Conical Cooling

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:13 pm

Derrin, back in the glory days of zillions of BC posts, you had quite a bit of info and pictures on your cooling set-up.

How is that working for you and is there any chance to get those pictures posted again? I'm particularly interested in how you jacketed the conicals and the controls you used.

Thanks!

Post by **brahn** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:20 pm

I'll take a look at the pictures tomorrow, I've been a little lazy lately but it's about time I got those back up.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:23 pm

The picts are still here somewhere, when Brent gets them back, I'll be happy to document them again. I am about done re-working the control circuits as well with a more efficient ( I hope) design.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:48 am

I haven't had time to document anything yet, but at least some photos are back. Anyway, I helped WildBill on the B3 forum build the same system. He did a very clean job, here is a link to the photos he took of his project:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billjohnn/ ... 706400311/

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:09 am

That's great info, thanks for posting the link (and inspiring it).

Did you consider putting a 6' loop inside the fermenter to avoid the need for large amount of coil on the outside? If so, what were cons of doing that?

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:52 am

maltbarley wrote:That's great info, thanks for posting the link (and inspiring it).

Did you consider putting a 6' loop inside the fermenter to avoid the need for large amount of coil on the outside? If so, what were cons of doing that?

That is exactly what I did with my 12.2 gallon Fermenator. I have 10 gallons of a 50/50 mix of glyclol and distilled water sitting in a chest freezer that I pump through the coil with a submerged aquarium pump.

Here is a pic of the coil:

As far cons go, the only thing is to make sure your connections are leak-proof. I have had to disconnect the coil a couple of times and it was a pain getting it to seal back up. Because of the potential for leaks, make sure to use the appropriate glycol.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:57 am

maltbarley wrote:That's great info, thanks for posting the link (and inspiring it).

Did you consider putting a 6' loop inside the fermenter to avoid the need for large amount of coil on the outside? If so, what were cons of doing that?

Brian has a 6' or so SS coil inside his fermenter and uses a bucket of glycol inside a chest freezer. The performance isn't great with that method, but perhaps a better heat exchanger inside the chest freezer would help.

I chose to go with coils outside because I just didn't want anything inside my fermenter. I never have to worry if the coils are clean or not and I also don't have to worry about any glycol leakage. You would have to have some kind of connection penetrating the lid and where there is a connection there is the potential for a leak. The glycol I use is food grade and safe for potable water, but I'm still not taking that chance.

I'm still very happy with my system, it is very powerful. Not only can I draw-down fermenting beer to lagering temps in the dead of summer, but I can draw-down warm wort to pitching temps with it as well. When my ground water is warm, I could wait all day to get my wort to pitching temps, but with this I can move 80*~90* wort to the fermneter and then pull it down to 68* in about 20 minutes while I'm messing with other stuff.

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:08 pm

Backyard Brewer wrote:Brian has a 6' or so SS coil inside his fermenter and uses a bucket of glycol inside a chest freezer. The performance isn't great with that method, but perhaps a better heat exchanger inside the chest freezer would help.

Actually it has been doing much better. My original issue was an underpowered pump and storing extra hops in the freezer (which was blocking airflow and not cooling the glycol back down). I bumped it up to a more powerful one, took out the hops, and insulated the conical a little better. Last summer I wanted to test out it's limits and did a lager in July with the fermenter outside in my shed. It worked great. I could even do better with my insulation but just haven't found the need. When I'm doing ales, especially this time of the year, most of the time I leave the insulation off the conical.

maltbarley · Post by **maltbarley** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:47 pm

Thanks Derrin and thanks Brian, I saw your set-up on another board.

Both systems are very cool (pun intended, but that makes Derrin's cooler) and ingenious.

I might just steal some ideas from both and build a hybrid.