Home Made Conical Fermenter

[dabre4]

So I've been working on this little project for a while, and now its finally done! This was VERY cheap, thanks to a few bits and pieces I already had and thanks to work letting me have a few extra valves they had. The fermenter is from a Cooper Home Brew kit, I just cut the bottom off, and attached a funnel from Grain and Grape. This was a perfect, and I mean perfect, fit (to my surprise!). My main troubles were with sealing it all up. I finally got there after a few attempts and a lot of food grade silicon!

My inspiration for this came from a forum I read of this site. Anyway, I thought anyone out there wanting to make there own might like some pics. The part I had the most trouble with is the valve at the base of the cone, which I attached by clamping a cutoff faucet socket (and lot of silicon). Anyway, by doing it this way I can unscrew the ball valve and make sure its nice and clean for the next brew. The fermenter and funnel are attached by scoring the surfaces and sealing with silicon. The wooden frame was made complete and then glued on. Anyway, I'm off to the homebrew store to by some ingredient for its maiden voyage.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Wow, that's a pretty good effort.

I recommend you test it out by filling it with water for a while to make sure that the seals hold and can take the weight

 

[dabre4]

Wow, that's a pretty good effort.

I recommend you test it out by filling it with water for a while to make sure that the seals hold and can take the weight

Already done. I filled it to the brim ( I never plan of filling above 25L, and it holds around 33L) and let it sit for about 3 hours. No signs of leaks what so ever.

 

[bonk]

awesome stuff, been thinking about this as well since i saw the thread as well.

must be diy week for ahb

 

[Steve]

Good stuff doog. I would be inclined to test it over a week or however long your average ferment is instead of 3 hours....but thats just me being paranoid. What temp water did you test it with? Well done!
Cheers
Steve

 

[seravitae]

awesome work mate. coupled with the other thread of the bucket-o-doom brewery, i say combining this with a bucket-o-doom brewery really opens up AG to people on a limited budget - good on you.

Also i would suggest leaving water in there for 48 hours with something underneath it so you can see any drips. 3 hours usually isnt long enough to leak test in systems like that. I leak test all my water lines around electrical equipment for 48 hours before suggesting they are stable. Also you may want to consider leak testing it with ice cold water. The silicon will contract in colder temperatures which may cause the joint to crack - things might be fine for room temp fermenting but if you plan on gearing that up in a fermentor fridge, you may run into issues at lower temps due to the thermal expansion/contraction of the materials..


As a further extension, you could try to find a funnel out of matching plastic (to the fermentor) and have a plastics company use ultrasonic welding to seal them together... could make a pretty penny selling plastic conicals like that. i'd sure as hell buy one in an instant.

 

[Leigh]

Brilliant idea. Well done Doog!

Have you any detailed pics of the build-up, particularly attaching the valve at the base?

 

[raven19]

More inspiration, a nice setup there!
Would be very light and easy to move around when empty too.
Well done.

 

[schooey]

Well done, dude! Interesting approach.

I will be watching keenly to see how the seal between the funnel and the fermenter goes for harbouring bacteria after a while, and I was also wondering if you have put the offtake valve high enough? Maybe the photo's are a bit deceptive, but how much volume is left below it?

Not meaning to take anything away from your work, just curious

 

[katzke]

... could make a pretty penny selling plastic conicals like that. i'd sure as hell buy one in an instant.

Wer can get them here in The USA. Don't see why you could not get them in OZ but I am sure like everything else they would cost a bit. I would have to dig up a link if I even still had it but I think it was USA Plastics that had them. As usual I could be remembering wrong.

 

[Barley Belly]

Nice looking work Doog, looks like there has been plenty of thought gone into this project



A question from a conical noob
How do you drain your brew off the yeast cake?

 

[Batz]

Nice looking work Doog, looks like there has been plenty of thought gone into this project



A question from a conical noob
How do you drain your brew off the yeast cake?

You drain your yeast cake off your brew

 

[Barley Belly]

You drain your yeast cake off your brew

Ahhh Hah (insert embarrased Icon)

 

[dabre4]

awesome work mate. coupled with the other thread of the bucket-o-doom brewery, i say combining this with a bucket-o-doom brewery really opens up AG to people on a limited budget - good on you.

Also i would suggest leaving water in there for 48 hours with something underneath it so you can see any drips. 3 hours usually isnt long enough to leak test in systems like that. I leak test all my water lines around electrical equipment for 48 hours before suggesting they are stable. Also you may want to consider leak testing it with ice cold water. The silicon will contract in colder temperatures which may cause the joint to crack - things might be fine for room temp fermenting but if you plan on gearing that up in a fermentor fridge, you may run into issues at lower temps due to the thermal expansion/contraction of the materials..


