Ss brewtech conical

[NorthMoonBrewing]

So I've decided I want to take the leap to a stainless steel conical from SS. I'm still debating on going between 7 and 14 gallon. But my question is, which way is better, putting it in a fridge for temp control or to buy all the stuff to do temp control without a fridge/feeezer? What all do you need other than the FTSS, and how does gycol cooking work? Looking for suggestions and advice. Thank you!

 

[BroStefan]

I went through the same debate about 6 months ago. I ended you with the Brewmasters Edition 7 gal. I really wented the butterfly valves and the vertical mounted chilling cool.

I've had success fermenting lagers at 48f. The fermenter sits outside my beer fridge. I punched a whole in my beer fridge and keep a 5gal bucket of H2O inside. I use a cheap water pump and a STC-1000 controller. Works a dream

 

[bcrawfo2]

I have two 14s. I build a chamber out of 2" rigid foam insulation cooled by a dorm fridge and later a window unit. My implementation was rather leaky due to laziness but worked. I could get into the low 40s in my 70 degree basment. One of my design criteria was to be able to roll my full fermenters around, so this had be chilling thr concrete floor. I also could only accurately control one at a time with my setup
I had been looking at other cooling options (a better chamber, internal coils, external coils). Ultimately i decided to sell my conicals and get a model with better coil options for me.
I'd get the 14 and look for something that can do both 5 and 10g batches. If you thought about one 7 and one 14 make sure you have enough interchability of parts so you dont have to duplicate special purpose/sometime used items

My plan is to diy a glycol chiller (have most of the parts and the skills) and get two 14g conicals with drop-in coils


Added. I went out of the way to not talk about brands because I didn't want to start any fighting/getting vendors to chime in. When picking my new conicals I also looked at the number of fittings and how they were achieved. Some of the products seemed to get a little excessive, which would seem to make more cleaning hassle/possible problems spots.

Happy to chat more via PM if you'd like

 

[johnwpowell]

Once you go down the conical path, be prepared to spend more money. I did.... Here's my set up

https://instagram.com/p/BVdHo-1g7Nw/

The conicals are large and you'll require a larger fermentation chamber/full size fridge or glycol chiller. If you want to cold crash or lager, you'll want glycol.

If money is limited, I'd stick with carboys and fridges. I don't think the beer quality improvement to dollars spent ratio on a conical is good.

In my case, I didn't really think the end game through. The chronicles are sexy and I wanted one. I started with a brew bucket which I kept in a basement closet. Flavors suffered due to lack of temp control. At that point I could have gone with a small refrigerator with controller. But I kept dreaming about the professional looking conical and before long, the UPS man dropped it off. So next I started fermenting both in the basement closet with the same off flavors developing. Where did I go wrong?

Temp control should have been my first concern and I should have planned for it.

After several brews and complaints from the wife to get the beer out of the basement shoe closet, I moved into the garage. I bought an ftss and ran it off ice water in a cooler. Trouble is, I travel for work and it was to much to ask my family to change the ice packs daily. Plus I couldn't lager or cold crash. At this point, there was no where to go but glycol.

Hope that helps.

PM me with any questions.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think it depends on how many conicals you think you might end up with. If it's 1 or 2, I would put them in dedicated fridges. If it's 3 or more, the distributed cooling system makes more sense. I find many people underestimate the complexity of a distributed cooling system. Each conical needs a cooling coil, temp controller and glycol pump (or one pump and solenoid valves for each conical). The other thing to consider is the ambient temps of the room the conicals are in. A fridge is well insulated but a conical with a neoprene jacket is much less so.

 

[boasist]

I have two of the BME 7 gal and a standalone glycol chiller (not DIY). I initially got the FTSs2 system for heating and cooling it, I ran through 2 batches that way and I did not care for the FTSs controller. It goes up, it goes down, etc, so I bought a brewpi and never looked back. It's working great, holds the temps within .4 degrees, something the FTSs controller could only dream of! It also runs an incredible amount less now, it's just better, I definitely recommend it.

