DIY glycol chilled plastic conical fermenters

[calebstringer]

I have three 30 gallon tanks on a truck somewhere. along with my butterfly valves. The. I can start designing my stand....

 

[TrickyDick]

I have three 30 gallon tanks on a truck somewhere. along with my butterfly valves. The. I can start designing my stand....

My butterfly valves are back ordered.... I think it's holding up the whole shipment... I was hoping to build week of Xmas I have off, but maybe not...

TD

 

[calebstringer]

My butterfly valves are back ordered.... I think it's holding up the whole shipment... I was hoping to build week of Xmas I have off, but maybe not...

TD

did you order through brewers hardware?

 

[TrickyDick]

did you order through brewers hardware?

Of course!! The butterfly valves were the only item on back order.

TD

 

[staffordj]

I had the same issue and switched to this one:
http://www.brewershardware.com/1.5-Tri-Clover-Butterfly-Valve-Squeeze-Trigger-TC10VBFVST1.html

I like the other one better, but really want to use time off during the holidays to build this thing.

 

[calebstringer]

I just an email saying mine shipped! Woot! I ordered the squeeze trigger valves tho

 

[staffordj]

I am going to buy some flex watt tape, but need a little help. I am expecting my conicals on Tuesday, and since I don't have them in hand, I don't have exact dimensions. A couple of questions:
1) How many watts do you think will raise a 15 gal plastic conical 20-30F if it is insultated? Is 100 Watts enough? I am fermenting in a garage that may get down as low as 40F.
2) What size and where should I position it? It comes in 3" to 12" and I am not sure what would work best on the conicals. Anyone know how tall the straight section on the 15 gal conicals from spraysmarter are?

 

[BetterSense]

I have a 100W lightbulb in a GE chest freezer that easily keeps 3 kegs at 10C even when it's below 0C outside. I think it depends on your insulation.

 

[fpweeks]

If you are doing 10 -12 gallons in the fermenter there is only a few, maybe 3 -4 inches at most above the cone. The bulk of the liquid is in the cone. I would think if you covered the cone pretty good with the flex watt and insulated the whole thing well you would be fine.

 

[calebstringer]

I am planning on using Fermwrap. Something along the lines of

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XNMI6E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Probably install two squares per conical, rotated 45 degrees so the look like a diamond on the cone (since I haven't found any for cones) I plan in fermenting anywhere from 10g up to 25g at a time, per conical. With insulating, even just the cone, there should be more than enough of heat. The garage I ferment in sees temp swings of 58-72 depending on the season obviously. Although I am still debating on building a small room in the garage to house these in, and temp/humidity controlling it to a very even 55 or so, for lagering, and canned food storage. Just ideas....

 

[RadicalEd]

I found this absolutely wonderful little document that does a good job walking you through the process of sizing your heat tape:

http://www.proheatinc.com/support/Technical/DesignGuide.pdf

I doubled what they said, for conservative margin .

 

[staffordj]

Thanks for the great link. I made up a spreadsheet to do the calculations. It is an excel sheet saved as xml spreadsheet, so let me know if it has issues.

View attachment Conical heat loss calculation.xml

 

[FreddyMar3]

Just wanted to throw it out there that I have been using one of those submersible aquarium heaters with good results. I have my conical in a detached, unheated garage that is about 35 degrees right now (PA) and I'm having no problems brewing a saison.

 

[TrickyDick]

Care to share a pic? It goes in the coolant reservoir? I'm not sure I would want ability to heat, but if it would be simple to add, then maybe.

TD

 

[FreddyMar3]

I will try to grab a pic when I get home but this is what I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00513MZ1I/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Has been awesome so far.

 

[TrickyDick]

thanks. I added to my wishlist should I desire the need to heat.

More parts in today, and appears that the back order is lifted on the butterfly valves! Shipped! MAYBE, just MAYBE, I'll be able to build over xmas break

TD

 

[staffordj]

I am looking at insulation type for the conicals. Any reason that you picked neoprene over polyethylene or some other foam insulation?

 

[TrickyDick]

FYI, agrimart.com is having a sale through 1/1/14, 10.20.30% off 100.200.300 dollars spent. Not much, but better than a kick in the pants.

TD

 

[calebstringer]

I'm thinking of just insulating the cones on mine. That's where my heating will be and it will give it a cleaner look. I don't think I'll have too much heat/cooling loss

 

[TrickyDick]

Stainless Brewing parts just showed up, along with a SS hop spider and dry hopper!

Just need to check the tracking on the brewershardware parts, and might be able to get started on my build!

Frame still not done, plus need to order the last two tanks, and misc PEX tools, reservoir cooler and AC unit.
Hah! The brewers hardware stuff is at the local Post office! Maybe today, maybe Monday...
TD

 

[calebstringer]

Stainless Brewing parts just showed up, along with a SS hop spider and dry hopper!

Just need to check the tracking on the brewershardware parts, and might be able to get started on my build!

Frame still not done, plus need to order the last two tanks, and misc PEX tools, reservoir cooler and AC unit.
Hah! The brewers hardware stuff is at the local Post office! Maybe today, maybe Monday...
TD

I priced out using copper and shark bite fittings to plumb, as opposed to the pex, and it is almost the same price for me. I dont have any pex tools, so the price it would cost for me to get those and materials, is on par with the other

 

[calebstringer]

Can I ask a dumb question? What is the point of having a racking arm? I mean, you have the valve on the bottom, and if all the yeast/trub has been dumped, why don't you just use that for emptying? I plan in making a tri clamp adapter to fill kegs right off of it if I go that route.

 

[kluge9]

You normally only dump the first part of the yeast. You need some in there to finish fermentation and the racking arm keeps you from sucking that up

 

[calebstringer]

You normally only dump the first part of the yeast. You need some in there to finish fermentation and the racking arm keeps you from sucking that up

Even once fermentation is complete?

 

[kluge9]

Once fermentation is complete, if you can run the dump valve until it's just beer coming out, you should be fine to push to a keg after that. Another reason for a racking arm is that it is higher up on the conical and that doesn't require as high of a stand to get the gravity fill into a keg. If you're pushing from the conical to a keg through the dump valve, the whole conical has to be pretty elevated. Hope that makes sense

 

[Chrisl77]

I priced out using copper and shark bite fittings to plumb, as opposed to the pex, and it is almost the same price for me. I dont have any pex tools, so the price it would cost for me to get those and materials, is on par with the other

Just incase you where unaware you can use sharkbite fittings on pex pipe.

 

[calebstringer]

Once fermentation is complete, if you can run the dump valve until it's just beer coming out, you should be fine to push to a keg after that. Another reason for a racking arm is that it is higher up on the conical and that doesn't require as high of a stand to get the gravity fill into a keg. If you're pushing from the conical to a keg through the dump valve, the whole conical has to be pretty elevated. Hope that makes sense

Yep that makes sense. My plan to get around the height issue is to push the beer out via co2, so I can have a hose on the bottom valve and not need the conical 30+ inches off the ground

 

[calebstringer]

Just incase you where unaware you can use sharkbite fittings on pex pipe.

True, and copper cost about the same as the pex, at least around me. Plus no bend memory like pex, and it's nice and rigid. And no buying pex tools.

 

[Chrisl77]

1/2 copper pipe is over twice as much as pex here. You can get straight pieces of pex instead of rolls and it will not have any bend memory. In my area home depot sells 10' of m copper for just over $8 and a 10' section of pex for just over $3.

 

[pickles]

I've also seen Oetiker style clamps used on PEX, those are easy to install without expensive tools.