New product from Brewers Hardware Dry Hopper

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highland_brewer

Short Circuited Brewers
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See it here

I had actually been thinking about building one of these. Definitely a great solution for lower to no oxygen dry hopping for pressure capable and non pressure capable fermenters.
 
Thats pretty cool . Doesn't your spike flex have a 4" port at the top like the Cf5 ? Did you need an adapter ? I watched the video but didn't catch that info .

Its a cool piece for sure . $275 is a chunk though for sure , but I do have some money wrapped into my Cf5 . When I dry hop now I just open the top port as I'm running a couple psi of Co2 to keep the O2 from entering the fv . How effective do you think that process is ?

I've never had any oxidation issues so far but I'm always down for bettering my process . Thanks for the video !
 
This gadget from MoreBeer would get you in the neighborhood for $30, but the TC port is small relative to the container, so getting some of the hops to drop would probably entail shaking the fermenter.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/harvest-adapter.html
One issue I have with using the 4” port in the lid of the Spike fermenters is that for me, 75% of the time, it’s already in use by the cooling coil. I bought one of the Norcal Solutions yeast brinks that they also tout for oxygen-free hop addition. It was a total flop for me. Now, it’s just a yeast brink. Thankfully, I bought it used at a significant discount.
 
I know this has been discussed on other threads in the past, but I can see a serious safety deficiency in Brewer's Hardware hop dropper. It is possible to close the vessel off with no safety release for pressure if the butterfly valve is mistakenly left in the closed position since there is no PRV upstream of the butterfly. Without a PRV mounted at a failsafe location on the fermenter, someone will at some point in time inadvertently leave the butterfly closed, thus leaving the cap-mounted ring-pull PRV isolated from the internal fermenter pressure. It can't relieve pressure it's not in contact with.

Plus, for a pressurized fermenter that is used to spund and undoubtedly cold crash, that cap mounted PRV is not capable of preventing negative pressure relief/vacuum break (think "suck back" with nothing to suck in except the sides of the fermenter). Negative pressure during cold crash can cause implosion fairly easily. While this would only result in a sticky mess and the destruction of your fermenter, the opposite failure of over-pressure relief can cause a sticky mess, destruction of your fermenter, and possible severe injury or even death. That gives all new meaning to the phrase, "Killer beer, Dude!"

But wait.... what's that I hear from the Naysayers, "It would never happen. Nobody would be that careless or stupid to not position the butterfly to the 'open' position." Nobody would (assuming they were cognizant of the potential danger) unless they weren't. Or got distracted. Or simply forgot or overlooked it. Or got involved with cleaning the site glass after they detached it from the assembly and never remembered to go back and open the butterfly valve. Nobody would, but anybody could, and what if YOU did?

 
Couldn't agree with you more but wouldn't this device not replace the PRV on a Spike CFX?
On an SSB Unitank that would unfortunately be the case so hopefully they will take measures to inform customers of the need for an alternative PRV (I mounted mine on a tee after before the shutoff valve at the end of the blow-off arm). If users will indeed heed the warning is an issue by itself...

Edit: Fixed placement of the PRV. 🤢
 
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Couldn't agree with you more but wouldn't this device not replace the PRV on a Spike CFX?
On an SSB Unitank that would unfortunately be the case so hopefully they will take measures to inform customers of the need for an alternative PRV (I mounted mine on a tee after the shutoff valve at the end of the blow-off arm). If users will indeed heed the warning is an issue by itself...

There is a second 1.5" tri-clamp port on the spike flex plus and it clearly states on the lid of the flex not to pressure ferment without a PRV installed. As far as implosion. I've never had a vessel reach negative pressure when cold crashing. Not to say it couldn't happen I've just never had it happen on mine. For instance I chilled the spike flex plus down to 40⁰ f and the pressure was still at 5 PSI. I've had the fermentasaurus pressurized at 12 psi with more headspace (to shrink) than the flex plus and it still maintained positive pressure. To answer a previous question I did have an adapter ring to get from 3-in to 4-in in the top of the spike flex. I didn't need any cooling at this point in time because it was 63° in my basement and the temperature held fine. Lastly I will say you can never engineer away stupidity..
 
