Doubling Down: SS Brewtech Conical + FTSS + Glycol Power Pack

[helibrewer]

Hello,

Just finished reading through the wealth of information on this thread. It seems like the penguin chillers have quite a few fans. I'm interested to know if anyone has a qualified opinion on how the penguin compares to the SS brew tech? I was torn and ultimately ended up just pulling the trigger on the SS brewtech glycol chiller and a 7 gallon uni. For me, the SS brewtech chiller looks better and more 'in place' in my brewery. I think customer service will be the deciding factor and SS has already proven themselves on that front by voluntarily emailing me after my order and offering to give me the mash manifold I also purchased free of charge as a thanks - cant beat that!

I do have a few questions hoping some of the more experienced folks could help with and some general comments

* I purchased a 1.5 TC to 1/2 male npt along with a 1.5 tc to 1/2 barb to complete the blowoff assembly. Seems logical
* I also purchased the 1.5 TC to 1/4 MFL to do pressurized transfer through the blowoff cane.
* How does the gas connect to the carb stone for carbing? Do I need another fitting, or will everything be included in the box?
* For the liquid side of the pressurized transfer, I was planning to use a 1.5 TC to 1/2 barb to a ball lock liquid connector with a 1/4 MFL to 1/2 barb fitting from brew hardware. I assume this will work? Do I need anything else to complete the pressurized transfer
* I also picked up the 3/8 line quick disconnects for the glycol chiller based on a previous recommendation, thanks for that.

Is there anything else I'm missing? I saw the ball jar connector that looks pretty neat, but would require purchase of leg extensions as well. Wondering if its worth it? - is it just for yeast collection or can it also be used for more controlled trub dumps?

* I forgot to order the casters, are these a must have?

Are there any other must haves I may be missing to make this solution best in class? Apologies if any of this has been answered previously, alot of this stuff is new to me.


Thanks!

The casters are standard 3/8" x 1.5", you can find them anywhere if you want to add them later.

 

[marjen]

The casters are standard 3/8" x 1.5", you can find them anywhere if you want to add them later.

And for cheaper. I got mine from amazon for like $25.

 

[dunnry]

Good info! Plan in place!

Start another thread when you have it and detail the build. I have only done this with a lot more than 2oz and only with half barrel kegs.

 

[dunnry]

5/8” fitting to 1/2”ID hose to 1/2” OD T fitting to 3/8” ID hose to FMT adapters with 3/8” barns to the beer QD.

View attachment 561902

Can you post a link to the connection(s) you are using from 1/2" hose to the ball lock liquid post?

 

[Sbe2]

Good info! Plan in place!

I would do a dry run before doing it with your beer, I am by no means a physicist. Hopefully u can get enough velocity during racking to create the vacuum. Maybe gravity feed with a needle valve with the T in the up position. I would hate for you to lose any of your beer on my theory.

 

[Morrey]

I would do a dry run before doing it with your beer, I am by no means a physicist. Hopefully u can get enough velocity during racking to create the vacuum. Maybe gravity feed with a needle valve with the T in the up position. I would hate for you to lose any of your beer on my theory.

I will run tests for sure. Anytime I bring something new and untested online, I usually do a wet run with water to test the process. I'll do something similar with the venturi. Since I only need to draw 2 ounces, I should be able to design something easily.

 

[Carlscan26]

Can you post a link to the connection(s) you are using from 1/2" hose to the ball lock liquid post?

I originally posted that these were 3/8” barbs - they’re actually 1/2”. I’ve fixed the original post.

I used these: https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/fflbarb12.htm

Bobby also sells a 3/8” barb version.

Also it’s 3/8” hose onto these as I originally planned to use 1/2” hose all the way through but decided it would be better to drop in size after the “T”. It was a stretch but the good news is they handle pressure just fine without a clamp.

 

[prosperbrews]

I was a bit skeptical about ordering the SS unitank because I have read a few reports online about inferior welds and rough spots on the inside of the tank. Happy to report that my unitank showed up in damn near perfect condition. I was actually shocked to see the quality of the sanitary welds - near perfect. Highly recommend SS brewtech.

 

[Morrey]

Congrats on your beautiful new tank. Like you, I have never had a single Ss product fail my stringent quality inspections. I have 2 Ss brew buckets, 2 5G uni tanks and 1 14G uni tank...each product is flawless cosmetically and functionally.

I remember one of the Ss support reps saying a shipment had come in and something had failed their inspection. So instead of taking a gamble and risk sending out suspect products, they delayed shipment so each tank could be more thoroughly inspected. I believe they are quality control oriented and have earned my trust by selling only top line products.

