Super Simple 15G Plastic Conical

[-MG-]

OK! Now I am with you, I didn't understand an orientation of a picture and now see where you are talking about. Makes perfect sense. McMaster has that o-ring, but I think I'll go the weather strip route.

Making a run to the store shortly.

 

[-MG-]

So I started sealing the fermenter following some of the great advice that people have offered from their own experience.

I don't know if my version has the cord attaching the lid to the top and others don't, but I found that the way that connects to the conical is area where leaks occur. I've put the food grade silicone sealant on the inside of that and on the outside and used my finger to spread it around and hope it gives me the seal I want.

I think I have the lid assembly sealed well enough (we'll find out). One area I'm not certain is how to get two separate weatherstripping on the lid. One practically is the entire lip of the underside of the lid and when I did a pressure test, of course it leaks at that seam and I know the instructions say to offset the seams for a better seal, but not sure if people just are putting two tracks of the stuff on top of one another? If so you can barely get a quarter turn of the lid to tighten it.

I'm probably going to order that 13 1/2 ID o-ring that another user has suggested. McMaster has that size and I may use that since its a solid ring.

I'll take more pictures, but I have put together a 'pressurizer' assembly from brass pipe fittings that has a keg air post, pressure gauge, and a pressure relief valve. I will be adding a tri clover fitting as well that will allow me to to easily remove the pressurizer assembly and attach a hose for the CIP ball.

You can see in the first picture the little black circle on the top side of the conical, this is how the lid is 'tied' down so you can't take it too far from the conical.
Here is my conical:

 

[Marauder]

Mg can I get you to post a pic of where the 35 gallon line is?

 

[-MG-]

Mg can I get you to post a pic of where the 35 gallon line is?

Here you go, sorry the angle isn't the best. But the plastic lettering is impossible to see.

 

[Marauder]

Here you go, sorry the angle isn't the best. But the plastic lettering is impossible to see.

Thank you very much sir for pointing that out. Perfect

 

[-MG-]

It's hard to guess how much extra headspace there is, however, it must be at least an additional 3 gallons?

 

[allclene]

I think I have the lid assembly sealed well enough (we'll find out). One area I'm not certain is how to get two separate weatherstripping on the lid. One practically is the entire lip of the underside of the lid and when I did a pressure test, of course it leaks at that seam and I know the instructions say to offset the seams for a better seal, but not sure if people just are putting two tracks of the stuff on top of one another? If so you can barely get a quarter turn of the lid to tighten it.

You have two of the "D" shaped pieces of weatherstrip on there. Take one off and offset the seam. I know they come on the role together like that but you have to split the two apart and offset the seems. They peal apart pretty easy.

 

[-MG-]

Thanks for the tip. I did do that. I may need to get more material and still plugging up some leaks. I'm impressed you have gotten yours sealed up!

As it stands now, I can easily build up a little bit of pressure to rack if I need to. But would love to make it a airtight vessel. I'll be conducting more testing today when I get home as I had to apply more silicone on certain areas to prevent small leaks.

 

[Huaco]

MG...
In my malt drum fermentation vessels, I did not have a completely air tight seal in my last fermentation and it was all just fine. It was air tight enough to hold positive pressure, but not so tight that the CO2 pushed like a mad-man through the vent hose to a blow-off container. It bubble a little, but not like normal. I tested it a few times and would remove the blow off tube from the barb it was fitted on. Each time, I got a little rush of CO2 pushing out of the barb.
I am under the belief now, that you don't have to get an absolutely PERFECT seal. Microbes can't fly, walk, crawl or migrate in any way. They won't just crawl their way around the lid opening in search of wort. It has to be inoculated some how. Either you leave the lid off and they drift in there with air circulation or you contaminate with other means...
I wouldn't worry too much about a PERFECT seal. BTW, I was still able to pressurize the drum to 4 PSI of CO2 to rack out to my kegs. I may have lost a few grams of CO2 because of the non-perfect seal, but I really don't care about that...

 

[-MG-]

I'm with you there Huaco.

