Exploring Fabrication of SS Conical Fermenter: Brisbane Only

[MHB]

The why zone cooling is used on big fermenters - this from Kunze explains it pretty well.

I know a lot of micro breweries find that even if their CCV's have two or more zones they work just fine if they cool the whole lot at once - the same as putting a single skin CCV into a fridge/cool room.
Mark

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

A single half wrap zone will cause more convective mixing than a single wall vessel in a cool room, which can help defeat stratification. This is because the rate of cooling at the jacket is far higher than the rate of cooling of a single wall vessel in air and it's all on one side of the vessel, so cold fluid will "fall" off the jacket and then rise up the opposite wall. This works best if you adopt zone cooling, eg only run the jacket cooling at night (when the fridge plant is more efficient and electricity is cheaper anyway) but then you have to be careful about temperature rise during the day.

 

[fdsaasdf]

Another comment: I get the idea of the separable components to make the fermenter volume adjustable. I can't see why you ever need to remove the cone, so why not just have one joint on the small size and a ring to expand it to the larger size?

Also Triclover clamps in very large sizes are insanely expensive: the 300mm is almost 10 times the price of a 200mm. 2 x 300mm Triclovers will take you well north of $1k.Have a look at standard rim clamps for storage drums, much cheaper. No, you won't be able to make it a presssure vessel but since I can't see why anyone would go to the expense of using a pressure fermenter for a home brewery that's no great loss,

Thanks for the information, I couldn't find any indications of pricing online so it's helpful to hear from someone who knows.

As for the viability of the whole exercise, as interesting as the contributions here have been I don't think it's likely to suit my needs as it stands. The uninformed ideas I had were for a setup that was simple and modular that would ideally maximise use of standardised parts - but obviously cost is still very high given the bespoke nature of the project.


On a related note, I would certainly be interested if anyone in Brisbane was aware of a fabricator who would be willing to fit a conical base with a couple of sanitary ports to a donor 30L / 50L keg for something like a few hundred bucks! (though I expect to be told I'm dreaming...)

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Thanks for the information, I couldn't find any indications of pricing online

Geordi Stainless are one of the best resources in the industry. Their prices are good and they treat even the smallest order like it's important to the people who ordered it.