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I need to build a stand, even a temporary one. Ideally I'd like to be able to fit a 5 gallon bucket underneath for easy Clean In Place. Those legs are a bit too close together.

Ideas?

Originally I was going to extend the legs with 4x4 posts and a piece of plywood on the bottom but I'd need a bucket with a 10" diameter here. The height would also make transfering to a keg without pressure a snap.

Hi Rob,

Looks like there's a perfectly good fridge sitting beside the conical. Why not put a temp controller on that and put your conical in a plywood base in the fridge. Great for temp control of your fermentation and also great for cold crashing prior to going in your kegs.
Just a thought.
Lew

ottiscan wrote:Hi Rob,

Looks like there's a perfectly good fridge sitting beside the conical. Why not put a temp controller on that and put your conical in a plywood base in the fridge. Great for temp control of your fermentation and also great for cold crashing prior to going in your kegs.
Just a thought.
Lew

Hey Lew, there's too much stuff (beer, yeast, etc) in the fridge and the freezer is being used for hops and peppers. I'm still on the lookout for a full fridge or freezer but kind of spent too much money recently. I've seen some on kijiji last week for a decent price though. Once I figure our what height I want this and how much room I need I'll pick something up for sure. My first brew will be without, but it will be ok since my basement is nice and cool.

Hey Rob,

Do you think the CIP will be necessary? I was wondering about that for my own setup.

Jimmy wrote:Hey Rob,

Do you think the CIP will be necessary? I was wondering about that for my own setup.

Maybe not, I just cleaned it by hand and sprayed it with starsan a couple of times. It would be nice to drain into a bucket though. I have an idea now to put the legs on a horizontal V facing out, with posts under that, the front two being wide enough apart to fit a 5 gallon HDPE paint bucket.

I was thinking about hooking the pump up to the bottom and just recirculating PBW through it while giving it a scrub. Once you're done, just take the outlet hose and empty it down the drain with the pump. Then you can fill it up a decent amount with water, flick the pump on (with the outlet once again running to the drain) and start spraying it to rinse it out...maybe that's wishful thinking?

I am sure you guys are taking apart the valves between each brew session to clean and sanitize as you should and just doing a CIP with the bare conical.
There is a lot of gunk that gets caught inside the valves that needs to be cleaned between fermentations.

That was the biggest pain I found with using them... the cleaning of the valves, and to be honest, the reason I got rid of them.

I've never taken a ball valve apart in my life. Everything gets heat and that's enough for me. The reason I want a butterfly for the bottom is the ball will hold wort when closed. Don't like that on a fermenter, even though it should remain sanitized.

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I think I may use the top TC port for blow off and thermowell at the same time. I'm still not sure a thermowell is worth the hasle vs taping my probe to the side.

For the thermowell idea I'd get a 16 or 20" thermowell from BH and attach it with a TC MPT adapter, 1/2" T (sideways), compression fitting on the top to hold the thermowell, and hose barb on the side for blow off tube.

Thoughts?

You could use an 11L ice cream bucket it would fit underneath probably

I think that will work rob. I have lots of compression fittings.

Rather than finding a fridge to fit my fermenter in for temperature control, I'm strongly considering this since I don't have the means to machine aluminum myself: http://conical-fermenter.com/Peltier-Kit.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It doesn't include the peltier chips or a temp controller, but I think it would suit my needs perfectly and occupy a lot less space and power than a fridge. Looks like the chips can be had on ebay for $12-$20.

I will be wrapping the conical with 1/4" tubing and insulating it. Run it off a PID and solenoid.

mr x wrote:I've never taken a ball valve apart in my life. Everything gets heat and that's enough for me.

That's all right for a kettle, but what about a conical... that's what I thought everyone was talking about. I haven't taken apart my kettle valve since it was installed either, but when I had the conical, I did it after every use.

I'll be using it as an hlt, so I'll be covered there, although I'll have a butterfly on on the dump.

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mr x wrote:I'll be using it as an hlt, so I'll be covered there, although I'll have a butterfly on on the dump.

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Ah, gotcha now. I was thinking it was going to be used as a fermenter.

Tony L wrote:

mr x wrote:I'll be using it as an hlt, so I'll be covered there, although I'll have a butterfly on on the dump.

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Ah, gotcha now. I was thinking it was going to be used as a fermenter.

He's using it as both. Dropping a heat stick in to heat, and then fermenting in it at the end.

[quote="Jimmy"

Ah, gotcha now. I was thinking it was going to be used as a fermenter.[/quote]

He's using it as both. Dropping a heat stick in to heat, and then fermenting in it at the end.[/quote]


It might not be now, but I think later on he will have issues with his beer due to not taking apart the valves to clean.
Each time I did so when I had my conical, I always found a bit of yeast behind the ball and seals on the valves. If left there, I feel, that pasteurizing the valve might not always work.

Regarding a stand, an interesting thing about these conicals is that the fermenter comes out of the stand. When I get a fridge for it I was thinking of making a custom shelf with a hole cut into it like those with the plastic induction tanks do (Ottiscan).

After taking apart your valves for cleaning, then reassembling, make sure you do a leak test on your fermenter. I had to reassemble one of my valves a few times before it would stop dripping. It would suck to discover this after filling it with wort and not having a TC end cap around.

And that's one of the issues with valves. The more you take them apart, the greater the chance of them not going back together properly. I bought extra endcaps anyway just for this reason. Any valve can leak, and usually at the worst moment. Looking forward to getting my hands on this thing...

Element beta. May go to a triclamp at the top instead of the square block.

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So x, i'm guessing you're making something like Jimmy is buying? Looks like a pretty cool project.

Not going quite that far. But I will be using this as a hlt for sure.

Inside.

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