DIY glycol chilled plastic conical fermenters

[TrickyDick]

Pricedawg,

I see two custom gaskets, lid seal 1/2" and lid seal 3/4", and you pick the outside diameter (14"). Which did you use? These are red silicone.

Thanks

TD


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[pricedawg]

I used the 3/4. It's a snug fit. Still allows room to screw the lid on and get plenty if grip.

 

[heckels]

Has anyone tried one of the custom 14 inch gaskets from Brewerygaskets.com on this conical to seal the lid properly? I ordered one tonight to give it a shot. It fits over the edge of the lid and "should" provide a proper seal.

I ordered a food grade o-ring from www.oringwarehouse.com. It's 1/4" and seems to work well. Can't remember what size it was offhand.


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[TrickyDick]

Be nice to see the O ring and the manway gasket pics when you have time to post them.

I believe all parts are now on hand and I'm ready to move forward with the conicals. Finding time to do this has been a challenge.

TD

 

[wasitim]

@heckels,

When you screw the top on, does the o-ring stay in place? That is, the friction between the cover, the o-ring, and the base doesn't move the o-ring out of place? Do you lube it at all?

 

[heckels]

From what I've been able to tell it stays in place. Up to this point I haven't needed it to hold pressure so I haven't bothered with lube.

I looked up the size. I believe it was -454 (12.5 ID, 1/4"). It sits perfectly in the middle of the screwed down threaded ring.



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[TrickyDick]

Can you post a picture of this please when you have a moment?

Thanks

TD


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[pricedawg]

Sure.

 

[Yaksha808]

Have you tried fermenting in it yet?? Does it provide a good enough seal to transfer under pressure?

 

[TrickyDick]

Ahhhh.. Now I see... Thanks for the post! Where is the glycol coil or were you the guy that hadn't done that part yet?

Thanks!

I want to see the O-ring pics too and then when I get to the silicone sealing I'll see if I need any gaskets/O-ring...

TD

 

[pricedawg]

No glycol for me yet. I have a roll in fermentation chamber (cool side only). I have not fermented in this one since I received the new gasket. Hopefully Sunday!

 

[TrickyDick]

Good to know. I'm planning a dry stout to brew Monday hopefully. I highly doubt I'll have the system finished by then however.

I still haven't finished up my control panel,though I could probably do so in an hour or two at most, nor have I even begun any plumbing or conical modifications or chiller work. Still trying to figure out where exactly to mount the PEX tubing and ball valves. I'm thinking of riveting the plastic PEX mount stand off clips to the diamond plate, or to the "legs" of my stand. It seems I will need to get my chiller apparatus setup first, and then plan the plumbing around that. Also need to figure on where to mount ball valves and routing of the chiller connections from the PEX to the plumbing for the cleanest look. I ended up getting a Coleman party stacker cooler which is a little smaller than the one packet used. Its 33 qt, but will fit better onto my stand, no drain.

TD


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[pricedawg]

Ok. Still have an issue. I can smell the co2 through the top. I may not have enough silicone under the female screw on piece of the top. Really pissed now that I may have 13 gallons of wasted Rye. Hopefully there will be enough of a co2 blanket to protect the beer.

 

[TrickyDick]

Thinking about this show I was watching in the new Esquire channel Sunday while tending the grill. Ghostbusters. Loved it as a kid but time has treated it poorly.
Anyway saw the infomercials for the stop leak spray stuff. You know the guy in the boat with the screen door for a hull. Yeah. They make clear black or white. Not sure it's food friendly but maybe to use externally on the lid base and screws.....


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[packet]

Ok. Still have an issue. I can smell the co2 through the top. I may not have enough silicone under the female screw on piece of the top. Really pissed now that I may have 13 gallons of wasted Rye. Hopefully there will be enough of a co2 blanket to protect the beer.

Honestly, I gave up trying to make it perfectly sealed. The lid hasn't been a problem on mine and I've done at least a dozen batches through it.

 

[TrickyDick]

I still have a lot of work to do on mine. Finding time (and motivation) has been an issue.


TD


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[bemerritt]

Kind of an off topic question, but has anyone here set up their bcs port forwarding to enable you to view the bcs via the internet when you are out of the house? Thanks.

 

[neovox]

Fantastic build. Great read.

