for the lid air tight. So, I siliconed that in place and am now waiting for everything to dry. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to do the trial run.
Well, the chiller actually works. First run through of the chiller and it's actually cooling the water I'm using for the test. The ball valves also work too. Once the water is at temp I'll start testing the pump.
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well, the chiller actually works. First run through of the chiller and it's actually cooling the water i'm using for the test. The ball valves also work too. Once the water is at temp i'll start testing the pump.
amazing!
Got the spray ball working today too.
Here's the pump doing its magic:
It takes a little bit to adjust the flow to the point that it doesn't pump all the cleaner out of the bucket, but it works well
Spray ball in action:
From a quick look, it looks like it covers everything quite well.
Tri-clover connection on the lid:
Here's the pump doing its magic:
It takes a little bit to adjust the flow to the point that it doesn't pump all the cleaner out of the bucket, but it works well
Spray ball in action:
From a quick look, it looks like it covers everything quite well.
Tri-clover connection on the lid:
starman
Well-Known Member
Is she up to cruising altitude yet? How often do the zones and main reservoir ac kick on?
Just got a smaller water pump today. If the silicone has finally dried I should be using it on a batch this weekend.
bulldogbrewhaus
Well-Known Member
This is a badass build. I have not seen anything quite like that before.
I'm starting to feel a bit like Goldilocks here. The 1/4 HP pump was way too much, the 400GPH pump was way too little. Thankfully the 1/6 HP pump appears to be just right. One more leak to fix on one of the chillers and a problem with the ball valve on ferm 3 (again) and I should be good to go.
Test run of the chiller using water works great. Here's a rather bad phone photo of the chiller at work:
And a screenshot after the water came to temp:
Looks like I should be all set for a first ferment tomorrow.
And a screenshot after the water came to temp:
Looks like I should be all set for a first ferment tomorrow.
ClaudiusB
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I hope the 1/6 HP pump will work for you.
My cleaning setup requires a 3/4 HP pump to remove wall deposits after fermentation or boiling.
Some hitting force is required to remove the stubborn deposits in my equipment.
Cheers,
ClaudiusB
Hey Cladius, you mind point me towards what pump you are using for CIP? And if you're so inclined, post it over in my CIP pump thread?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/definitive-cip-pump-thread-398895/
I'm using the 1/6 HP pump for pumping glycol through the system.
The 1/4 HP pump is going to be used for the spray ball. The main problem I have now is that the 1/4 HP pump fills the conical faster than it drains. I might have to remove the tubing entirely and drain the conical directly in to the bucket I'm using.
bellinmi88
Well-Known Member
Have you sketched out your system as built, that would be interesting to see.
Here's what I'm basing the plumbing for the glycol lines on:
Obviously without the plate cooler or cold room.
Well, it's finally up and running. The first batch is in one of the conicals.
Here's a temp graph:
I'm currently running water through the system as a trial run. So, the water is set to 40 deg. F. The A/C unit will kick on once the water reaches 50 and cool it back down to 40.
It also looks like we're due for a heat wave in the next couple days with ambient temps reaching ~95. So, we'll see how it keeps up.
Here's a temp graph:
I'm currently running water through the system as a trial run. So, the water is set to 40 deg. F. The A/C unit will kick on once the water reaches 50 and cool it back down to 40.
It also looks like we're due for a heat wave in the next couple days with ambient temps reaching ~95. So, we'll see how it keeps up.
I haven't as of yet, but will if I get some time and find some appropriate visio icons for it.
In the mean time, take out the cool room, storage tanks and the like and that's how it's plumbed.
Your problem may be your return hose. I use 1.5" on mine to keep up. I also have a hose on the racking valve too.
Yeah, I'll bet it is. I'll have to order some new fittings next time I get some.
Maybe we will be the only ones to run into issue, but when we cleaned our conicals without using ~180 degree water, we ended up with about 10 batches of molded beer. Just my two cents. Just concerns me to see that you are pumping unheated water though the CIP heads.
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