 

[helibrewer]

I have a small blemish on my 14gal Uni....at 9 o'clock

 

[martianpc]

I just moved a 12 gallon batch of a Czech pilsner lager to kegs, second keg only filled about 4 gallons. I couldn't imagine I took that many samples but nothing else was coming so not sure what I did wrong. Just opened up the fermenter to clean it for the next batch, the coils have a massive Frozen block around them. I'll have to check my gravity on the beer I kegged because it must be stronger than I thought. I've been using my own homemade glycol cooler which seems to work great. However I really don't know what I could have done that would have made it freeze so bad. I obviously have the temperature too cold for the glycol bath. However when I was trying to lager at 32 with the glycol at 29 it wasn't getting there. So I dropped the temperature to somewhere between 15 and 20 for the glycol. I have no idea how to improve this because the unitank isn't well enough insulated to lager at 32 with a just slightly cooler glycol. I see this as a major shortcoming of this fermenter now and definitely a warning to all to make sure you're keeping an eye on your temperature and beer for ice if you're using glycol.

 

[Morrey]

It doesn't look like you have an insulator jacket on your tank and I think you'll be well served to invest in the neoprene jacket Ss produces for your tank.

I use a Penguin glycol chiller with 33% glycol in the mix set at 28F in the chiller. When I crash the beer to 35F, my system brings temps down with no issues.

I use a Ss FTSs2 system (includes neoprene insulating jacket) to control the fermenter temps, and of course the Penguin has it's own controller to set temps for the glycol mix set at 28F as mentioned above. Looks like something is a bit off balance with your system in that beer with a typical ABV% generally doesn't freeze until it gets down to or a bit below 30F. The "stronger" a beer is with a higher ABV%, means the freeze point goes down as the alcohol content goes up.


If you crash your beer to 35F that is generally a safe zone, gets the beer to clear and flocculate, and is typically a temp most brewers feel will be satisfactory w/o risk of freezing.

 

[martianpc]

It doesn't look like you have an insulator jacket on your tank and I think you'll be well served to invest in the neoprene jacket Ss produces for your tank.

I use a Penguin glycol chiller with 33% glycol in the mix set at 28F in the chiller. When I crash the beer to 35F, my system brings temps down with no issues.

I use a Ss FTSs2 system (includes neoprene insulating jacket) to control the fermenter temps, and of course the Penguin has it's own controller to set temps for the glycol mix set at 28F as mentioned above. Looks like something is a bit off balance with your system in that beer with a typical ABV% generally doesn't freeze until it gets down to or a bit below 30F. The "stronger" a beer is with a higher ABV%, means the freeze point goes down as the alcohol content goes up.


If you crash your beer to 35F that is generally a safe zone, gets the beer to clear and flocculate, and is typically a temp most brewers feel will be satisfactory w/o risk of freezing.

I do have the neoprene jacket

 

[czmkid]

I crash to 35 as well and sometimes hold for weeks and condition in the unitank if all of my kegs are full and that has never happened. On another note I am brewing two easy drinking Mexican lagers....with one in the tank chugging away at 53.5 degrees now.

Crazy shot with the ic echunk bro....guess you made some of that old school ‘ice’ beer

 

[prosperbrews]

I just finished my first brew using the unitank - a German hef. I originally thought that a single 7g fermenter would do the trick, but it looks like I’ll be needing a second unitank to keep up with demand and keep all 6 taps full.

Question is, do I get a second 7g, which would give me the flexibility to do two different 5 gal batches or a 10 gal batch split between 2. Or, for 200$ more, I could just get the 14 gal unitank, which allows the flexibility to do a full 10 gal batch while only preparing and sanitizing a single fermenter and having a total capacity to ferment 15 gallons at a time.

My only concern with the 14g is that it seems a bit large. Right now I can easily clean the 7’s in my sink. With the 14, I’d probably have to go CIP. Surely I’m not the only one to go through this thought process...interested in others opinions

 

[Morrey]

I was asking your same questions this time last year. My first tank was a 14G and brewing double batches of 11G was good for making 2 kegs holding 5G each. My intention would be to also use this tank to brew half batches so I'd only need this one tank. Once I found that only 30% of the cooling coils in a 14G tank reached the wort and cooling problems could exist if I wanted to do a half batch in the 14G tank, my hopes of half batches diminished. I bought a 7G to solve this followed by another 7G for flexibility. I use CIP for all and love CIP once I started using my Harbor Freight sump pump with a micro CIP ball.