 

[TrickyDick]

Kind of an off topic question, but has anyone here set up their bcs port forwarding to enable you to view the bcs via the internet when you are out of the house? Thanks.

I don't have mine setup yet, but when I do, yes I will want to be able to do this, as long as it can be done securely ( require a log-in with password ).

I believe port forwarding is done by your router, and not the BCS. You will probably need to log into your router home page by entering its IP address into your browser address bar, then using the ID and password you should have from when you installed and configured your router. Your router manual and often the webpage for the router can walk you through this to some degree. I am by no means a network/IT expert, but have had to wear the amateur version of that hat at home with some success and some failure as well. Depending upon how your internet connection is setup at home, there can be various step needed to accomplish this task. You of course need to know the port numbers that the BCS uses. I've not searched for that yet since mine isn't setup.

TD

 

[staffordj]

Here is a tip we learned a couple of weeks ago. Do not clean the coils with hot water with the coils disconnected. One of the compression fittings popped of because the coil was filled with glycol and had no pressure relief.

 

[staffordj]

If it's not spinning, chances are your pump isn't supplying enough water at a high enough pressure. I use a 1/4 hp pump (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) that does 30gpm. So, the 5.5gpm aquatec is probably a bit small.

Packet,
It looks like the temp on this pump is 120F. Are you using it hotter than this for CIP? Any issues?

 

[rvklein]

The ball valves themselves are $25 each + shipping. Switching from stainless doesn't really cut the price down.

For the brewbit part, Chilling a conical requires two outputs per conical. You need one output to turn on the pump and another output to activate the ball valve. If you redid the plumbing so each conical is only controlled by a single pump, you'd need 4 pumps total and would get rid of the ball valves. The end result would be a need for a total of 5 outputs (3 for the conicals and 2 for the glycol chiller). So, three brewbits.

If you didn't replumb the system, you'd still need to find a way to turn on the pump (with potentially multiple brewbits turning it on at the same time) and also to step down the 120v to 12v for the ball valves.

This isn't completely true though. If you have a continuous duty pump running the glycol loop the brewbit will not need to control it. Just turn the pump on for the length of fermentation. this is how the pros do it

 

[TrickyDick]

I've been struck with hopefully temporary laziness. Have all my parts on hand. Have the cart done. Have the control panel 99% done. Haven't plumbed the thing yet. Trying to figure best place to route the tubing and how to mount it to aluminum with the PEX standoffs. Was thinking rivets, but that won't work. Epoxy? Thinking about possibly mounting the plumbing BELOW the tabletop. I think I am going to stick to the plumbing plan that Packet has done. I don't know what this brew it business is all about and sounds like more parts to buy. Using a smaller cooler reservoir so it'll fit better on my brew stand.

That's my update..


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[staffordj]

This isn't completely true though. If you have a continuous duty pump running the glycol loop the brewbit will not need to control it. Just turn the pump on for the length of fermentation. this is how the pros do it

For smaller fermentors like this, running the pump continuously is really inefficient. The AC unit will cycle on a lot more often to cool down the glycol because the pump will heat it up. In a bigger system, the pump will need to be on more to cool larger/more fermentors, so having it run continuously is less of a concern. So, the tradeoff is upfront costs vs. ongoing power. Also, depending on where your brewery is, it is quieter the less the pump and AC run.

 

[TrickyDick]

Is it at all critical in selecting the length of the PEX tubing in the system as far as spacing the fermenter inlet and outlet from the supply and return headers? I looked at the prochiller diagram. They have a neat option to connect a plate chiller to the circuit... I guess you can always chill once wort is in the conical and dump the cold break too though. I'll probably immersion chill to below 100° before running into conicals though.

I think I'm going to mount my PEX tubing on the underside of my aluminum cart. I think it will be easiest to screw/bolt some 2x4s onto the square frame, then mount the PEX to the 2x4. Trying to mount the PEX tube clips directly to the aluminum seems like would be more difficult, and would probably be a point of a failure at some time.

Hopefully I'll have time to work on mine this weekend and get it finished if I'm lucky. Would like to use it later this month.