I know this has been discussed on other threads in the past, but I can see a serious safety deficiency in Brewer's Hardware hop dropper. It is possible to close the vessel off with no safety release for pressure if the butterfly valve is mistakenly left in the closed position since there is no PRV upstream of the butterfly. Without a PRV mounted at a failsafe location on the fermenter, someone will at some point in time inadvertently leave the butterfly closed, thus leaving the cap-mounted ring-pull PRV isolated from the internal fermenter pressure. It can't relieve pressure it's not in contact with.

Plus, for a pressurized fermenter that is used to spund and undoubtedly cold crash, that cap mounted PRV is not capable of preventing negative pressure relief/vacuum break (think "suck back" with nothing to suck in except the sides of the fermenter). Negative pressure during cold crash can cause implosion fairly easily. While this would only result in a sticky mess and the destruction of your fermenter, the opposite failure of over-pressure relief can cause a sticky mess, destruction of your fermenter, and possible severe injury or even death. That gives all new meaning to the phrase, "Killer beer, Dude!"

But wait.... what's that I hear from the Naysayers, "It would never happen. Nobody would be that careless or stupid to not position the butterfly to the 'open' position." Nobody would (assuming they were cognizant of the potential danger) unless they weren't. Or got distracted. Or simply forgot or overlooked it. Or got involved with cleaning the site glass after they detached it from the assembly and never remembered to go back and open the butterfly valve. Nobody would, but anybody could, and what if YOU did?

I'll happily admit to doing almost just that... kind of.
I bought an extra 1.5" tri-clamp butterfly valve, 'T' and the like to do just this... dry-hop with little to no oxygen for my cf5.
Now- i DID leave the spike prv/pressure kit attached (hence the 'T' device) but i thought i KNEW that fg was very close.
So i dumped trub, i dry-hopped, purged once more for good luck, and left for the day.
About 12 hours later i come home, and that dang pressure gage was AT 15 psi. I was flabbergasted.
Apparantly i had enough alive happy yeast to make plenty of c02.

My point is... i agree broo brother... at some point all of us could make a possibly fatal mistake without a fail-safe. User beware.
 
I hope they will sell just the TC cap w/ PRV and CO2 post for those of use who already have a 3" sight glass and valve.

You can find those parts on Amazon and eBay.
 
So far all I've found from other sources are TC caps without a pull ring on the PRV. With all the purging to do, I'd really want a pull ring or lever.
 
Couldn't agree with you more but wouldn't this device not replace the PRV on a Spike CFX?
On an SSB Unitank that would unfortunately be the case so hopefully they will take measures to inform customers of the need for an alternative PRV (I mounted mine on a tee after the shutoff valve at the end of the blow-off arm). If users will indeed heed the warning is an issue by itself...

I'd thought about doing the exact same thing by making a "quick change" replacement of the spunding valve with a negative pressure release PRV on the manifold mounting port off the blowoff line of my Unitank. It would be separate from any butterfly valves, or at least upstream of the ball valve at the terminus of the blowoff line. Any oxygen incursion while swapping a TC mounted PRV with the spunding valve cup would have to travel upward through about 20" of ½" stainless steel tubing while negotiating two 180 degree course reversals, possibly against a weak positive pressure flow of discharging CO2. Not saying it would be an oxygen-free process, but the ill effects would likely be negligible.

Maybe I could get a NASCAR pit crew to swap out the TC accessories.🏁
 
IMG_20190912_183252.jpg
I just posted an update to mine in the NEIPA thread. I drew inspiration from @kevink awhile back I assembled my own from parts from Glacier tanks:

3" weld ferrule
3x 3" tri clover clamps
3" trigger butterfly valve
3" x 4"L spool
3" x 1/2" NPT adapter
NPT elbow

$241 shipped. This one being $275, does not seem that unreasonable, though it looks like you can save a bit if you assemble your own.
 
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