I've found I love tinkering with different pieces of equipment and wanted to see if I could get this thing completely closed to conduct closed system pressurized fermentation. I don't think I can get there exactly, but like you said, the ability to hold a little PSI and make racking beer with exposing to oxygen is a plus.

 

[anonymousbrew]

same here, i put a blowoff fitting in lid, o-ringed the lid assembly, and weatherstripped the lid - i have a 6ft section of blow off tube into a gallon container of sanitizer. I can pull a vacuum on the racking port and have enough lift to bring sanitizer in through the top (dont ask how i know this) but never once saw the blowoff container bubble in all the batches i have in this guy.

this week, i decided to do away with the blow off, (never even gotten close to needing it) and put a universal small stopper and airlock. I'll give it a go and let you know how it works.

 

[Huaco]

I have to use a blowoff setup in mine for lack of head height above the malt drums and the lid of my chest freezer fermentation chamber. Wish I could just use air locks... I have 4 gallons of head space above my beer. Will probably NEVER actually use the blowoff tube as a blowoff for krausen. That's just the way I had to set it up.

 

[-MG-]

I bought a 13 1/2" inside diameter (-456) red 70 euro FDA silicone o-ring from orings-online.com to fit on the lid assembly. It costs $9.87 each plus shipping. No nasty airborne particles - flying, crawling or otherwise - are going to get inside!. The lid itself seems to tighten on the assembly well enough on its own.

To the best of my ability and testing, this method you cannot get nearly as tight of a seal as allclene's use of weather stripping. On my conical, the O-ring (13 1/2 ID), is too big and if you try to get a tight seal just pushes the o-ring out. You would need a smaller o-ring I believe to make this work. Looking at the picture he doesn't have it as tightened as far down as I would like. I think he is accomplishing his goal of keeping nasties out, but in testing, its not as air tight.

When I say seal, I'm testing with co2 and checking for leaks. I plan to go back with the weather stripping and a hell of a lot of silicone (I don't think I had enough on there to create the good seal).

I'm still keeping my hopes up of getting the seal that allclene has being able to pressurize his vessel up to 30 psi.

 

[hamiltont]

You all are going to drive yourselves nuts trying to get a good seal on your conical. For the record I've brewed 100's of gallons in mine without one bubble in the blow off. Never had one bad batch, ales or lagers. My advice to you all... Spend your energy on something more important. Seriously! Cheers!!!

 

[lunchbox]

Do these conicals not qualify for free shipping from Rural King? I've entered the promo code for the shipping but they want $140 to ship to NC.

 

[snaps10]

Which conical? Something seems wrong, my entire order was about $80 shipped I believe, and that's to CA
If you're ordering the 30gal, only the one with te built in stand qualifies for free shipping I believe.

 

[-MG-]

Which conical? Something seems wrong, my entire order was about $80 shipped I believe, and that's to CA
If you're ordering the 30gal, only the one with te built in stand qualifies for free shipping I believe.

Correct on the 35 gallon one qualifying for free shipping.

One tip: If you are set on buying one of these, add the items to your cart (make sure you register an account), and then close the page and wait about 2-3 days. You will get a 10% off coupon code.

 

[lunchbox]

I'm trying to buy this conical...
http://www.ruralking.com/ace-roto-mold-15-gallon-inductor-tank-in0015-19.html

with this stand...

http://www.ruralking.com/ace-roto-mold-15-gallon-inductor-tank-stand-in15-st.html

I tried entering the promo code for free shipping and it still didn't work.

 

[-MG-]

I just clicked your exact links added it to cart, put in my zip and state and typed in the promo code and it gave me the free ship option. What's your zip?

 

[-MG-]

I just clicked your exact links added it to cart, put in my zip and state and typed in the promo code and it gave me the free ship option. What's your zip?

For $10 more you can get the 35 gallon one, btw..

 

[lunchbox]

i just clicked your exact links added it to cart, put in my zip and state and typed in the promo code and it gave me the free ship option. What's your zip?

28269

 

[-MG-]

Works for me with your zip to get the free ship.

 

[lunchbox]

Interesting...

Finally got it. I had to go back three times for it to work.

