Stainless Conicals

[Wortgames]

What about a maglev system?

I suspect most brewers who would want a conical would probably have an upright fridge for it, or alternatively they would like to pump something through a coil to regulate the temperature. I don't think a full stainless fermenter would want to be moved around much, except maybe to wheel it from the brewing area to it's living quarters.

Mine will live in the fridge and be pump filled / gravity drained.

You guys will have to come up with your own tricks, I'll just concentrate on the basics

 

[bonk]

instead of a coil for cooling, what about the morebeer idea and slap a peltier device on the side to cool it?

 

[Wortgames]

I'll leave the gadgets up to you guys, but a stainless coil wouldn't be too hard to do and it sounds like a lot of people would find that useful.

As for size, how does 27L and 54L sound? This would allow 25 and 50L of liquid with a few inches of headspace.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I would be happy just to have mine on wheels, but then again I am after a slightly bigger one....

But I do own a fork lift, so that might get me out of trouble...

 

[Linz]

I'll have a bare bones 25lt one(or two)...with legs and 2 spigots for the taps. You cant get it to fit the snap on lids from the bucket fermenters can you??and to think I was about to list a double door fridge on ebay!!..

 

[redbeard]

Im also interested but depends somewhat on price. currently do about 20l brews but perhaps a 40 - 50l might be better long term ? or 2 x 25l ? mmmm with a 25l i would put it in the current ferm fridge but a 50l would probably have to sit outside, with a cooling coil
(unless i get a replacement full size ferm fridge). would probably want a basic fitout. are you thinking of 0.5" or 1" fittings ?

i guess we're talking a couple months here from prototype to final, so xmas present sounds good

 

[ausdb]

Actually, just reading Ashers reply, and using CO2 to push the beer out sounds the go. Oh so much easier and makes the design and manufacturing of the units easier too.

Doc

[post="75807"][/post]​

I actually use the same thing to empty a 60L fermenter from inside the fridge, a few psi of CO2 into the blowoff tube is enough to transfer to kegs.

I have two squat 50L kegs at home that will fit in my fermenting fridge and have just teed up two damaged corney kegs for their lids , stay tuned for more details heres a hint http://www.kegs.com/fermenters1.html

Ausdb

 

[Stagger]

I went down this track awhile ago and made a square fermenter with 60deg sloping sides, it worked a treat. The only problem is it didnt fit in my fridge so I sold it to a fellow brewer, in hind side I should have gone for the s/s coil. I have often thought of rolling a cone and welding it on to a keg, but been to lazy all the best with the project I know how much work is involved.


Stagger

 

[Wortgames]

I'm not sure about pressurising these things, the lid arrangement looks like its the most complex part of the design and to get something that will hold a few PSI of pressure requires a fairly elaborate solution.

The best option, if I can find them, would be a drum lid - where you have a lever lock band to secure the lid (or maybe a perspex disc) to the fermenter. I am following up a couple of leads but these things don't come in too many sizes. If anyone knows of a supplier that would be a big help.

If that fails, I'll be trying to make them fit standard plastic pail lids, as this will be a nice cheap solution and will probably do the trick for the majority of brewers.

I think anything else is going to require too many parts and fabrication processes for now, and I want to avoid getting too bogged down on what is essentially a minor detail.

 

[ausdb]

I'm not sure about pressurising these things, the lid arrangement looks like its the most complex part of the design and to get something that will hold a few PSI of pressure requires a fairly elaborate solution.

[post="75946"][/post]​

You only need about 1psi if that to get the beer moving. The one shown previously with the sheet of perspex would easily handle that and if the pressure was a bit high would probably distort and leak before shattering into a million pieces.

If you are building it to withstand serious pressure then remember it becomes a pressure vessel at over 15psi so needs to be engineered properly

 

[tangent]

You guys seen the italian made stainless variable capacity fermenters?
The lid slides up and down inside the vessel and there's like a bike tube thing incorporated into the sides.
You just slide it down to whatever headspace you want and give it a pump and it seals off and stays at that level.
They generally start at 100L I think. Marketed to home winemakers.

 

[Lukes]

Something like these pics?

Ibrew import them from the US.

http://www.fermenator.com/

ibrew

I have never delt with them but I reckon they will not be cheap!

Luke

 

[tangent]

I'd prefer a double walled fermenter about 3-4 times the size with variable capacity,
but very nice!

 

[Rex]

Glycol jacketing seems to be the only sane way around everything.

[post="75805"][/post]​

Yeah, that's the conculsion I came to... And you can just use your existing freezer/temp control setup with a cheap pond pump and water/glycol bath.

No need to worry about it fitting it in the fridge/freezer or lifting it while full and heavy!

I'd be keen for 2 jacketed 60L jobs! Or maybe even a big 100-120L version would be practical using the above cooling method!

 

[Guest Lurker]

To me the point of having one of these would be to see it, not have it shut in a fridge, so I would be looking at a cooling coil.

 

[normell]

Sounds good, Wortgames, as long as the price is a lot better than the ones that ibrew import
"46 litre (12 US Gallon) weld free conical fermenter with flat lid ..AUD$1180.00 including GST
Including all fixtures, fittings (with latest 3 piece ball valve taps).
Stainless steel Leg extensions for both fermenators are an optional extra and available separately for $180.00 set."

$1360 plus postage is a little steep for this little black duck :blink:

Normell

 

[Wortgames]

Hi Normell, yep I'll be planning to sell these for under $1100 :beer:

Seriously, the price largely depends on the fittings and labour, but I've got some design ideas that should allow us to produce a good quality, complete, basic fermenter without a lot of superfluous engineering.

It's still a bit too early to think about cost, but as a ballpark figure I'm thinking these things will land in the $250 to $500 range depending on size and final specs.

We'll probably start with a single-batch unit, that will hold something like 27.5L to the rim so it will be perfect for +/-23L batches. The geometry for that one will sit perfectly within George Fix's guidelines and it looks like we can use some off-the-peg parts to keep the cost down.

A larger size is on the drawing board but it is a little trickier and a little costlier and it will have to wait until we've made a few of the small ones.

Stay tuned!

 

[Doc]

Stay tuned!

[post="76596"][/post]​

Still tuned Wortgames.
Any updates ?

Doc

 

[Wortgames]

Nothing much to tell at the moment Doc, I think we've just about got the lid arrangement sorted out for the 27(ish) litre model, and that will determine the exact dimensions of the fermenter, but they will be around 300mm across.

Unfortunately my mate's having a hard time getting workshop time at the moment as they've been snowed under with real work (I know, this IS real work, I keep telling him...) but if we can knock up a working prototype we might be able to get the basic parts fabricated by another shop and just do the welding at his place.

I haven't had a chance to look at fittings yet, but personally I like the idea of a rotating pickup tube on the side outlet, although the kits are bloody expensive. We might supply the first couple off the production line without a side fitting at all - it shouldn't be difficult for most people to drill a hole and mount their choice of pickup, and some people might be happy just using the bottom outlet anyway, especially if it makes the thing $200 cheaper!

I'll keep you posted on further developments as they occur...

:beer:

 

[Batz]

I'll be very interested in one of these Wortgames

Put Batz on your list

Batz