I will say, get a sight glass, it's a great indicator since you have no vision on the interior. I also got the legs, shelf, and some parts to do closed transfers with, it's all working great for me.

Best of luck

 

[Nagorg]

I landed on using an upright freezer for my Chronical BME and it works great for everything including lagering and cold crashing. A much simpler solution too IMO!

A prior post on my deliberation: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7516768&postcount=5

 

[stan1007]

A quick note here for the BME owners...... The chiller/heater option only appears on the SS Brewtech website as a bundled option. It is no longer shown as a stand alone purchase. If you own a BME and need one, contact SSB support and provide proof of ownership of a BME. They will set up the purchase.

 

[johnwpowell]

I think it depends on how many conicals you think you might end up with. If it's 1 or 2, I would put them in dedicated fridges. If it's 3 or more, the distributed cooling system makes more sense. I find many people underestimate the complexity of a distributed cooling system. Each conical needs a cooling coil, temp controller and glycol pump (or one pump and solenoid valves for each conical). The other thing to consider is the ambient temps of the room the conicals are in. A fridge is well insulated but a conical with a neoprene jacket is much less so.

Great points. If you have the room you'll want 1 fridge per chronicle.

 

[charliethebum]

Off topic and Not trying to say anything about ss or anything, but have you looked into spikes new conicals? All sanitary fittings and butterfly valves standard. I'm completely infatuated with mine

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's really putting my ideas into reality. What I started this idea with was from Kal's setup with his brew buckets and the Danby fridges. I think that look is amazing. Thing is to me, I wanted something a little more professional looking with the conicals. I at first my idea was go with the 14 gallon standard or BME, and buy a upright freezer and go. But after seeing his glass front fridges, I started looking into a used True fridge (the ones you see at gas stations with the two sliding glass doors) and found that at the right time, you can get them for around 500 which is what it cost for my brand new 21 cf chest freezer I turned into my kezzer. There's just something about the idea of seeing two conicals doing their job behind a glass door fridge. But I then thought about just doing the stand alone after I went to a brewery in Michigan that used the 1bbl ones stand alone with the jacket. I just don't all at understand how to temperature control them/what more equipment that I have to have.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Also, if I do use a fridge, is the BME edition worth the extra money or can I get away with the just the standard one?

 

[boasist]

Also, if I do use a fridge, is the BME edition worth the extra money or can I get away with the just the standard one?

Good point, I say the butterfly valves are a big plus, they sell them for $60/ea, so you're at $520. Pop it in your fridge and you're good.

What about the need for heating though? Will you add a small heater to the fridge and use your controller to manage that?

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Good point, I say the butterfly valves are a big plus, they sell them for $60/ea, so you're at $520. Pop it in your fridge and you're good.

What about the need for heating though? Will you add a small heater to the fridge and use your controller to manage that?

Well what makes the butterfly valves better than the standard
Valves? Yeah I would just use the upright freezer like a chest freezer with a dual controller to control both!

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

Off topic and Not trying to say anything about ss or anything, but have you looked into spikes new conicals? All sanitary fittings and butterfly valves standard. I'm completely infatuated with mine

Yeah I haven't looked deeply into them so maybe I will.

 

[boasist]

For me it's one less thing to take apart and clean. They're much easier to clean/sanitize as there is no disassembly required. Therefore, less chance of an issue occurring during the brew.

 

[bcrawfo2]

Well what makes the butterfly valves better than the standard
Valves? Yeah I would just use the upright freezer like a chest freezer with a dual controller to control both!

If you've never taken apart the ball valve on your brew rig, do so and think about that being near your fermenting beer

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

If you've never taken apart the ball valve on your brew rig, do so and think about that being near your fermenting beer

That is something I had not thought about. When you have the valves that are on the BME, what do you use to transfer the beer to keg or bucket to bottle?

