Fermentation Chiller

[lexuschris]

Heya,

So, I had some time this weekend to work on a fermentation chiller for my 6-gallon plastic fermenter. I was inspired by FBMike's setup and some of JonGoku's comments & HBT links. Ultimately, I decided for this simple setup and found this thread to be very helpful!

I had an extra weldless cooler bulkhead, so used that to replace the cooler's plastic spigot. Initially, I was concerned that the interior nut would intrude too far into the interior space (2") for my cooler to sit on the bottom. I tried like the dickens to get an elbow join on the inside, even with the bulkhead turned around... but just could not get that to work. Thus, I decided to go straight accross and up the opposite side. Placing 4 plastic couplers on-end provides fermenter support and keeps the weight off the plastic lawn-sprinkler parts I found (cheap!) for the task.

The 18" flexible plastic blue hose comes up to a perfect height (about 3" below the rim) to allow overflow to drain out through the bulkhead tubing assembly. And, you should be able to rotate the flexible tube to the left/right to effectively lower the water level if you had a smaller batch in the fermenter.

Fermentation Chiller - build

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On Saturday, I brewed an AAA for the SCHF, so I was able to test it out in earnest this afternoon. The bucket fermenter just barely fits. About a 1/2"-3/4" all the way around, filled with about 3 gallons of water. Luckily, with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. It just rests atop those couplers underneath.

Fermentation Chiller - in-use

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I hooked up a Johnson temp controller (outside of pic .. hanging over shower door), and set it for 67-F, and loaded my small spare cooler with water & frozen water bottles. It kicked on and the 155 gph fountain pump started filling the top of the chiller with cool water, and the drain valve kept up with the flow just fine.

Fermentation Chiller - setup

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I did have some trouble getting the system to be free of leaks though. I water tested it several times, and added more thread tape where I found issues. I still have a very very small drip coming from the exterior bulkhead where it joins the plastic barbed elbow.

I'm wondering if the plastic on metal threads are just inherently going to be tough to get sealed?

Would love some tips on sealing for leaks. Beyond thread tape, I just don't know much about plumbing stuff. The plastic joints inside seem to hold fine, although I do see an occasional teaspon of water run down that drain tube.. not frequent .. but it does happen. Guess I'll find out overnight. If drains too much, the lower cooler will overflow.

--LexusChris

[backyard brewer]

Nice work!

[oc eric]

From LexusChris to Go Go GadgetChris !

[jward]

Would love some tips on sealing for leaks. Beyond thread tape, I just don't know much about plumbing stuff. The plastic joints inside seem to hold fine, although I do see an occasional teaspon of water run down that drain tube.. not frequent .. but it does happen. Guess I'll find out overnight. If drains too much, the lower cooler will overflow.

If this is a permanent chiller device and not your mashtun part of the time.... You can use plumbers putty which is used a gasket type material. Puts lots on and squeeze it out when you tighten up the joint. You can use thread paste instead of tape. This goes on threads like the tape but it can take up more space then the tape and possibly squeeze into fill a gap that tape might not.. You can use silicone sealant. This is great stuff but you need to get a formulation that sticks to the materials involved. That is silicone good with glass may not be good with aluminium because of the acetic acid. Others may not stick well to plastic etc.

[maltbarley]

And keep in mind that teflon tape is a lubricant and no so much a sealant. It's really only intended for pipe (tapered) threads.

[JonGoku]

Awesome Chris! Actually by having the fermenter elevated in the cooler allows for water/coolant to get under and cool from beneath as well. Better then if it was just sitting on the bottom. Like others said, depending on if you are using this as only a fermenting chamber or doubling it as a a HLT/Mash tun then you have different choices to make.

[lexuschris]

Thanks for the feedback all!

This is a dedicated cooler for fermentation. Interestingly enough, that little leak at the bulkhead stopped on its own. 2 days in-use now, and the system seems to have sealed itself up. No leaks at this point. Yeah!

As it turns out, the elevated cooler fits better than if the risers were not there. It puts the drain hose at just the right elevation for my 5.5 gallon batch, and keeps the fermenter lid roughly even with the rim of the cooler. This allows a narrow 1/2 " around the edge to put my fill tube.

My other favorite cool feature is Derrin's thermowell & the temp. probe. I used a normal fermentation lock stopper for the thermowell stopper. Drilled a new hole in the lid, and dropped the probe down inside. Being able to see the actual beer temp is awesome!

After this batch is fermented, I may take apart the pieces to see if there are any opportunities to refine or better seal this thing.

---LexusChris

[oc eric]

Thanks for the feedback all!

Drilled a new hole in the lid, and dropped the probe down inside. Being able to see the actual beer temp is awesome!



---LexusChris

What's the temp difference between the fermenting wort and the water in the cooler? I'm told it can be 6-8 difference between the two.