New conical set up, what do you think?

[MaxOut]

I agree that yeast catchers are not needed. I like having a sight glass though. Not as a yeast catcher, but so I can see when the yeast has dropped to pull it. If I brew a big 20 gallon beer the yeast will go above the dip tube. If it is a smaller size beer and I don't continually pull the yeast it gets stuck.

I agree the sight glass is useful. When I brew big lagers I can fill 4 quarts when harvesting yeast. Besides we as home brewers do a lot of things that would seem over done to many pro brewers. Cheers! Enjoy that pretty conical.


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[cfrazier77]

wanna show some more pictures of the cooling setup? I just ordered 3 conicals without cooling (not an option) and am trying to figure out the cooling coil placement/orientation.

What kind of conicals did you get? If you are going to add a custom internal coil chiller make sure that you have enough of it to cool the lowest level you will ferment at, i.e. 5 gallons. You want more coils above that also for bigger batches.

When fermenting you just need to run cold water through the coil, or warm water to raise temps. I use a cooler with frozen ice bottles, it works well for me. I have a submersible pond pump that is controlled by a temp controller. It turns it on when the temp gets to high and shuts it off when the desired temp is hit.
Here are some pics I had of it. I am in the process of moving right now so I can't take more for a while. In the last one you can see how well it works with the condensation line on the tank.









I hope this helps.

 

[cfrazier77]

I agree the sight glass is useful. When I brew big lagers I can fill 4 quarts when harvesting yeast. Besides we as home brewers do a lot of things that would seem over done to many pro brewers. Cheers! Enjoy that pretty conical.


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Thanks, I agree again that on the surface we seem to over do things compared to pro brewers. However, if they lose a gallon or two from yeast dumping from a 7 barrel fermentor that is not that bad. If I loose a half gallon from a 5 gallon batch that is 1/10 of the sweet nectar that I don't get to drink. It is ok for us to go a little overboard to minimize loss.

 

[boat_eggs]

I got a set of 3 14 gallon fermentors form the bru gear kickstarter, too good of a deal to pass up. Once I get them I will measure the top opening (3" TC) for length to the coiling point for 5 gallons and get some coils that are stretched up to the 10 gallon park. Still not sure if I will put the coils through the TC or the lid. I am going to use a heat pad on the bottom for heating ( not that important where I live).

I really like your basic cooling method! I was planning on doing some logic controller and valves and whatnot but after seeing yours I feel like i can put that project off for a while.

Thanks for the info

 

[cfrazier77]

http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/ can make you a chiller coil welded into a 3" cap. I would go with the cap instead of the lid. It is much easier to take it out and clean it.

 

[MaxOut]

Thanks, I agree again that on the surface we seem to over do things compared to pro brewers. However, if they lose a gallon or two from yeast dumping from a 7 barrel fermentor that is not that bad. If I loose a half gallon from a 5 gallon batch that is 1/10 of the sweet nectar that I don't get to drink. It is ok for us to go a little overboard to minimize loss.

I harvest as much as 1 gallon yeast at a time directly from the cone of my 30 gallon fermenter and rarely loose more than a few ounces of beer. If I was really concerned I could decant it back into the fermenter with little chance of infecting harvested yeast or beer.

If your yeast catcher is too small you will have to empty, clean, re sanitize and re install. You will have to repeat this process until you eventually end up with a yeast beer mix in your yeast catcher. If it's too big you will end up with a yeast beer mix on the first run (better to be to big in my opinion because less chance of infecting the yeast your trying to harvest). The only problem is the amount of yeast will vary greatly. So not sure how a yeast catcher offers much of an advantage verses risk even at a home brewers level. Besides most pro brewers should be even more concerned about loss. That being said my point about overdoing it is sometimes it's for good reason and sometimes it's just overdoing it. We are all guilty of it in our quest to make that perfect beer and build innovative gadgets to get there. Ultimately that is the fun of it for me.



MaxOut Brewstationle

 

[Docbruw]

Is the condensation line in the last picture the 10g mark? What kind of cooling range do you have from ambient?

What kind of conicals did you get? If you are going to add a custom internal coil chiller make sure that you have enough of it to cool the lowest level you will ferment at, i.e. 5 gallons. You want more coils above that also for bigger batches.

When fermenting you just need to run cold water through the coil, or warm water to raise temps. I use a cooler with frozen ice bottles, it works well for me. I have a submersible pond pump that is controlled by a temp controller. It turns it on when the temp gets to high and shuts it off when the desired temp is hit.
Here are some pics I had of it. I am in the process of moving right now so I can't take more for a while. In the last one you can see how well it works with the condensation line on the tank.









I hope this helps.

 

[cfrazier77]

I think that line was 8 or 9 gallons. I am not 100% for sure. The lowest I can get it with my current setup is 40 degrees and that is when the basement is in the 50s. I cover it with an old sleeping bag and change out the cooler full of frozen water bottles twice a day. I do that to cold crash at the ferment. Normally I can drop it 20 degrees below ambient, but the lower the ambient temperature is the less I can drop it. The temp of the water going through the coil is 34 so the closer you get to that the less efficient it becomes. If I wanted to cool better so I could do lagers, I would cover it with dense foam self adhesive insulation. But, I have a fridge for lagers.