Temp Contol In Conical Fermenters

[Brewing_Brad]

Hi guys & gals,

I was watching yet another youtube "How to Brew" video today (yeah, busy day at work) and the guy was using a conical fermenter. It got me thinking: how do you control the temperature in such a system? With a plastic bucket style, you can wrap it up in a blanket or stick frozen water bottles around it etc, whatever is needed, but for a stainless steel fermenter that stands 3-4 foot off the ground, that'd be a bit tricky, no?

I saw one thread on this forum where someone made his own out of a plastic fermenter and a HUGE funnel and stuck the whole shebang in an upright fridge, but it looks like he built the fermenter to fit the fridge. It also looked narrower than the ones I've been window shopping.

Anyway, it's not important, it just got me curious.

Cheers
Brad

 

[pimpsqueak]

Pretty sure I have seen somewhere that you can get a water jacketed ss fermenter. That would be the nuts but you'd have to be filthy rich I reckon.
Easier to temp control the whole room like the big guys do.

 

[MitchDudarko]

Little Creatures uses a water jacket system on their fermenters...

 

[Punkal]

If you have the money (Or the minister or war and finance gives you enough allowance) to buy a conical fermenter you probably have the money (allowance) to buy the right size fridge to put it in...

 

[newguy]

You can get good results by wrapping the vertical top part of the conical with copper tubing, then wrap the entire thing in insulation. Use a pump to circulate coolant through the tubing - a reservoir in a fridge holds the coolant. A thermostat controls the pump. Even though you're only cooling the outer wall of the conical, and only a portion of it - thermal convection currents will provide good mixing inside the fermenter.

 

[Malted]

You can get good results by wrapping the vertical top part of the conical with copper tubing, then wrap the entire thing in insulation. Use a pump to circulate coolant through the tubing - a reservoir in a fridge holds the coolant. A thermostat controls the pump. Even though you're only cooling the outer wall of the conical, and only a portion of it - thermal convection currents will provide good mixing inside the fermenter.

@newguy: I can't quite make out what animal picture you are using in your avatar this time.
You'd be getting ready to plant your hop rhizomes soon wouldn't you? Oh hang on, you leave them in the ground and snow over winter don't you? No **** stir, actually interested.

 

[raven19]

@newguy: I can't quite make out what animal picture you are using in your avatar this time.

:icon_offtopic: Its a dog about to bite his own ball sack... :lol:

 

[unrealeous]

Best option - Get an upright freezer - remove the shelves - and place your conical inside.

That way you can ferment at 18, and cold condition at 0 all in the one place. I'd like to see that done with a bunch of towels etc wrapped around it

 

[proudscum]

um something like this,but this is the old fridge that is now dead. but it does fit in my new all fridge that is about 180cm tall or 2 plastic fermenters.

 

[stux]

http://www.ibrew.com.au/html/equipment/fer...gfermenator.htm

 

[donburke]

to all you guys that have these large fermenters in the fridge, how do you fill them and subsequently fill your kegs (i.e empty them) ?

i imagine they are somewhat heavy and awkward to move when full ... how is it done ?

 

[unrealeous]

to all you guys that have these large fermenters in the fridge, how do you fill them and subsequently fill your kegs (i.e empty them) ?

i imagine they are somewhat heavy and awkward to move when full ... how is it done ?

My fermenter is about 50 centers off the ground - just high enough to gravity drain into a keg. Filling is a different story - I used to borrow the neighbor and lift the bastard into the fridge (about 60kgs full).. not fun and annoys the neighbor.

Ended up buying 8 meters of tubing - pump in straight from the kettle into the fermenter in fridge.

 

[donburke]

My fermenter is about 50 centers off the ground - just high enough to gravity drain into a keg. Filling is a different story - I used to borrow the neighbor and lift the bastard into the fridge (about 60kgs full).. not fun and annoys the neighbor.

Ended up buying 8 meters of tubing - pump in straight from the kettle into the fermenter in fridge.

thats cooled wort right ? love thy neighbour

 

[haysie]

Little Creatures uses a water jacket system on their fermenters...

:huh: You would hope so.
It would be interesting to know how these conical guys get on in a homebrew scale side of things. Razz, others, how do you do it in a conical?

 

[proudscum]

to all you guys that have these large fermenters in the fridge, how do you fill them and subsequently fill your kegs (i.e empty them) ?

i imagine they are somewhat heavy and awkward to move when full ... how is it done ?

Mine is only a 30lt and the fridge used to sit on a few bricks.New fridge i put the shelf at the height where it will run straight into the keg.Use a dolly trolley and one small lift.

 

[Silo Ted]

I always thought microbrewery fermenters were jacketed and a glycol solution pumped through it. At least that's what it looks like on the ones I see often.

 

[newguy]

You'd be getting ready to plant your hop rhizomes soon wouldn't you? Oh hang on, you leave them in the ground and snow over winter don't you? No **** stir, actually interested.

:icon_offtopic: You're right, around here hops are planted once. They're amazingly hardy. Last spring my Hallertauer was about 0.5m tall when the weather turned and we got a week of daily highs of -10C. The thing stopped growing for that week, but the leaves didn't even change colour - no frost damage whatsoever. Once the weather returned to normal, it resumed its normal (i.e. ridiculous) growth.

Its a dog about to bite his own ball sack...

Correct!

 

[HoppingMad]

I always thought microbrewery fermenters were jacketed and a glycol solution pumped through it. At least that's what it looks like on the ones I see often.

+1 to Silo Ted. Glycol Jacket is what I've seen from the micros. Well, one of them anyhow. They pump out nice ales that people seem to like in Country Vic from what I've seen too so that method works for them.

That said, I've seen another do double glazed glass, a bit of insulation in wall and ceiling, sealed doors, and warm the room at ambient ale temps, and they do just fine too. So you don't necessarily need to have a jacket on to get it happening.

The homebrewing way on previous threads I've seen here seems to be to build an insulated room and pop a split system or some form of vented climate control in the space. That works for the bigger conicals that you literally wheel in. So there's plenty of ways to skin this cat.

Hopper.

 

[razz]

:huh: You would hope so.
It would be interesting to know how these conical guys get on in a homebrew scale side of things. Razz, others, how do you do it in a conical?

Good evening Haysie. Fermenter sits in a fridge, wort is pumped in from the kettle. SS probe sits in top of wort and controls fridge or heat pad with a 3 degrees range. After fermentation beer is pumped through filter system and into kegs.