As a further extension, you could try to find a funnel out of matching plastic (to the fermentor) and have a plastics company use ultrasonic welding to seal them together... could make a pretty penny selling plastic conicals like that. i'd sure as hell buy one in an instant.

Thanks for the advice, I've re-filled it with water and will let it sit for a couple of days before I do anything silly. Its inevitable that its going to spring a leak one day, but if I can get a couple of brews out of it before it does i'll be a happy camper.

 

[dabre4]

Well done, dude! Interesting approach.

I will be watching keenly to see how the seal between the funnel and the fermenter goes for harbouring bacteria after a while, and I was also wondering if you have put the offtake valve high enough? Maybe the photo's are a bit deceptive, but how much volume is left below it?

Not meaning to take anything away from your work, just curious

Hey. When the two slid in together there is a nice lip between them, which I filled in with silicon and smoothed over...... so theoretically nothing can get into the gap, its just a flat surface like the rest of the vessel. I recon there would be a least 1.5 litres about the offtake valve, but yes I agree it is a bit low. I figure the worst that can happen is I empty the trub out of the bottom, then run a bit out the offtake valve to make sure its free of any trub, then bottle. So the theory has it.

 

[schooey]

Cool, no worries. I guess you'd just be wanting to keep an eye on the silicone seal, it's notorious for losing it's bond and lifting at the edge a little. Great place for nasties to hide. Good luck with it, keep us posted

 

[dabre4]

Just a quick update for anyone intersted. Tested it for 48 hours, no leaks detected. Put my first brew in about a week ago and just did my first dump of the yeast. I opened the vavle quite quickly and the trub oozed out quite slowly until it blew out the rest and became clear. So far a great succes. So so so much easier, quicker and cleaner then transfering to a secondary vessle.

 

[Cocko]

Good work doog!

Are you using sink or sea water?

Seriously, keep us posted mate... nice form!


:icon_cheers:

 

[Justin]

Certainly creatively made and would have been fun to build I'm sure. Looks cool.

Unfortunately I'll have to go with Schooey on my worries with the silicone. It's just a horrible thing to try and clean and I've always seen it lift at the edges and get nice and funky and impossible to clean. Even when you think it's smooth it never is, which you usually find out when it gets a little dirty and you then see the pockets and creases. It's also too soft to really scrub it properly when it does start to get a bit ugly. Pretty much everything I've seen with a smear of silicone eventually ends this way (you should see my bathroom, someone went to town with silcone in there and it's just a nasty mess-apparently it can replace a good tiler and is a good substitute to grout). I really do think you are going to have an issue with sanitation either now or in the near future. If you could get the two pieces welded together somehow that would be a much nice option or maybe an epoxy that you can get a true smooth seal with but it's going to lack flexiblity and the fact they are different plastics might make fusing them tough. Then you still have the silicone down with the valve at the bottom to worry about next, hope you have long arms LOL . My litte stumps wouldn't reach

But anyway, looks like it was fun to make. Hope you have good luck with it.
Justin

 

[dabre4]

Certainly creatively made and would have been fun to build I'm sure. Looks cool.

Unfortunately I'll have to go with Schooey on my worries with the silicone. It's just a horrible thing to try and clean and I've always seen it lift at the edges and get nice and funky and impossible to clean. Even when you think it's smooth it never is, which you usually find out when it gets a little dirty and you then see the pockets and creases. It's also too soft to really scrub it properly when it does start to get a bit ugly. Pretty much everything I've seen with a smear of silicone eventually ends this way (you should see my bathroom, someone went to town with silcone in there and it's just a nasty mess-apparently it can replace a good tiler and is a good substitute to grout). I really do think you are going to have an issue with sanitation either now or in the near future. If you could get the two pieces welded together somehow that would be a much nice option or maybe an epoxy that you can get a true smooth seal with but it's going to lack flexiblity and the fact they are different plastics might make fusing them tough. Then you still have the silicone down with the valve at the bottom to worry about next, hope you have long arms LOL . My litte stumps wouldn't reach

But anyway, looks like it was fun to make. Hope you have good luck with it.
Justin

Yeah, I always knew that the silicone would never last. This is more an experiment then anything, and if I get one good brew from it i'm happy. Just testing to see if its worth the extra dosh for a proper conical fermented........and in my opinion HELL YEAH! Or maybe I need to make friends with a metal turner and get one made up....... hmmm, future project coming up.