Grainfather glycol chiller

[itry]

Greetings.

I've had my grainfather 2 months now( i love it even more now than i did then) i feel the problem I'm havi g is the fermentation temperatures. Their a bit high and wild. I've been looking at the grainfather glycol chiller and conical fermenter. This seems to sort the problem with controllable temps. Have any of you got and use one? Please share your experiences on it. Is it worth the money and does it work aswell as its advertised.

 

[MickDundee]

It’s a bit of an expensive way to control fermentation temps. If you have room for the GF glycol chiller you probably have room for a brew fridge.

 

[MmmBeer]

I'm with MickDundee.

Conical Fermenter + Glycol Chiller ~ £1,400

Cheap Fridge £120 (far cheaper second-hand)
Inkbird £30
Heater £20
Fan £5
Few hours work £0

Total Less than £200

Lots of help on here to explain how its done.

 

[itry]

I will check it. I could use a fridge I guess. I built a PID controller for my kiln to make sure I can stick to temp. It really does to .5 of a degree. Only thi g I was hoping was it could all be put away on the side after its used

 

[Clint]

I think your brew fridge would be in constant use... fermentation, cold crashing,beer conditioning,hiding beer...

 

[-Bezza-]

I think your brew fridge would be in constant use... fermentation, cold crashing,beer conditioning,hiding beer...

...hiding body of SWMBO when they complain you are spending too much money on beer stuff.

 

[chewie]

Greetings.

I've had my grainfather 2 months now( i love it even more now than i did then) i feel the problem I'm havi g is the fermentation temperatures. Their a bit high and wild. I've been looking at the grainfather glycol chiller and conical fermenter. This seems to sort the problem with controllable temps. Have any of you got and use one? Please share your experiences on it. Is it worth the money and does it work aswell as its advertised.

I use the conical fermenter, it will hold temp to max of what you set it at and about 0.8 c of a degree lower until its stat kicks the heater element in to warm it back up. I've used a brew fridge previously which is now given over for beer dispensing, the intention will be to set up a small water reservoir inside the fridge with the cooling hoses connected to it to provide chilling as and when required.

Having the ability to easily clear trub, man handle the fermenter with out causing to much disturbance, recover yeast and bottle directly was a big factor in deciding to get the conical, cleaning is a dawdle and you have no worries about scratching. The one thing i do pay a bit more attention to when cleaning is the valve assembly, it gets an extra cleaning every 3 brews to ensure there is no build ups starting to occur. IMO it is worth it if you can spare the cash and have the space, i would not purchase the glycol chiller to run 1 fermenter, and the only time i would see it being useful if there is some sort of small batch co operative brewing on a semi pro level where they would have multiple fermenters on the go at any one time.

 

[Norfolk79]

I’ve got an SSbrewtech brewbucket, along with their heating/cooling “pack”, basically a heating pad, insulation jacket, controller and a cooling coil with a pump.

The pump is in a cool box, filled with water and frozen 2l bottles of water. Works very well at keeping fermentation temperatures down. Just need to change the bottles once a day

 

[simon12]

The glycol chiller bit looks like the most over priced, I recently bought a chiller (water not glycol) that would be massive overkill for a small fermenter for £370+VAT from MF Refrigeration it could likely chill a 500L maybe 1000+.

 

[itry]

What model did you buy from mf refrigeration?

 

[simon12]

The invoice says its part no 30-EAR-0-MF and description is a mini e/stat R290 If you PM me an email address I will forward you the details.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Feel free to post the details in the forum as members may be interested.

 

[simon12]

 

[simon12]

I have one from the mini range but would think the smallest S2 would cool a home brew fermenter easily.

 

[ITMA]

I’ve got an SSbrewtech brewbucket, along with their heating/cooling “pack”, basically a heating pad, insulation jacket, controller and a cooling coil with a pump.

Much appreciated - I didn't know this existed until now. More expensive than a Brewfridge but I've definitely no room for one of those - this could be the perfect solution and I've time to save up before its needed next summer.

 

[ChrisPDuck]

Another vote for a repurposed fridge.
This one came from freecycle so only cost the fuel to collect

One of these for £10
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0799GZB4G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

One of these for £20
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LPHIMW0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

£30 all in, I can ferment, condition and serve from it and it’ll hold 3x40 pint batches.

Heats as well as cools too, useful for garage brewing

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I always worry when i see members putting a 25 Kg Fermenting Vessel on a glass shelf, many members use wood instead..

 

[ChrisPDuck]

Thanks but done many batches and not had an issue. The shelf’s are rated at 50 pounds, my full fermenters weigh about 51 pounds. Given the perfectly flat bottom distributing the weight and the fact the spec is likely very cautious I’m sure it’s fine.

This poster (from a different site) has much more than me without issue.

‘My old ferment fridge would hold 2 7 gal carboy's with no problem. I recently got a new ferment fridge and can get two 7-gal and one five gal on the shelf. For about 3 weeks, I had all 3 beers fermenting with no issue. They are all in kegs now and there is only carboy in there now. I am in the glass business. Tempered glass is very strong. I will probably replace mine with wood at some point, but I'm not worried about 2 carboys at all, 3 does worry me a little more, but I don't think it is an issue. Honestly, I'm more worried about the plastic pieces on the side, that holds the glass shelf up.’