Concial Fermentor - Cooling System

[markws]

All,

Prior to the end of last year I made the plunge and purchased a SS 60L (80 L inc head space) conical fementer. The final piece to complete my brewing setup after building a 3V system system several years ago. Plastic cubes have become increasingly annoying. It has taken quite a number of months to 'pull a finger out' and commission the unit, mainly because the unit is designed to be temperature controlled by the two liquid jackets located at the base and the centre of the unit. Currently, i do not have access to a commerical gycol chiller unit so this thread shall be covering my design and build of an 'cooling system'.

In 'three bears' language - I shall be using a fridge containing at a minimum a 30L reservoir and plate heat exchanger to circulate two independant bodies of fluid (most likely chemically treated water) using a couple of 12v 'brown pumps' and fish tank temperature controllers.

I have attached photos showing the construction of the fridge pipe work, a crude layout of the relationship (location) for the plate heat exchanger and pumps, components for the temp controllers.

Todate (as you can see from some of the photos) the fridge pipe work is complete and i now need to prep the fridge reservoir tank (30L). The instrument box for the temperature controllers, switch and 12v transformers has been machined (dead simple when you have a milling machine at your disposal!) and shall be wired up prior to the end of the week. What is left to do is mount the plate heat exchanger and complete the plumbing (plate heat exchanger to conical). Long term I want this to be all mounted on a custom build 'L' shaped frame however, in the interim I shall be constructing a wooded 'mock-up' to make sure the look at feel is ok.

The temperature control unit has been designed to control three environmental chambers (beer fridge for dispensing, fridge with reservoir tank and conical fermentor). Only the conical fermentor temp controller shall be linked to a 12v pump, while the other two brown pumps shall be manually switched on or off. Of the the two manually activated pumps one shall remain constantly on during the fermentation cycle to circulate water from the reservoir tank through the plate heat exchanger, while the second will only be used to transfer beer from the conical to corny kegs. The system is also being built to incorporate speed controllers for all three pumps. I hope that all makes sense!

At this stage i hope to have the entire system up and running prior to the end of next weekend. Now the hardest decision is whether to have monday off to brew!

More pics to follow.

MWS

 

[woodwormm]

awesome looking fermenter, i'll bet you're glad to be utilising it soon, and thanks for taking the time to record it all for us.

are you at all worried about brown pumps running 24/7? i guess it's a test system and if they fail you've started at low expense so can upgrade if needed.

Also, looks like you're set up in your garage? I'm guessing you considered a Perth winter most likely mild enough to not need heating? Was a heating option a consideration/possibility?

good luck and keep us hungry mob fed with pictures!

 

[tanukibrewer]

Nice work markws.
I just have my ss fermenter in a cheap 200L fridge,with a temp controler to keep the ambient air temp down,just set it a few degrees lower than the brewing temp I want(I know my brew temps will be out a little).Even in Perth the fridge (now that its getting colder outside) will drop in temp at night.Not so much of a problem as I will be brewing lagers from now on,but a heating source may be something to consider

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

That looks like it may work, now what are you going to look at in the corner ?
Hope to see it up and running soon.
Nev

 

[markws]

A further update on the cooling system build.

Assembled the conical on the weekend to ensure all the tri-clover accessories were present and in good working order.

I have included a photo of how I plan to transfer the beer from the fermentor to the keg; via an independant (and portable) brown pump that i can attach when needed. I think it shall also be useful to circulate the beer in the conical when dry hopping.

The refrigerated water reservoir (30L) is now completed - all the fittings attached and connected to the inlet/outlet friudge piping. I now need to make a partial shelf for the container to sit on.

The temp controller(s) have been installed, wired up and checked! A couple of pics of the wiring mess inside the box have been uploaded. For each of the motors there is a 240 to 12v transformer and a speed controller. The plan is mount this on the wall above the fridges and conical.

I also started to develop a temporary (wooden) frame to mount the plate heat exchanger, pumps and the copper water manifolds (for the conical side - soaking in the black bucket full of citric acid!). The plan is once it all works, i shall machine a more permanent mounting frame and transfer the set-up across.

At the moment - if looks like another week or so to finalise the entire system before it can be fired up and test driven for an engineering run!

Cheers

MWS

 

[markws]

A quick post. V1.0 was a fail with being capable of cooling below 18 oC. This is v2.0, powered by a commercial temprite. So far it's working a treat.

 

[Bizier]

Looking sweet. I'm jealous.

 

[markws]

Sorry guys, I re-reviewed my post from yesterday and noticed the picture did not upload.

Now attached is a copy of the current set-up (v2.0) using a Rio20 temprite, routinely used in commerical pubs to cool beer and chill bar fonts. This system took just over an hour to chill 50L of 40oC wort to 18oC using the water circulation loop used for the bar font.

V1.0 (some the pics present in the thread above) really was a poor effort and i would not recommend the solution to anyone. If was to ever embark on this type of adventure again i would remove the cooling jacket and place a standard conical in a upright freezer. Cheaper, quicker; a tried and true system.

What is left to do is to buy a couple of cheap 12v solenoid valves to automate the system rather than continue to use the manual (and hastily constructed) flow manifold.

Cheers

MWS

 

[Matty3450]

Gday Mark,

Where did you get the fermentor from? Very nice setup there

 

[booargy]

Have you thought of a chilled water tank to act as a buffer between the chiller and fermenter? I have the 100L version and was looking at this config.

 

[markws]

Hi Guys,

The fermentor was imported from China (via punkin on this forum (the thread is on page 5 of the retailers shop section). I decided to lash out and spend the money as i did not (and still have not seen) anything for the same price and features. As the thread stated buying the unit was the acceptable bit - import costs were alittle higher that expected (but not totally inappropriate). For me, i wanted to move away from plastic fermentors - i am sure over the years i have obtained several infections from this technique and when weigh the cost out over a 5 for 10 year period it is not that unreasonable. Although many shall say thats a lot of plastic you can buy for the same price. However, after just one ferment - the time it takes to clean is feels like it is less that my plastic fermentor regime and i beleive the fermentation dynamics are improved too.

In regards to a chilled water tank - i used in the v1.0 a 30L chill water tank via plate heat exchanger. The fermentor jacket holds approx 15L. Simply put I found that the system was only able to cool down to 18oC and at that point plateaued (the fridge holding the 30L was set to 2oC). A lot of research later around cooling systems and they all pointed in the same direction and comments that refrigeration systems are the most efficient and cost effective systems.

An alternative i would possibly consider is tracking down a used school water fountain that serves cold water - the principle and system is almost identical and probably would be just as effective and possibly have a smaller foot print. Unfortunately i have not look inside one to verify that this statement 'holds water' (pardon the pun).

I also need to point out that the Rio20 did not cost anything and is on permanent loan from a winemaker friend. If he ever wants its back i will be buying a rio10.

I have attached a word doc that i was compiling while researching this topic that you may find interesting. As a side note have a look at extreme computer cooling - this area is starting to overlap into what we are trying to acheive, but on a completely different platform.

Cheers

MWS

View attachment Article BYO Mag.doc