 

[chrisdb]

To the best of my ability and testing, this method you cannot get nearly as tight of a seal as allclene's use of weather stripping. On my conical, the O-ring (13 1/2 ID), is too big and if you try to get a tight seal just pushes the o-ring out. You would need a smaller o-ring I believe to make this work. Looking at the picture he doesn't have it as tightened as far down as I would like. I think he is accomplishing his goal of keeping nasties out, but in testing, its not as air tight.

When I say seal, I'm testing with co2 and checking for leaks. I plan to go back with the weather stripping and a hell of a lot of silicone (I don't think I had enough on there to create the good seal).

I'm still keeping my hopes up of getting the seal that allclene has being able to pressurize his vessel up to 30 psi.

I use 2 silicone O rings on my fermenters, both under the lip of the fixed portion of the lid. After screwing the top down I am able to pressurize the closed conical enough to expand the lid by inflating with air pressure.
If you are interested I can put up pix and spec the o rings I used.
went with O rings because I wanted to be able to break it down completely for cleaning

 

[snaps10]

I use 2 silicone O rings on my fermenters, both under the lip of the fixed portion of the lid. After screwing the top down I am able to pressurize the closed conical enough to expand the lid by inflating with air pressure.
If you are interested I can put up pix and spec the o rings I used.
went with O rings because I wanted to be able to break it down completely for cleaning

Please post those up. ::thumbs up::

 

[orion7144]

Instead of the fancy valves and all as a racking port did anyone use a bottling bucket valve?

 

[mrklueber]

subscribed! Great posts everyone. Got lots of good information for when I go to a conical but it will be awhile.

 

[orion7144]

I have had my 1st batch in my conical for a week now. No blow off activity but the krausen is pretty high so I assume it pushed out the O2 from the lid. I sealed the lid adapter with the aquarium silicone but did not put anything on the lid so I was not expecting much blow off activity. Also I only had 11 gallons in there so a lot of head space.

I absolutely love the dump tube with the glass I ordered from brewers hardware. Dumped after 3 days and will probably do another bump once the krausen falls out to clean it up a bit more before racking to keg. I do not have a racking port so I will disconnect the sight glass and attach an adapter to go into my keg then force it out through the port I have in the lid with CO2

 

[orion7144]

I just racked my first batch. I used CO2 to push it out from the bottom and was not happy with the process. I dumped the sight glass at 3 days then again today before I started to rack to my kegs. after I dumped the glass I let the rest go into the white Tupperware you see in the pic. Once I started getting a good flow of beer I shut the vavle off and ran the line to one of my kegs. I could see some big chunks flowing into the first keg and that was unexpected. When I was done I was shocked that there was so much trub left at the bottom of the conical.

I definitely want to install a racking port for my next batch. What is the best method? I can either use cam lock or tri clamp. I just want a leak tight seal.

Thanks

 

[chrisdb]

Please post those up. ::thumbs up::

sorry I missed this earlier..asleep at the wheel.
The first couple pix are the silicone rings to seal the lid to the fermenter. One ring is slightly smaller than than the other. that gets stretched around the outer ring of the lid and it just clears the screw holes in the lid. I mount the lid in the conical and start the screws. I then stretch the larger ring around the outside of the first (goes outside of the screws). I then turn the screws in a bit more until I see the outer ring compress . When the top mounts into it's pretty airtight... compressed air will visibly expand the top. The rings I ordered from O-ring warehouse were 70-durometer, red, FDA silicone appoved,compound 1200-70... sizes are 453 and 454. There are lots of ways to seal the lid of these conicals, but I chose this approach because it's easy to take completely apart for cleaning and re-assemble.
the last 2 pix show a working conical with glycol chiller lines hooked up and a cooling coil made by the very talented Zachary Josey at stainlessbrewing.com- they looked prettier before I 'tweaked' them to stretch out the coils a bit.It all seems to be working well. The blow off tube isn't really necessary- a simple airlock would suffice- but I use a crimped stainless tube as a thermowell and drilled it just below the stopper to vent the pressure in the conical. sorry for the sideways pictures....I must have been horizontal when I took 'em