TD


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[rvklein]

For smaller fermentors like this, running the pump continuously is really inefficient. The AC unit will cycle on a lot more often to cool down the glycol because the pump will heat it up. In a bigger system, the pump will need to be on more to cool larger/more fermentors, so having it run continuously is less of a concern. So, the tradeoff is upfront costs vs. ongoing power. Also, depending on where your brewery is, it is quieter the less the pump and AC run.

I use a rotary vane pump which adds no heat to the system.

 

[staffordj]

Is it at all critical in selecting the length of the PEX tubing in the system as far as spacing the fermenter inlet and outlet from the supply and return headers? I looked at the prochiller diagram. They have a neat option to connect a plate chiller to the circuit... I guess you can always chill once wort is in the conical and dump the cold break too though. I'll probably immersion chill to below 100° before running into conicals though.

I think I'm going to mount my PEX tubing on the underside of my aluminum cart. I think it will be easiest to screw/bolt some 2x4s onto the square frame, then mount the PEX to the 2x4. Trying to mount the PEX tube clips directly to the aluminum seems like would be more difficult, and would probably be a point of a failure at some time.

What would the purpose of the plate chiller be? I was thinking about how to use the glycol in my plate chiller to cool the wort, but because the wort volume is so much larger than the Glycol volume (30gal to 6 gal for my system), I don't think it will do me much good. I have a 5000 BTU/hr AC unit. With perfect efficiency it could drop 30gals of water about 20F in 1 hour (1 BTU is needed to change 1lb water by 1F). Even if the wort is prechilled to 100F, it would take a long time to get it down to pitching temp.

Depending on the thickness of your aluminum, using self tapping screws or sheet metal screws wouldn't be too bad. Wood would be easier, so I think it is an ascetics question.

 

[TrickyDick]

What would the purpose of the plate chiller be? I was thinking about how to use the glycol in my plate chiller to cool the wort, but because the wort volume is so much larger than the Glycol volume (30gal to 6 gal for my system), I don't think it will do me much good. I have a 5000 BTU/hr AC unit. With perfect efficiency it could drop 30gals of water about 20F in 1 hour (1 BTU is needed to change 1lb water by 1F). Even if the wort is prechilled to 100F, it would take a long time to get it down to pitching temp.

Depending on the thickness of your aluminum, using self tapping screws or sheet metal screws wouldn't be too bad. Wood would be easier, so I think it is an ascetics question.

They had a diagram of an intercooler for a storage room connected to the glycol unit in the prochiller diagram. I think its for commercial brewers. They had a dual stage plate chiller with stage one being just tap water and then wort feeds into the glycol (probably massive capacity) stage of the chiller system.


I forget the aluminum thickness, think its 3/16" if I recall correctly. I wanted strength. The other issue is that the square tube frame has only four front-to-back sections spaced at approx 22" and the PEX would most certainly sag without a secondary mounting surface attached to the frame, plus weight of the valves, which may require a mounting point themselves, or placed above the deck.

TD

 

[staffordj]

They had a diagram of an intercooler for a storage room connected to the glycol unit in the prochiller diagram. I think its for commercial brewers. They had a dual stage plate chiller with stage one being just tap water and then wort feeds into the glycol (probably massive capacity) stage of the chiller system.

Dual stage with water first and a large volume of glycol would work great. If only there was more time and money. Once the city water heats up a bit more, I will likely start letting the wort come into the conical a little warmer, like 80-85 so I can transfer faster and then use the glycol to cool to pitching temp.

I had some fun with my system last night. I was sampling and dumping yeast. Finished the first fermentor, moved on the the second one. Obviously wasn't paying enough attention and I went to undo the tri-clamp and mistakenly undid the one above the butterfly valve instead of the one for the cap. Beer starts dumping, the gasket washes off of the valve so I stick my hand over the bottom of the fermentor to stop the flow. It took me two more tries to get the valve seated and clamped while beer is dumping and spraying everywhere. All in all I lost about two gallons and a bit of pride. I stuck a zip tie through the clamp to remind me next time to not do that. Others might want to do something to make sure you don't blindly reach under the conical and do something idiotic like I did. I can almost laugh about it now, but not quite.

 

[TrickyDick]

I'm thinking about getting mine ready to rock and roll over the this week so I can use it for some beer next week which I'm off work.

Going to do a little bit each night.

I'll try to take some pics as I go, and post them up here once it's all finished.

TD


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