Making 2 kegs (5G kegs) of the same beer from the 14G tank is great, but unless you burn thru a hoppy beer more quickly than I do, the beer tends to fade by the end of keg two. This is where I use the 7G tank for a single keg and don't want that second keg sitting around too long. I like the big tank to brew Lagers, English Bitters and Stouts where aging is a good thing and not detrimental to the beer.

Rumor has it that Ss will be introducing longer coils for their tanks that allow efficient cooling for smaller batches in larger tanks, but I haven't looked too closely at that yet. You may want to check on that to make sure, and a 14G tank that can also do half batches effectively may be worth your consideration.

I totally understand your need for additional tanks...ask my SWMBO, grumble, grumble.

 

[czmkid]

Myself as well. In the end I went with two smaller unitanks because really how many times do I brew a double 10 gal batch? Having said that I just did this past weekend hahaha. I have 12 taps and these 2 keep my kegs filled. Sure would be nice to have two more

About Ss, it only makes sense that they would offer an extension solution for the coil. Seems like a no brainer and good way to move the higher priced 14 gal uni for those brewers who have the same question as well all did.

On another note.....anyone see the monster glycol cart chiller they put up yesterday. Only a few hundred more and you can chill 6 of something!

https://www.ssbrewtech.com/products/glycol-chiller-3-8hp

 

[Tozzi]

anyone see the monster glycol cart chiller they put up yesterday

Yea, that's the one they just made available in Europe, too. Finally.
Can't wait to finally get my hands on this. Ordered a 2nd 1/2 BBL Unitank alongside.
They're already shipping here. Mine is underway.

What I don't like about the smaller fermenters (7 Gal) is that they have only 3 legs.
That's asking for desaster. I'd always go for at least the 14 Gal. Version, as its cost is only slightly higher.
But I get it, for split batches and such these are a little oversized.
I so far didn't have any problems cooling 7 Gal batches in the larger ones, however.

 

[czmkid]

So cool (pun intended) you got one on the way and another tank! I brought up the same fact that I wish they would have had 4 legs and not 3 a few pages back. All the butterfly bling on the front makes it heavy on one side. I have been toying with welding a counterweight on the back side of the bottom plate. That might help? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the new chiller.

Yea, that's the one they just made available in Europe, too. Finally.
Can't wait to finally get my hands on this. Ordered a 2nd 1/2 BBL Unitank alongside.
They're already shipping here. Mine is underway.

What I don't like about the smaller fermenters (7 Gal) is that they have only 3 legs.
That's asking for desaster. I'd always go for at least the 14 Gal. Version, as its cost is only slightly higher.
But I get it, for split batches and such these are a little oversized.
I so far didn't have any problems cooling 7 Gal batches in the larger ones, however.

 

[Tozzi]

Yea I'll report. I'm enthusiastic about it. I was completely taken by surprise, they suddenly became available, no pre-order, no announcements whatsoever. It's already on its way from UK and I'll probably be able to unbox it by Monday.
Got the GF one a few weeks ago and felt happy but I can already tell it's not really up to the task, as it has only 6 Liters of reservoir, while the new Ss Brewtech model has got 37 (10 Gallons), at a just 300 bucks higher price tag.
Being able to cold crash at 32F is mandatory for me, which, I can already tell, would take forever with the GF Chiller.
Also, chilling the wort from ~45˚C to pitching temp will be very nice-to-have, using the built-in sleeve chiller of my Braumeister 50 Plus and leaving the Therminator on the shelf.
I'm happy and will sell the GF Chiller as soon as I get the Ss one.

I'll post a little review here as soon as I get my hands on it.

//EDIT:
And yea, the 3 legs make these things really unbalanced.
One of my 7 Gal. Chronicals was already very close to disaster once. Luckily a friend with good reflexes was around at the time. In my opinion, this is a serious design flaw.

 

[marjen]

SO I have to say the combination of the unitank + the glycol chiller has really gone a long way to helping me with my brewing. I start a little over a year ago. I started off ok and made a few real good beers out of the gate. Then things went south quickly and good batches became rare. I had no idea what the issue was, thought it was all sorts of things. It got to the point that by mid November I stopped until mid February just to try and regroup as I felt it was not worth the effort, time and money to just be dumping the beer.

I now realize it was simply the hops not dropping out of the beer and thus when I tried to drink these batches they were terrible and full of hop sludge. No idea why batches drop at such different rates. Not knowing that was really the issue I was not able to take steps to correct it. I suppose if I had waited a lot longer to transfer to keg it might have helped, but NE IPAs also have a short shelf life so leaving them in the fermenter for weeks would not really help their cause any.