 

[Nagorg]

Butterfly valves are simply more sanitary. Less places for crud to hide. Ball valves have internal pockets around the ball that can collect wort, etc.. This can create a sanitary issue if you dont clean them. That said, if you circulate cleaning solution through them and slowly work the valves open and closed, thats usually enough to blast the wort out and on the hot side, much less of a concern. But on the cold side... Why take chances.

 

[Nagorg]

what do you use to transfer the beer to keg or bucket to bottle?

This TC to CamLock fitting is what I use.
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/camtc15.htm

I have a hose barb threaded into a female camlock fitting. I attach a hose to that and drain into the keg.

For less moving parts, you could just use this TC to hose barb fitting..
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/tc15hb58.htm

I chose the camlock because I have a bunch of that stuff which makes it more versatile for me.

 

[bcrawfo2]

That is something I had not thought about. When you have the valves that are on the BME, what do you use to transfer the beer to keg or bucket to bottle?

You will need a fitting to convert the 1.5" tc to a barb. You can then either gravity feed or pressure transfer into you keg/bottling bucket

 

[boasist]

I use one of these paired with some keg tubing and a ball lock fitting on the other side to the keg. Easy and clean. Just be sure to get some extra clamps and gaskets for each connection you make.

 

[johnwpowell]

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's really putting my ideas into reality. What I started this idea with was from Kal's setup with his brew buckets and the Danby fridges. I think that look is amazing. Thing is to me, I wanted something a little more professional looking with the conicals. I at first my idea was go with the 14 gallon standard or BME, and buy a upright freezer and go. But after seeing his glass front fridges, I started looking into a used True fridge (the ones you see at gas stations with the two sliding glass doors) and found that at the right time, you can get them for around 500 which is what it cost for my brand new 21 cf chest freezer I turned into my kezzer. There's just something about the idea of seeing two conicals doing their job behind a glass door fridge. But I then thought about just doing the stand alone after I went to a brewery in Michigan that used the 1bbl ones stand alone with the jacket. I just don't all at understand how to temperature control them/what more equipment that I have to have.

What if you have one beer fermenting and one cold crashing? You need individual temp control for each fermenter.

 

[johnwpowell]

Also, if I do use a fridge, is the BME edition worth the extra money or can I get away with the just the standard one?

I would say no on the bme then if you don't want the internal coil. I added butterfly valves later. Easily added.

 

[bcrawfo2]

I would say no on the bme then if you don't want the internal coil. I added butterfly valves later. Easily added.

Coil is optional with spike

 

[Dcpcooks]

You can expect very similar results between a glycol chiller through coils and a conical sitting in a fridge with a temp controller. I have two 1/2 bbl conicals one is glycol
And one is in a commercial fridge with a small heater and a ranco two stage controller.

My hunch is the fridge is a bit more cost efficient as the fridge runs far less than the chiller.

I think it's a matter of cost and your available space. A chiller and a conical fit in a smaller footprint but probably cost more unless you can find a used fridge cheap.

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

What if you have one beer fermenting and one cold crashing? You need individual temp control for each fermenter.

That's true. But I often will do
Double brew days so more often than not they will cold crash together

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

I use one of these paired with some keg tubing and a ball lock fitting on the other side to the keg. Easy and clean. Just be sure to get some extra clamps and gaskets for each connection you make.

So you run it directly down the dip tube into the keg?

 

[NorthMoonBrewing]

I would say no on the bme then if you don't want the internal coil. I added butterfly valves later. Easily added.

If I just added the valves, in the future can you turn the standard one into one that can use the glycol chiller?

 

[boasist]

So you run it directly down the dip tube into the keg?

Yes, down the out tube. Standard procedure of purging the keg first, then start the transfer, and pop open the purge valve to allow the flow.

Sorry, you'll also need one of these or this one without PRV to put in the top and push the Co2. I just use a small paintball tank I keep around the brewhaus, but any Co2 injection will do.