Fermenting in kettle

[dataz722]

Thought about just fermenting in the boil pot?

I didnt want to hijack the other thread so I just made a new one about this. I have a friend that is a mechanical engineer but knows pretty much nothing about beer and brewing but he usually helps me when I brew. He said something to me about making me a conical that I could boil and ferment in. I kind of laughed it off and said that it wouldnt work because i thought it would cause some sort of problem somewhere................. but............... is that true. I never really put much more thought into it since then. What would be wrong with doing this?

 

[BrewBeemer]

That sounds like a tall order and a overly complicated project. If you
want to build it go for it.
You must have a double boiler or liner system for steam or electric
heating in the glycol solution between the two chambers. After the boil run a remote chilling system thru that chamber then switch it over for your fermentation temp control? Simple? Sounds like a lot of extra work to just save one transfer step from boil to a fermenter. JMO's.

 

[JMD87]

$$

If you wanted to do more then one batch at a time, you'd have to shell out good bucks for each 'hybrid' kettle.

I don't see any problem with it other then that.

 

[Ecnerwal]

Yup, that's the big one - your boiler is tied up for the full length of fermentation. Given that I have as many as 4 going at any given time, that would get old, fast. I rather doubt the geometry of a cylindro-conical is all that good for boiling, too. If you wanted to follow that, and had managed the c-c to begin with, some type of hot-stick that got a low-density element down near the bottom of the cone would probably be best, and could be removed after the boil and before the ferment, so it could be moved to another c-c. Stainless tube for the "outside" part of the element, sticking up far enough to be above any boilover, safety float switch and tilt switch so the element can't be on without being vertical and submerged, proportional control from an electric stove or similar power-control scheme. You'd want to use a dump valve to get the crud out of the bottom.

 

[ThickHead]

Yup, that's the big one - your boiler is tied up for the full length of fermentation.

Yup, end of discussion for me.