Yet Another DIY BrewJacket clone question

[royger]

Hello,

This is my first post, I hope I will manage to explain why and what I'm trying to achieve in order to get good feedback.

I don't have a lot of space at home to brew, so I try to keep my gear size limited. I've recently started brewing more IPAs, and I've found that dry hopping is kind of a PITA. If I don't bag the hop pellets they tend to stay in suspension and thus either get in the bottles or get stuck in the bottling wand. OTOH I don't like bagging the hops since I get the feeling the flavors are not so well released. I've also started fermenting with Wyeast 1318 and the krausen from that yeast doesn't seem to go away after fermentation has completed, ever, adding yet more trouble to the bottling problems I was already having with dry hops.

I've been reading that cold crashing might be the best solution to both of this problems, but due to my space limitation a used freezer is not an option for me. So I've then turned into other options, and the only one that seems viable is the BrewJacket. However that's very expensive, and doesn't seem to fit my fermenter which is 32cm tall. Hence, I thought about building my own.

I was looking around AliExpress and there seem to be some good options around. Here is my proposed setup:

- Peltier + heatsink (TEC1-12715) (~40€)
- Power supply 12V 15A (~14€)

I plan to remove the water heat exchange part and just put the metal plate on top of the cold side of the peltier (with thermal paste) and the rod soldered to the plate (maybe cold-soldered since I don't have a soldering station).

My main problem is the rod, specifically the material. BrewJacket uses anodized aluminium, but that's not easy to find. For better thermal performance I would just use plain aluminum (1100?), but I'm worried that I might get off flavors or corrosion. Should I just use stainless steel instead?

Thanks.

 

[verboten]

if they use aluminum, i would just get whatever size I wanted and then anodize it myself.

it's pretty straight forward. I grabbed the first link I could find, probably not the best

https://www.wikihow.com/Anodize-Aluminum


Also, that looks really expensive for a $5 element, a couple of cheap fans and a heat sink. If I were trying to build it myself, i might even look into buying the components and actually DIY the thing.

 

[royger]

if they use aluminum, i would just get whatever size I wanted and then anodize it myself.

it's pretty straight forward. I grabbed the first link I could find, probably not the best

https://www.wikihow.com/Anodize-Aluminum

Thanks for the pointers. Do you know why anodized is better than plain aluminium for the rod? Typical aluminium cookware is not anodized AFAICT.

Also, is there a specific aluminium grade I should search for for the rod? I was thinking about using 1100 which seems to be the purest one, but I'm not able to figure out if there's a food grade aluminium.

Also, that looks really expensive for a $5 element, a couple of cheap fans and a heat sink. If I were trying to build it myself, i might even look into buying the components and actually DIY the thing.

Right, I will likely look into buying individual pieces, I need to check the price and availability (the peltier itself is certainly easy to find).

Thanks!

 

[BBBF]

Anodizing offers corrosion resistance. It's going to be sitting in an acidic environment for a few weeks, not the few minutes needed for cooking. Even with the anodized brewjacket, you'll destroy the probe if you're making a sour or wine. They offer a plastic sleeve to protect it.

 

[royger]

After some googling around I think the best option is to paint the rod with sanitary epoxy, like:

https://www.castrocompositesshop.co...070al-4078al-light-ivory-colour-ral-1015.html

Such paint creates a completely water-proof film and there are multiple brands that offer such food grade epoxy that's also supposedly very resistant to corrosion. The ones I've found in my country can even be used to paint the interior of wine deposits, so they should be fine for beer (even sour beer I guess).

I guess the main problem with the pain is that it's going to reduce the thermal conduction of the rod, but given it's a fine film it shouldn't be that much I would like to think.

 

[mountainwise]

After some googling around I think the best option is to paint the rod with sanitary epoxy, like:

Pintura Epoxi Alimentaria Resoltech 4070AL/4078AL color blanco

Such paint creates a completely water-proof film and there are multiple brands that offer such food grade epoxy that's also supposedly very resistant to corrosion. The ones I've found in my country can even be used to paint the interior of wine deposits, so they should be fine for beer (even sour beer I guess).

I guess the main problem with the pain is that it's going to reduce the thermal conduction of the rod, but given it's a fine film it shouldn't be that much I would like to think.

I'm very interested in building one of these myself. Did it work out? Any lessons learned? Did your equipment purchases listed above work well?

 

[royger]

I'm very interested in building one of these myself. Did it work out? Any lessons learned? Did your equipment purchases listed above work well?

So it worked, but I didn't really like the result and I'm not using it anymore. A couple of notes:

• The Peltier was likely too powerful, it heated the room a lot, really.
• You have to make a big hole in your fermenter, which will prevent you from doing anything like closed transfers or pressure fermentation.
• I found the whole thing quite clumsy to manage, it was big and opening the fermenter was a mess.

With the amount of Kveik strains now available, I would recommend that you go for that instead. Jut get a heating mat or belt and always aim to use a yeast that ferments 5C above your current room temperature. I understand this might not work for all possible styles, but I mostly brew Pale ales, IPAs, NEIPAs and porters, and there's a lot of Kveik strains suitable for those.

 

[mountainwise]

So it worked, but I didn't really like the result and I'm not using it anymore. A couple of notes:

• The Peltier was likely too powerful, it heated the room a lot, really.
• You have to make a big hole in your fermenter, which will prevent you from doing anything like closed transfers or pressure fermentation.
• I found the whole thing quite clumsy to manage, it was big and opening the fermenter was a mess.

With the amount of Kveik strains now available, I would recommend that you go for that instead. Jut get a heating mat or belt and always aim to use a yeast that ferments 5C above your current room temperature. I understand this might not work for all possible styles, but I mostly brew Pale ales, IPAs, NEIPAs and porters, and there's a lot of Kveik strains suitable for those.

Thanks for the feedback! I might still go for it as I'm in an old apartment with manual radiators and hence wild temperature swings, but I don't have room for a whole other fridge. Glad to hear it worked, at least. Any other pointers if you were to do it again?

 

[royger]

Thanks for the feedback! I might still go for it as I'm in an old apartment with manual radiators and hence wild temperature swings, but I don't have room for a whole other fridge. Glad to hear it worked, at least. Any other pointers if you were to do it again?

Another option might be something like a Son of a Fermentation Chiller that you could assemble and disassemble easily. You could use the Peltier instead of a frozen water bottle.

Iff you really want to go for it, make use you have a hole punch of the correct size to drill the hole in the fermenter lid, as it's important that the rod fits tightly in order to prevent leaks as much as possible. Also make sure you have a replacement lid for your fermenter.