Beer Forum

Ozwald wrote:

Bokonon wrote:I have the immersion chillers hooked to a homemade glycol chiller and I wish the tubing was slightly bigger. They work well for maintaining the temp but in the summertime in my garage I could ferment lagers but I wouldn't be able to crash them. If I had them better insulated I probably would have better luck, I just have a single layer of reflectix around the cone and cylinder.

Out of curiosity, have you played with the flow rate through the chillers? Perhaps you're just moving the liquid too fast. Just a thought.

If anything the liquid is moving too slow. The chillers are 1/4" OD not ID so it is really small tubing. Plus I send it through some 1/4" solenoids that restrict it even further. I should have went with solenoids with a larger orifice but I don't think that would make a huge difference, when I was building everything I timed how long it took to pump a gallon through the chiller and the solenoids only added about 20% to the time.

Bokonon wrote:

Ozwald wrote:

Bokonon wrote:I have the immersion chillers hooked to a homemade glycol chiller and I wish the tubing was slightly bigger. They work well for maintaining the temp but in the summertime in my garage I could ferment lagers but I wouldn't be able to crash them. If I had them better insulated I probably would have better luck, I just have a single layer of reflectix around the cone and cylinder.

Out of curiosity, have you played with the flow rate through the chillers? Perhaps you're just moving the liquid too fast. Just a thought.

If anything the liquid is moving too slow. The chillers are 1/4" OD not ID so it is really small tubing. Plus I send it through some 1/4" solenoids that restrict it even further. I should have went with solenoids with a larger orifice but I don't think that would make a huge difference, when I was building everything I timed how long it took to pump a gallon through the chiller and the solenoids only added about 20% to the time.

Ordered mine last night, excited to get it now and throw some wort in it. How much glycol are you running thru the chiller?? I didn't get the chiller with my purchase, will get that later, but curious to know how much you are running.

Whitebeard_Brewer wrote:Ordered mine last night, excited to get it now and throw some wort in it. How much glycol are you running thru the chiller?? I didn't get the chiller with my purchase, will get that later, but curious to know how much you are running.

I have about 8 gallons of glycol in my reservoir and use 1/2" PVC for the manifold. Later on I might be selling my pair of chillers that I had the underside of the cap where the tubing meets welded and a thermowell added to each.

Awesome, that's a job down the road.....

Of those that have these, where are you guys buying your tri-clamp fittings??? I need a 1/11/2" X 1/4 NPT fitting....tried from Brewers Hardware, and they are on at least a 2 month back-order, can't wait that long, need one to build a Spunding Valve.....

Whitebeard_Brewer wrote:Awesome, that's a job down the road.....

Of those that have these, where are you guys buying your tri-clamp fittings??? I need a 1/11/2" X 1/4 NPT fitting....tried from Brewers Hardware, and they are on at least a 2 month back-order, can't wait that long, need one to build a Spunding Valve.....

I think those things are always on backorder everywhere. Seemed like I tried for a long time and nobody ever had them in stock (at least of the cheap Chinese type). I ended up getting a 1.5" x 1/2" FNPT and using a 1/2" MNPT to 1/4" FNPT thing (can't remember what they call those but I ordered mine from someone on amazon)

Image is probably huge so I'll just link to it
Tri-Clamp to ball lock:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/37pb1an50hun3ic/2011-10-27%2013.14.25.jpg

Spunding valves:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b3jmuge945vcxx5/2011-10-27%2013.27.07.jpg

The adjustable reliefs I bought from grainger and the ball lock pieces I picked up at chicompany

I've got 4 Brewhemoths, all with spunding connections, extra ports for temp control and site glass fittings for bottom. 3 have the internal chillers, which i run glycol from kegs stored in a cooler through. I can easily maintain any ferment temp, but cold crashing is still and issue. I need to improve the efficiency of the cooling and do some insulating I think.

NB

Nice thing about the 7 gallon - fits my 5.5 cu.ft. Oster. Have a SMaSH recipe in there now fermenting at 62F.