It's bloody hot in Brisbane today. As I drink my stout and sit in front of the fan, I thought I'd share an idea I've been mulling over in my brain for a while now...
I welcome criticism and people's opinions, but prefer them to stay constructive!
My basic idea is this: to ferment beer in 50L kegs that are sitting in half a 44 gal drum of water to keep them cool. Nothing new here, but I plan to have a 60L fermenter of water in my fridge kept as cold as possible to circulate into the 44 gal drum to cool the fermenter. This will be controlled by a digital thermostat - STC1000 or I plan to go to the BCS-462 controller soon. I would use either a Sanke Fermenter kit or a 2" Tri Clover barbed fitting with a hole drilled into it for the thermowell on top of the keg.
I reckon this idea works because you're not using ice or 6 different fridges, and your beer is in a strong, lightproof and sanitary fermenter where it's at a regulated temperature.
Problems I can see:
- Cooling power of the fridge/volume of cold water is not enough
- Cleaning those kegs will be tough
- Overflowing the 44 Gal drums and draining water etc if anything goes wrong
- Pumps getting un-primed and not working?
- Obtaining legal kegs...
My solutions/thoughts:
- Instead of using the fridge component, I could use my freezer with heat exchange coils in ice blocks/bowls/something. Only issue there is the cooling water freezing in the coils when it's not pumping.
- Use a submersible pond pump or similar in the bottom of the cut-off 44 gal drum to circulate water from the 44 gal drum through a coil in the fridge/freezer instead of actually pumping the water from the fridge around. Same level in the drum (minus evaporation) all the time then.
- Use radiator coolant/glycol/salt water to cool with so it doesn't freeze in a coil in the freezer - but would that rust pump parts/kegs/go off/smell etc?
What I need everyone's thoughts/expertise on:
- What kinda pumps should I use?
- Can I make the freezer idea work? I like it better...
- What "coolant" should I use?
- Anything else I've missed?
Thank you all for your replies in advance... who knows - if this thing works well it could be a winner for homebrewers everywhere!
Cheers,
Jon
I welcome criticism and people's opinions, but prefer them to stay constructive!
My basic idea is this: to ferment beer in 50L kegs that are sitting in half a 44 gal drum of water to keep them cool. Nothing new here, but I plan to have a 60L fermenter of water in my fridge kept as cold as possible to circulate into the 44 gal drum to cool the fermenter. This will be controlled by a digital thermostat - STC1000 or I plan to go to the BCS-462 controller soon. I would use either a Sanke Fermenter kit or a 2" Tri Clover barbed fitting with a hole drilled into it for the thermowell on top of the keg.
I reckon this idea works because you're not using ice or 6 different fridges, and your beer is in a strong, lightproof and sanitary fermenter where it's at a regulated temperature.
Problems I can see:
- Cooling power of the fridge/volume of cold water is not enough
- Cleaning those kegs will be tough
- Overflowing the 44 Gal drums and draining water etc if anything goes wrong
- Pumps getting un-primed and not working?
- Obtaining legal kegs...
My solutions/thoughts:
- Instead of using the fridge component, I could use my freezer with heat exchange coils in ice blocks/bowls/something. Only issue there is the cooling water freezing in the coils when it's not pumping.
- Use a submersible pond pump or similar in the bottom of the cut-off 44 gal drum to circulate water from the 44 gal drum through a coil in the fridge/freezer instead of actually pumping the water from the fridge around. Same level in the drum (minus evaporation) all the time then.
- Use radiator coolant/glycol/salt water to cool with so it doesn't freeze in a coil in the freezer - but would that rust pump parts/kegs/go off/smell etc?
What I need everyone's thoughts/expertise on:
- What kinda pumps should I use?
- Can I make the freezer idea work? I like it better...
- What "coolant" should I use?
- Anything else I've missed?
Thank you all for your replies in advance... who knows - if this thing works well it could be a winner for homebrewers everywhere!
Cheers,
Jon