Anybody use a beer line chiller to cool fermenter - converting beer line chiller to glycol bath

[Weizenberg]

I thought there was a seperate motor with impeller to stir the tank? Not an issue if not an option, I can still utilise my external pump.

Thanks for input anyway I just need to bite the bullet, get the wire strippers out and give it a go!

I'll take another look and see if I can control the faucet pump externally.

That would indeed be the best option.

Let us know how it goes. Very interested in this....

 

[Weizenberg]

Here is the link to the Cornelius spare parts shop... might come handy...

And attached is the Maxi series manual, in case people are looking for it.

Looks like the pump and the agitator are one unit.... worth giving it a go, it's simple enough.

 

[hoppyscotty]

That's great thanks Weizenberg. Just crashing my current batch so will bust out the tools as soon as its done!

 

[lindormonster]

Thanks for the photo. Looks similar to what I was considering utilising the STC1000 and would neaten up my setup considerably.

Quick question, currently I'm circulating via an external pump. Works fine but just another thing kicking about making the place look untidy. Would it be possible to use the pump that constantly recirculates the liquid in the bath by turning it on and off via the STC1000 thereby utilising a built in pump? If using glycol then the chilled liquid wont freeze when its not being circulated.

I have a Maxi 110 with a STC 1000 fitted that also controls a IEC connection plug for heating pad

I bought it second hand ready built but it is using the standard factory pump to pump fluid around a coil in my 100L fermenter

Only issue I have found with it is that the output of the standard pump points upwards where as the outlet on the front of the unit is horzontal - the pipe inbetween is a pience of plastic clear pipe which can get kinks in it and stops the fluid flowing through

I actually though the pump was faulty when I first got it but after A LOT of messing around with it and gentle pushing and prodding I got it flowing fine - It has no problem circulating through a rather large amount of pipe and the cooling coil - Am looking at the possibility of sticking a L shaped bracket on the pump output to avoind the issue in the future

 

[Weizenberg]

I have a Maxi 110 with a STC 1000 fitted that also controls a IEC connection plug for heating pad

I bought it second hand ready built but it is using the standard factory pump to pump fluid around a coil in my 100L ferm

Nice one. If it's good for your 100l fermenter then it will do for my 50l fermenter. Good to hear, many thanks!

 

[Weizenberg]

That's great thanks Weizenberg. Just crashing my current batch so will bust out the tools as soon as its done!

I had a go at it.

The pump disconnects easily from the distibutor. Introducing an SSR to switch the pump is rather easy.

I've opted for a 2 pin SAE socket and cable to connect the SSR with the control panel.

Apart from installing the SAE socket, it wasn't particularly fiddly.

 

[dantherman]

Just to add, people are often under the impression that glycol and chillers go hand in hand but it's not necessarily the case. Many beer line and soft drink postmix chillers are designed with pure water in mind. I run water in mine which hovers around 0C (or slightly lower, courtesy of the agitator keeping the liquid moving) and, combined with the ice bank it builds up, this is perfectly capable of crash chilling rapidly and then maintaining the beer in the fermenter at 4C with no issues, even in the recent ambient temperatures.

It's only if you want near zero temperatures for your beer that you'd need to be looking at glycol additions to your chiller water.

Hi! I could really do with some help, I want to make larger for the mrs and I've just bought a second hand maxi 310 but how do i configure it to work with my grain father conical pro using the internal water cooling system
any help would be great so i need to cold crash to 5c then once kegged up serve through it.

 

[hoppyscotty]

You have two options:

1: run glycol through the product coils. On mine I've connected the two product coils together in series so the glycol gets two passes. This is how I've got mine set up currently and works fine. Can cold crash to about 3 degrees C without much effort. Its important to use glycol in the circulation loop because when its not circulating and sat in the product coils it would freeze if it were just water.

2: remove the product coils and use a small submersible pump directly in the bath replacing the water with glycol. In combination with an InkBird (or similar) controller bypassing the units own thermostatic controller you can cool the glycol bath to below freezing and circulate -5 degrees or so glycol instead. This would be a better config if you wanted to cool more than one fermenter or wanted/needed to push the temps below around 3 degrees C. I intend to convert mine over to this configuration at some point.

other option is, if you have a version of the Maxi310 with a continuous recirculating loop, is to run a continuously recirculating loop and divert some flow to the fermenter when demanded by a solenoid control valve. But this feels a bit overly complicated.

 

[gyurmaember]

You have two options:

1: run glycol through the product coils. On mine I've connected the two product coils together in series so the glycol gets two passes. This is how I've got mine set up currently and works fine. Can cold crash to about 3 degrees C without much effort. Its important to use glycol in the circulation loop because when its not circulating and sat in the product coils it would freeze if it were just water.

2: remove the product coils and use a small submersible pump directly in the bath replacing the water with glycol. In combination with an InkBird (or similar) controller bypassing the units own thermostatic controller you can cool the glycol bath to below freezing and circulate -5 degrees or so glycol instead. This would be a better config if you wanted to cool more than one fermenter or wanted/needed to push the temps below around 3 degrees C. I intend to convert mine over to this configuration at some point.

other option is, if you have a version of the Maxi310 with a continuous recirculating loop, is to run a continuously recirculating loop and divert some flow to the fermenter when demanded by a solenoid control valve. But this feels a bit overly complicated.

Addig to the above, the fermenter controlling the cooling pump by give + signal on the white wire, you might want to use a contractor or ssr to control the pump to protect the internals of your controller.