My first batch this year started out the same way. Beer was at FG for several days but still tasted horrible. In comes the chiller to save the day. After a couple days of cold crashing it was a totally different story. Beer was not murky green it was a nice yellow/orange haze and started tasting great. With the chiller I have consistently been able to crash the beers to force the hops out of suspension and thus so far this year I have 4 straight good to great batches of beer. Each one seems to get better as now I that I fixed my big problem its down to tweaking things here and there to try and improve the beer. It also has allowed me to pretty consistently turn beers around in a similar time line. I did have one batch that was a little slow, but it still turned out great.

Additionally starting the carbonation process naturally during the end of fermentation and then finishing off with the carb stone prior to transfer seems to have made a difference in the overall beer quality. Hard to explain but just seems to have a better feel than just carbing in the keg at the end.

And finally the clear beer drought system in my kegs has been another great piece. No more sludgy pours. Comes right off the top and I get great beers all the time.

NE IPAs are tough in many respects due to all the hop matter during and post completing the product but the combination of these products have really helped and now I am feeling much more confident that I can turn around a great product. Some people can make great beer in a carboy with no temp control, and the more power to them, but for me it took some help but the result is worth it.

 

[Morrey]

Well done! I know you were struggling, now glad to know things have taken a turn for the better.

 

[prosperbrews]

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone on this thread for all of the great advice so far. I am nearing the end of fermentation on my first brew using the unitank and was hoping ya'll could help me work through the final steps to get this brew into a keg.


Here's my plan (and questions):

* Cold crash to 35F for 48 hours and then do a final dump prior to carbonation
* Carbonate for 24 hours with regulator set at 20 PSI. Do I run the valve wide open on the carb stone or only partially?
* When sampling the carbonated beer, should I relieve all the pressure in the tank before pulling from the sample port?
* When transferring to a keg with carbonated beer, what pressure do you have the unitank set and and what pressure at the keg? I do have a spunding valve on the keg which is set at 15psi.
* Any other tips for a successful transfer? I'll be using a 1/2 inch barb fitting on the racking arm to a 1/4 MFL to 1/2 inch barb on the keg side.
* I assume the beer will be drinkable as soon as transferred to a keg or do I need to let it condition longer? Its a germen hef.

Thanks!

 

[Morrey]

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone on this thread for all of the great advice so far. I am nearing the end of fermentation on my first brew using the unitank and was hoping ya'll could help me work through the final steps to get this brew into a keg.


Here's my plan (and questions):

* Cold crash to 35F for 48 hours and then do a final dump prior to carbonation
* Carbonate for 24 hours with regulator set at 20 PSI. Do I run the valve wide open on the carb stone or only partially?
* When sampling the carbonated beer, should I relieve all the pressure in the tank before pulling from the sample port?
* When transferring to a keg with carbonated beer, what pressure do you have the unitank set and and what pressure at the keg? I do have a spunding valve on the keg which is set at 15psi.
* Any other tips for a successful transfer? I'll be using a 1/2 inch barb fitting on the racking arm to a 1/4 MFL to 1/2 inch barb on the keg side.
* I assume the beer will be drinkable as soon as transferred to a keg or do I need to let it condition longer? Its a germen hef.

Thanks!

My process may be different, but the concept is basically the same:

Do a final yeast clearing dump after crashing to 35F which is an ideal temp.

Before crashing, I will have usually closed off the BO valve with a few points of gravity remaining...this will self-carbonate (or at least start carbing) the beer. Or you can totally carb with a CO2 tank and the carb stone...your choice...or a combination of both. I have used the carb stone, and the results are usually pretty quick. At 20 psi, watch closely so you don't over carb. I don't think it will take a full 24 hours, however it may, so be watchful. Gas valve wide open, CO2 valve on your tank's stone wide open. Control your process with the regulator pressure adjustment.

No need to relieve head pressure before sampling. Open slowly, foaming is likely to result.

I prepare the keg(s) by filling with sanitizer, then pushing sanitizer out with CO2. Save the sanitizer for later use, and your keg will be purged with CO2 and sanitized. Make sure to contain the CO2 in the keg by having the keg's relief valve closed. **Low foaming sanitizer like Sani-Clean is good for this application.

Bleed off head pressure if in excess of the pressure you plan to push beer with. I like to push with 5 psi (in through the BO tube), then set the spunding relief on your keg to be slightly lower...say 2 psi. Some counter pressure as in this example keeps the beer from foaming during the transfer. My 5 gallon keg holds 42.5 pounds of beer and I sit the keg on a scale to know when its full which is helpful if you have more than one keg to fill with larger tanks.

