Beer Coolers & Fermenting Cupboards

Can someone who uses one please tell me at what temp the thermostat kicks in and knocks the compressor off?

My thermometer probe is frozen solid in the reservoir and the reading is -6 and going down all the time

Edit ....just kicked off at -8 deg c

Right guys, my latest project has just been finished so I thought I'd share it with you.
This is my new fementing cupboard so I can control the temperature at which my beer ferments

The outside front



Inside top



Close up of FV top



Inside bottom



I've purpose built the cupboard around my 60ltr fv. The top section is lagged with 25mm kingspan.
The temperature of the fv is controlled by a ATC 800 (front top).
There is a temperature sensing probe inside the fv which gives feedback to the ATC 800. Depending on what temp I've set the ATC 800 to maintain, it will either switch on a heater, or a chiller.

To cool the fv I'm using the water recirc path on a twin line beer cooler, which is housed in the bottom section of the cupboard. I've used 3/8th beer line covered in armoflex insulation to take the chilled water to the fv heat exchanger, and the same again to take the return water back to the chiller. The HE has been fitted through the lid and is secured in place using a giant cable gland, the temperature sensor of the ATC 800 has also been fitted through the lid using a cable gland.

I had a problem when initially testing the design yesterday as there was no ventilation in the bottom section of the cupboard. I turned the cooler on and 45 minutes later the temperature inside the cupboard was 45 deg c....far too hot.
Not only that but due to the temp the cooler was finding it hard to achieve an ice bath.

My solution, I bought a bathroom extractor fan and wired it into the compressor circuit of the cooler, so when the compressor comes on, so does the extracor fan. I also drilled a 100mm ventilation hole in the side of the cupboard where the radiator to the cooler sits. This means most of the heat generated by the compressor is extraced to the environment.

It's taken 2 hours for a full ice bath to be achieved and tonight I'm going to set the ATC to 5 deg c and see what temp it can drop a beer to.

The height of the fv has been set so I can fill corny's beneath it via gravity. I have bought a 1/2" to 3 x 3/8th splitter so I will be able to fill 3 corny's simultaeneously when the brews dropped bright.

Finally I will be able to brew all year round now and not have to worry about fermenting temps...at last

Now THAT is Brew Porn :shock:

Hats off !!

Edit: Re Read through it more carefully, total genius! Loved the extractor fan idea

Hmm.....turned the ATC-800 down to 5 deg c (lowest setting) at 1850.
FV water temp @ 1850 @ 20.7 deg c.
FV water temp @ 2350 @ 15 deg c

That's roughly a 1.14 deg c drop per hour, so, using a linear drop in temp, it will take 13.77 hours to drop to 5 deg c from 20.7 deg c.....don't know why...but I was expecting it to be quicker

I have a feeling the single 100mm venting hole in the cupboard isn't enough, so I will addd another tomorrow.

Mine is quicker than that.

I'm trying to feed the baby one handed now but when finished I'll post some details.

/Phil.

I want one of those and I want it now. Nice one V1 :mrgreen:

Switched it back on this am and it's gained 1 deg in 12 hours...I reckon that's pretty good.
I had a look at the thermometer that I placed in with the chiller section yesterday and it reached a max of 35 deg c.
I recon I need to drill another vent hole in the side. There's a good possibility that the fan for the cooler requires a greater airflow than the single 100mm hole can provide, after all the cooler fan is roughly 6" in diameter.

OK, baby's fed and gone out with the missus so I can talk brewing

I have a similar cooling system to yours. A beer cooler with a heat exchanger in the fermenter.

My plate chiller gets the wort down to about 27C unless I want to wait all day so I have to do some of the cooling in my fermenter. I don't prechill the ice bank in the chiller; just switch it on when I strat transfering the wort from the boiler.

I find it takes about 3 hours to drop from 27C to 19C for pitching.

Incidentally, I know you're looking to remove all brass and copper from your system, Vossy, so what about the cooling probe in that fermenter?

