Self Made Jacket?

[GQT]

Hi everyone, this is my maiden speech in this house, and it is going to be a request for a hint or advice.

I got a nice 10 gallon conical but it is a single wall design, and I'm planning to dress it in a proper jacket. Fridge is a no go in my setup, so the fermenter has to be cooled in some way anyway.
The fermenter itself is pretty compact, less than 1 m tall and about 32 cm in diameter.
The easiest way will be to simply get a huge pot like 60 cm in dia and 80 deep, and drop the whole thing right into, and get water circulating through a Peltier-element assembly. However, this way it will be impossible to take the fermenter out alone to dump the trub, etc. That's no good.
A more complicated way is to get a smaller pot, like 40 cm in diameter and 50 deep, cut openings in the bottom for legs and valves, and TIG it all around. Use a cutout pot lid to close the top side, weld all around, done. Well, inlets, outlets, gauges, all that.

It looks almost too straightforward to me. Am I overlooking anything? What problems can I bump into?
I'm a novice brewer, so don't presume I would know anything from experience, as I have next to none.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[dmcman73]

Hi everyone, this is my maiden speech in this house, and it is going to be a request for a hint or advice.

I got a nice 10 gallon conical but it is a single wall design, and I'm planning to dress it in a proper jacket. Fridge is a no go in my setup, so the fermenter has to be cooled in some way anyway.
The fermenter itself is pretty compact, less than 1 m tall and about 32 cm in diameter.
The easiest way will be to simply get a huge pot like 60 cm in dia and 80 deep, and drop the whole thing right into, and get water circulating through a Peltier-element assembly. However, this way it will be impossible to take the fermenter out alone to dump the trub, etc. That's no good.
A more complicated way is to get a smaller pot, like 40 cm in diameter and 50 deep, cut openings in the bottom for legs and valves, and TIG it all around. Use a cutout pot lid to close the top side, weld all around, done. Well, inlets, outlets, gauges, all that.

It looks almost too straightforward to me. Am I overlooking anything? What problems can I bump into?
I'm a novice brewer, so don't presume I would know anything from experience, as I have next to none.

Thanks,
Mark

Or, you can make a stainless steel coil that will mount to the lid and get submerged into the wort and use a temp controller to pump cold water through that to cool the fermenting wort as needed. I use that setup with the SSBretech conical I have and it works fantastic.


I have an aquarium cooler that has water pumped through it continuously from a regular picnic cooler, the water int he picnic cooler stays at a specified temp I set the aquarium cooler at (about 65 degrees). I then have the temp controller for the conical hooked up to another pump inside the picnic cooler where it will kick on and pump 65 degree water through the stainless coil inside the fermentor when the wort is warming up.

 

[dmcman73]

Dupe post

 

[etk29321]

I use a coil on the outside (copper in my case not that it matters) hooked upto my a/c turned glycol unit. Works great and simple to retrofit. You can see build pics of it on the diy fermenter forum

 

[augiedoggy]

you could do what I do for my conical and spend the $60 on this jacket...

http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

Ir works well on my 12.5 gallon stout conical which is 47" tall and about 12-13" in diameter...

 

[GQT]

Or, you can make a stainless steel coil that will mount to the lid and get submerged into the wort and use a temp controller to pump cold water through

This is exactly the answer to a question I was kinda too shy to ask
It seemed to me that cooling through the external walls would be in some way more gentle to the yeast than running cold water right through the middle of the body of wort, so I needed someone to say, hey I tried it and it worked for me. So thanks Dmcman73. I think if it is safe I'll choose this way rather than fiddling with all that precise cutting and welding. After all, I got the fermenter to brew, not to waste time on modifications!

I use a coil on the outside

I thought about this and I had read the thread. I just thought that from the point of efficiency as long as I cannot guarantee 100 % contact between coil and fermentor there will inevitably be some losses, and it'll be hard to predict how much. This is a good and workable idea, but my point is also to install a separate power meter and see how green I can go. So every joule will count!

you could do what I do for my conical and spend the $60 on this jacket...