Hefe's are best served young, so enjoy right away! Good luck!!

 

[prosperbrews]

Thanks for the reply Morrey. So the keg pressure must be lower than tank pressure? Ok...how do I set my spunding valve to 2 psi? Just start the transfer and turn the knob until it gives at 2 psi?

Seems simple enough but I’ve read many people have foaming issues with carbonated transfers. Also, is it ok to use star San to sanitize and push out of the keg?

What should be the ideal pressure on regulator to ensure I don’t overcarb?

 

[Morrey]

Thanks for the reply Morrey. So the keg pressure must be lower than tank pressure? Ok...how do I set my spunding valve to 2 psi? Just start the transfer and turn the knob until it gives at 2 psi?

Seems simple enough but I’ve read many people have foaming issues with carbonated transfers. Also, is it ok to use star San to sanitize and push out of the keg?

What should be the ideal pressure on regulator to ensure I don’t overcarb?

Yes, the keg (receiving unit) must have a slightly lower pressure on it than the tank (donor unit) so flow will happen. But you want some pressure in the keg to offer resistance which will control foaming. Start the transfer and slowly open the spunding valve until you hear a faint hiss meaning beer going into the keg is pushing CO2 out of the keg slowly.

Sure, star-san works fine just creates a ton of foam. Wont hurt a thing so go for it. Next time you order beer supplies, try some sani-clean which is a low foaming sanitizer which does the same thing as star-san.

20 psi on your regulator is fine, just watch your tank's pressure gauge and stop the carbing process when you see the carb level you want....say 12 psi or 13 psi...around there. Just keep an eye on it. The other method would be to set the regulator at the pressure you want to end up at...say 12 psi and just let it carb and you'll never overshoot. Takes longer but its pretty safe...set and forget method.

 

[prosperbrews]

Yes, the keg (receiving unit) must have a slightly lower pressure on it than the tank (donor unit) so flow will happen. But you want some pressure in the keg to offer resistance which will control foaming. Start the transfer and slowly open the spunding valve until you hear a faint hiss meaning beer going into the keg is pushing CO2 out of the keg slowly.

Sure, star-san works fine just creates a ton of foam. Wont hurt a thing so go for it. Next time you order beer supplies, try some sani-clean which is a low foaming sanitizer which does the same thing as star-san.

20 psi on your regulator is fine, just watch your tank's pressure gauge and stop the carbing process when you see the carb level you want....say 12 psi or 13 psi...around there. Just keep an eye on it. The other method would be to set the regulator at the pressure you want to end up at...say 12 psi and just let it carb and you'll never overshoot. Takes longer but its pretty safe...set and forget method.

Thanks for all the great info...very helpful. I am slowly creeping down to 35 for a 2 day crash. Plan to carb on Sunday and transfer to keg on Monday.

So far so good with the unitank. Getting ready to order a 2nd 7gal to complete my setup.

 

[prosperbrews]

Unfortunately the cold crash is not going well. I started last night at 72F and the crash has stalled out at 48F. I opened the PRV and didn’t see any ice on the coils at first glance.

I then checked the glycol bath with a thermo pen and it comes in right where the thermostat reads - 29F. I even removed the rubber nipple from the pump in case it was restricting flow.

Nothing. It’s actually increased from 48 to 48.4 over the last 2 hours. Ambient temp is 75.

Is it possible the coils froze from 72 to 48 and I’m just not seeing it? I don’t want to pull the coil out to check.

I’m stumped, any ideas ?

 

[Tartan1]

Unfortunately the cold crash is not going well. I started last night at 72F and the crash has stalled out at 48F. I opened the PRV and didn’t see any ice on the coils at first glance.

I then checked the glycol bath with a thermo pen and it comes in right where the thermostat reads - 29F. I even removed the rubber nipple from the pump in case it was restricting flow.

Nothing. It’s actually increased from 48 to 48.4 over the last 2 hours. Ambient temp is 75.

Is it possible the coils froze from 72 to 48 and I’m just not seeing it? I don’t want to pull the coil out to check.

I’m stumped, any ideas ?

Do you have flow through the coil and back to the gylycol bath? What proportion water to glycol have you used? Just wondering if the coil has frozen or partially frozen internally due to its restrictive size compared to the bath volume.

 

[prosperbrews]

Do you have flow through the coil and back to the gylycol bath? What proportion water to glycol have you used? Just wondering if the coil has frozen or partially frozen internally due to its restrictive size compared to the bath volume.

I have 33% glycol to water. Yes I have perfect flow through the coil.