Custom stainless fermenter heating?

[Intheshed]

Hi all

I'm about to get a custom made stainless tank to fit inside my coke chest fridge so I can pump my wort straight from copper to fermentation tank and not worry about a collection of buckets / demijohns. It's approx 50 cm x 60 cm x 65 cm.

The maximum volume of beer will be around 1 bbl and the fridge part will cover the cooling of it.

What's going to be my best bet for warming should I need to raise the temp? It's in brew shed so I might need to add a little gentle heat over the winter.

Thoughts so far include aquarium heater or heating element as per a tea urn. Ideally it needs to be near the bottom of the tank so if I do a 1/2 brew it's still covered (so not an immersion heater in the top - won't be long enough)

Does anyone have any ideas what size / power I will need to keep around 170 litres of beer at anything up to 18 degrees???

Thanks in advance and happy brewing...

 

[Vossy1]

Another option, have you thought about indirect/external heating using a tube heater in the fridge? ....loads of info on hear, do a search :wink:

 

[LloydV]

a 150w Aquarium heater with built in thermostat would work no problems.

25w heaters are absolutely fine for a normal 23-25l bucket

I tend to trust the JBL ones - both for my beer and my fish - they offer a very good compromise on being good quality but not the most expensive.

http://www.theaquaticshut.com/jbl-protemp-s-150.html
here is the 150w one - it comes with a cage so it can be stuck to the side where ever u want it or just take it out and lie it on the bottom

 

[Fil]

Barneey over on Jims popped a 80l? conical inside a commercial fridge iirc he wasnt impressed with the chilling, and ended up using a shelf chiller and a stainless Immersion coil to chill, run in concert with the fridge switched by the same stc1000 with power relays switching the coolerand fridge triggered by the stc cooling relay..

with a metal body i would consider a heat trace cable or reptile enclosure heat cable wrapped around the vessel wall for heating.

tho a shelf chiller can be modded to include an inline pipe heater i made one for mine and strapped to it a NC 40C thermal switch to ensure the heating liquid does not hit a temperature detrimental to the beer/yeast or fermentation

My shelf chiller mod testing in progress, this particular test revealed the need for the chiller to sit above the FV otherwise when not running the hex water runs back down into the bath and overflows DUM!!!!

the pipe heater a 10mm diameter stainless steel cartridge element secured within 1/2" bsp pipe fittings sealed in with a 10mm compression fitting.

and the hex coil fitted into an 80l thermopot lid..

 

[Vossy1]

My shelf chiller mod testing in progress, this particular test revealed the need for the chiller to sit above the FV otherwise when not running the hex water runs back down into the bath and overflows DUM!!!!

Fil, you need to have both feed and return below the baths water level, then it can't syphon back, if you already have it set up like this and it still syphons back, you have a leak in the pipework or connections... add a little piece of hose to the return to take it to the bottom of the bath if that's the issue...I worked round both scenarios. Also worth fitting a piece of pipe from the overflow to a small container, if you haven't already, saves mess...lol

 

[alby]

I have 110L insulated in conical, 100w in line heater is plenty for me and expected with the increase volume is fine for you. When bringing lagers up to diaceyt 18oC the rate for me is 1.6-2.0 oC/h, you don't want anything faster to upset those fussy yeasticals, I target 5oC/day max usually.

I would guess your fridge will be fine for ales 18oC & ale coldish conditioning and for lager fermentation 12oC, you may struggle in the future attempting to lager near 0oC. I have a fridge that holds 2x50L kegs might take more than 3 days or more to get to zero but after that it does hold a good low lagering temp.

As you have no chiller or immersion at the moment a reptile surface mat on the bottom or low down the sides would likely be best solution.

 

[Fil]

Fil, you need to have both feed and return below the baths water level, then it can't syphon back, if you already have it set up like this and it still syphons back, you have a leak in the pipework or connections... add a little piece of hose to the return to take it to the bottom of the bath if that's the issue...I worked round both scenarios. Also worth fitting a piece of pipe from the overflow to a small container, if you haven't already, saves mess...lol

Cheers Vossy1.. think i have most of the wrinkles sorted on this now, tho its been sat waiting for the shed to get a complete refit.. the chiller will be sitting on top of my brewfridge with at least 50mm of cellotex seperating them(Top mounted compressor in the fridge) with the fv's (one at a time so far) too big for the fridge sat next to it bellow the chiller..

 

[Intheshed]

Hi everyone

First and foremost - thanks very much for the responses. I very rarely ask for help directly on forums instead I just hunt around until I find an answer. Having people you don't know take time out of their day to respond restores your faith in human nature! Thank you everyone!

The fridge that I am looking to get this fermenter 'box' made to fit in is for primary fermentation only so will generally operate between 12 and 18 degrees for the most part. I have a secondary 'industrial' fridge that dims the lights every time it barks into life and I'm sure is responsible for a big chunk my over inflated electricity bill! It does however hold nicely >4 degrees for conditioning lager and filled will take around 150 litres in various lagering vessels at any one time (generally 4 x 30 litre buckets + 2 x cornies. If I decide to do a large ale run I will condition in the primary (between 12 - 18) which it should be able to cope with in it's current state.

I will however need to get my large volume of wort down to pitching temp more efficiently so will investigate the line cooler / stainless chiller idea further. I have space to mount one in the roof of my brew shed so could drop some lines through the ceiling into the fermenter area and knock something up...I see ebay on the horizon!

Am I right in thinking that if I try to push a closed loop / small amount of water through the chiller / stainless coil it will destroy it because it will get too hot too quick and fry the workings? I guess I need to draw water out of a larger reservoir / fresh water butt, through the line chiller, through the stainless coil in the wort and return the hot water back into the reservoir to cool it. I'm already sketching a plan!

Like I say, thanks again everyone and happy brewing (and chilling) and maybe when I'm happy with the set up I'll post up some pics!

 

[alby]

I use a plastic mini-header tank as the recirc buffer tank and easy top up point. I was going to use a one pint milk carton but found a thicker walled 200ml plastic the sits just above the pump. Works for me and is an easy to top up point and can see pump is pumping as well.