Thank you! The thing is that I'm stationed in China (long term expat; 20 years and counting), so we buy from different markets. The jacket you refer to will cost me double to get shipped to my door, so this idea is not workable in my case.
But I will read all through your power setup thread, I believe there is tons and tons of useful stuff for me!

Thank you guys I think I know where and how to move from here!

 

[dmcman73]

This is exactly the answer to a question I was kinda too shy to ask
It seemed to me that cooling through the external walls would be in some way more gentle to the yeast than running cold water right through the middle of the body of wort, so I needed someone to say, hey I tried it and it worked for me. So thanks Dmcman73. I think if it is safe I'll choose this way rather than fiddling with all that precise cutting and welding. After all, I got the fermenter to brew, not to waste time on modifications!

There are a few conical manufactures that create a submersible coil for their conicals that they build. Other people on the board have built their own internal cooling coils for other brands that do not have one such as the fast ferment conicals. You are not going to run cold water continuously through the coils only when it needs it. You'll need a thermowell in your conical for a temp probe hooked up to a temp controller that will turn on a pump to pump ice cold water through when the wort temps rises (or drops) in temp from where you've set it at. Mine stays at about 68 degrees. It won't affect the yeast in anyway. Also another benefit of the internal coil is if you can't get your worth further down past 80 degrees to pitch your yeast, you and still transfer the wort to the fermentor, kick on the cooling water connected to some refrigerated cold water source and let it cool it down to pitching temps, no worries about the wort standing too long for infection since it's already in a sterile and sealed fermentor. Once it;s at pitching temps, open up the air lock bung, Oxygenate the wort and pitch your yeast. .

Just make sure you use stainless steel and not copper tubing. From what I read since the fermenting wort is a little acidic, you can impart copper flavor in your beer from the copper sitting in the wort fermeting away over weeks at a time. .

 

[dmcman73]

Just for reference, this is how SS Brewtech has theirs, this is what I own for both my 7 gallon SS Brewtech and the new 14 gallon one I have on the way: http://www.ssbrewtech.com/collections/ftss/products/ftss-temperature-control-for-chronical-7-gallon

This is Brewhemoth does with theirs, same concept: https://brewhemoth.com/dual-temperature-coil

Then get yourself a picnic cooler full of water, an aquarium chiller like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048IVBT4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20, a submersible 160GPH pump like on this page to circulate water from the cooler through the aquarium chiller: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049XENYS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 and another 160Gph pump to circulate water through the cooling coils and also a temp controller for the conical itself (the aquarium chiller has it's own built in) like this (it might be overkill) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011296704/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20.

The process here would be one pump to run contentiously to circulate water in the picnic cooler through the aquarium chiller so that the water in the cooler is maintained by the aquarium chiller at least 5-10 degrees colder than your target wort. The inkbird temp controller will kick on the second water pump hooked up to your internal coils when the wort rises past the temp you set.

Now if you need to warm your wort, you can use the same inkbird temp controller (use the outlet labeled heat) and plug an aquarium heater into a wall socket and drop it into your picnic cooler (disconnect the aquariaum cooler obviously) and connect the pump for the conical coils into the inkbird outlet labeled heat.

There is your poor mans glycol chiller. Of course you can use anything else that is food safe in the cooler besides water.

This is the same exact setup I use and works like a dream.

 

[GQT]

There are a few conical manufactures that create a submersible coil for their conicals that they build

Thanks a lot, Dmcman73. Just a ton off my shoulders. It all was doable with that pot thing but you know, why do more than necessary. I have easy access to good thermoinsulating materials to wrap the fermenter in, so it will stay cool and cozy. I am also going to have a pid controller to manage the temperature - an overkill for my rather simple setup but why not if these gadgets are affordable and plentiful around where I live.
Thanks again, I feel a lot at ease now.