I replaced mine with one of these recently.



It fits through the lid of the conical like this.



I went down this route as I wasn't certain that the copper wasn't tainting my beer. I'm still not sure if it was but I am more comfortable with stainless in the fermenter than copper.

/Phil.

:mrgreen: <- green with envy

thats some set up you've got there mate

Thanks for that Phil
I had seen those product coils and was going to get one, the only thing that made me try the copper type exchanger is that I had all the bits already
I know the exchange in the fv isn't great as the 'water out' of the HE is still very cold.

Looks like I'm going to have to get one of those product coils anyway now
What to do with the hole in the lid....doh

Do what I did. Get a rubber bung :shock:

I have to say that using drilled rubber bungs rather than bulkhead fittings is a much easier way of fitting things to the lid of the fermenter. They come apart with no tools and that means I'm more likely to take them apart for cleaning.

/Phil.

Do what I did. Get a rubber bung

Click to expand...

I saw the use of the bungs on your conical lid and liked the idea
Like you say, you're more likely to take it apart when it's so easy.
Not sure a bung will be big enough to close the hole though..but where there's a will there's a way

I've just stopped my experiment :cry: . I even went to the lengths of looping the water out through one of the product coils, to see if extra cooling power would speed up the chilling of the water in the fv.....it didn't :evil:
There was very little difference between the chilled water in, and warm water out, of the HE, which shows it wasn't that effective.

So, time to grit my teeth, order that product coil and try again

You can get some pretty big bungs on e-bay. That one in the centre of the lid is about 40mm diameter (smallest diameter) and is drilled to take a 22mm heat exchanger like yours. When I moved to using the product coil I just plugged the hole in the bung with a 22mm stop end.

/Phil.

Thanks for the tip regards the bungs Phil, I'll have a nosey on flea bay
Phil, how did you mount the coil to the conical, I can't make it out in the photo's.
Have you removed the black plastic from the top of the coil, if so does it just come off ?

Beer product coil on the way from Norm

Forgot to ask Phil what size conical is that?
I have been trying to chill 60 ltrs with the copper HE.

The cylindrical bit is 50l. It was sold as a 50 litre one but I have fermented enough to give me 11 gallons in the keg.

It's a brupaks one but they don't do them any more. You can get them from Brouwland but the cost is so similar to the Blichman jobs I'd just get one of those if you are in the market for one.

/Phil.

Well, Norms delivered in 2 days as per usual...great fella, and he's sent me an extra long product coil



What fittings did you use through your lid Phil ?

Well Phil you were totally right :clap:

I pre chilled the flash chiller bath (fcb) for 1 hour to a temp of 2.7 deg c and then started the recirc through the product coil.
1822 fcb 2.7 deg c, fv 19.9 deg c.
1852 fcb 11.4 deg c, fv 15.8 deg c,
1922 fcb 10.8 deg c, fv 14.2 deg c, that's a 5.7 deg drop in 1 hour, and note the fc bath getting colder
1952 fcb 9.5 deg c, fv 12.8 deg c,
2022 fcb 8.1 deg c, fv 11.5 deg c, that's a 8.4 deg drop in 2 hours....looking good !
2052 fcb 6.9 deg c, fv 10.4 deg c
2122 fcb 5.9 deg c, fv 9.4 deg c, that's a 10.5 deg drop in 3 hours
2152 fcb 4.9 deg c, fv 7.9 deg c
2222 fcb 3.8 deg c, fv 6.9 deg c, that's a 13 deg drop in 4 hours
2252 fcb 2.8 deg c, fv 5.9 deg c...I turned it off at this point as the temperature drop now seems linear...and it was time for bed.

The old copper chiller managed 1.14 deg c per hour so as you can see the product coil is smashing that chilling rate

Great. I'm glad it worked out.

Fittings I used were stainless compression bulkheads from BES. I used a common or garden pipe cutter to take about 3cm off each tail of the coil then fitted those bits to the outside of the bulkheads.

/Phil.