[quote=“tom sawyer”]Some of the interesting features are:
7psi is about what the weight of wort in a large commercial fermenting tank exerts on the yeast.
You can naturally carbonate your beer.
You can do this in a corny, sanke or some conicals.
You can transfer to keg using counterpressure method.
A little pressure enhances yeast health, making the ferment go faster and with lower esters.[/quote]
I’ve been thinking about doing this with a 15-gal corney keg for the fermenter, but spending $260 for the corney and another $50 for the spunding valve has kept it on the back burner. I already use CO2 to transfer from the primary to the keg and really like the simplicity and lack of O2 exposure, just seems natural to back it up one more step and have carbonated, finished beer going into the kegs. The one thing I can’t get around, yet, is how to move the fermenter from the fermentation walk-in to the chest freezer for crash-chilling - buying a dedicated fermentation fridge might be the way to go.
I’m going to see how cool I can get the beer with the internal cooling coil on this Brewhemoth. I doubt it will get down below 40F even if I insulate it. A frig would be nice though.
A sanke keg would be cheaper than the large corny wouldn’t it?
Yes, but I have all the fittings for the corney, they’re easier to clean, and I could get two plus a CO2 cylinder in a fridge.
Heres a pic of my spunding valve, in closeup on a pressurized keg and on the QD on the Brewhemoth. The Peltier-cooled wine chiller next to the Brewhemoth is going to hold a reservoir of coolant that I’ll pump through the cooling coil in the fermentor. I hope that works, I still need some and a small pond pump.
Beaut!
That is one really cool looking setup. I am really jealous. (By the way I am about to rack a Helles that I am naming Jealous Helles and will have a good story to tell and an impressive picture to show!)
Brew on Dude.
:cheers:
I have a parts washer pump from Northern Tool that I use to pump water through 3/8 hose and down the side of my glass primary.
It was like 10$ and about the size of a computer mouse.
I think I picked up the plastic 1/2 npt to hose barb fitting at Lowes. Screws right into the pump
I’m not sure if they still sell them, but they probably do.
Might work pretty good for your setup.
Edit- http://m.northerntool.com/northerntool/ … Name=false
Looks like the price went up or I mis remembered.
And the goofy periscope looking thing unscrews to expose 1/2 female threads in the pump body.
Ynot, looking forward to the pic and story. I’m getting into brewing helles myself, my favirote lager style. Its OK to be jealous, this setup is prety special.
Scott, I have a pump even smaller than that for circulating water through my chiller coil. I bought a spinning washer ball that is going to take more like 60GPM to spin it. I intend to put together a CIP unit with some plastic pipe and a sump pump, thats been done already.
My wife asked me how much this $1K fermentor was going to cost me, so far its $250 and counting. I’m guessing $500 for a full setup to match the splendor and volume of the Brewhemoth. Nobody is going to have a thin Christmas here as a result though.
Cool.
Keep us updated when you get that beast fermenting.
W/ pics. :cheers:
I got a batch made today, 6gal of black IPA with an OG of 1.068. Took some photos for fun. Brewhemoth Batch #1.
[attachment=2]MLT-runoff.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]boil.jpg[/attachment]
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Heres more detail of the Cuisinart wine chiller cooling unit. It goes down to 45F but I doubt it would bring the beer that far, I’d love 50F though. I’ll check that before I rack this batch to keg.
[attachment=1]chiller1.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]chiller2.jpg[/attachment]
6 Gallons! WOOOHOOOO!
Whats the coolant? H2o?
You could throw some ice blocks in there,
I make mine in the semi reusable containers that lunch meat comes in. A nice sized chunk of cold.
I’ll give that a try, in my swamp cooler I was using 1L soda bottles for ice. Its cool enough in the basement that I really don’t need much cooling for ales, this was more about getting the beast up and running.
I had intended to make 5.5gal but with a large grain bill I had to mash with 1.25qt/lb and that left enough water for two sparges so my efficiency was better than normal. With a deep grain bed (5/8 the hiehgt of the cooler) things ran off slowly but I had a nice clean wort. I’m starting to think I should come up with a narrower MLT for my 3gal session strength batches.
Just curious, why the wire mesh under the brew kettle?
Good eye. My 8gal Megapot doesn’t sit on the turkey fryer very well, its just barely bigger than the ring so it won’t sit down inside. I worry about it slipping and tilting enough to spill, so I took the hardware cloth and sat it on top. Seemed to work OK, yesterday was the first time I used it. My 5gal kettle sits down inside snugly.
got it
I brewed a second batch of this black IPA today, want to add it to the first so my total is 12gal. Still plenty of room left over in the Brewhemoth but this is a good first go.
Went down and checked the fermentor this morning and the pressure is at 5psi and the spunding valve is working like a champ. We’re off to the races! I’m going to bump it to 7psi and leave it there for a few days, then ramp to 15psi. I’ll harvest yeast at that point and then bump to 30psi for finishing and carbonation.
Bumped the pressure to 7psi last night, it is fermenting fast enough that I can hear a low hiss coming out of the spunding valve. The temp is at 66F, good enough for the US05 although I did turn the chiller temp down a bit to see if I could keep it there. Pressurized fermentation is supposed to be more rapid as well as working at higher temps, so I’ll check my gravity in a few days when I get my triclamp barb attachment for the racking port. When its in the last part of fermentation I intend to bump the pressure up to 30psi (the limit of my valve) to carbonate the beer. I’ll harvest yeast before this since the higher pressure can damage it. YOu have to release the pressure to do this since the yeast can burst if subjected to lower pressure too quickly.
Someone smarter than me pointed out that 7psi is the equivalent of a 16ft tank. There are definitely larger fermentors than that out there.
Bumped the pressure up towards 10psi this morning, I haven’t tested gravity but I think things are moving along quickly. I’m hoping my barbed triclamp fitting from brewers hardware comes today, it would make it easier to take a sample from the racking port using a picnic tap.
