Thermoboxes as fermenters

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that's exactly my problem.

but i can't go the fridge with ATC route either. 80 to 100L of brew wont fit! :(

just 10 mins ago i was speaking to the landlord of the pub next door to where i work and he has a used beer line cooler that's no longer needed. he's gunna let me look at it and put in an offer

whats a good price for a second hand two line beer cooler?

he's also got fonts for them which he doesn't want... but i dont want them either hehe
 
I'd offer him forty or fifty quid.

A quick look at ebay completed listings shows that maxi 110/210 (single/double line) coolers go for about that.

Take the fonts and ebay them if you can be bothered ;)
 
thanks, i was thinking £30 to £40.. so i guess i was a bit low hehe.

i cant be bothered with selling stuff on ebay. too many time wasters and no goers. if he offers then for less than a tenner each (which i doubt! haha), i might put them up for sale here on the forum for cost and postage ;)
 
I use A 100L stock pot with camping masts as a fermenter . . . Of course I do cool it using a Maxi310 . . . and I've recorded temperatures of around 5-7C from ambient in the wort, which is the main reason I stopped using a fridge for primary Fermentations
 
Ahh then you're just the person to ask the next question :lol:

as this coolers got two lines. i'm thinking about having two temp controlled fermenters with two ATC 800's.

now, i'll obviously need two pumps, and have the pump turn on at the same time as the chiller. BUT. if i'm to connect the chiller up (in parallel) to both ATC 800's... if both were to just happen to turn on the same time, would the chiller get overloaded? or are there seperate controls for each chilling line? i've never seen a beer line chiller up close so have no idea :roll:
 
Most Bar chillers have the product lines (Stainless coils in a water bath which is chilled even to being encased in ice), and a separate 'python' line which is basically a pump in the water bath that pumps the water out of the bath and round the beer lines returning it back to the water bath. I have put the python pump onto a PID(or ATC) controller to cool the FV, The Compressor is still controlled by the thermostat in the water bath . . . . Now If you only have a product chiller then two small aquarium pumps connected to an ATC can recirculate water round the product coil and to the FV. . . . should have no problem with that setup. . . . In fact its a thought For chilling more than one FV that I haven't considered before . . . .. :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:
 
yes but if the product chiller pump and the compressor are both hooked up to two ATC's (in parallel) if both ATC's told them to turn on at the same time, wouldn't that overload it? as you've got twice the current going to the product chiller pump and compressor or are you saying that you'd replace the single product chiller pump, for two?
 
The compressor you do NOT connect to the ATC's Leave it wired up as it is, and it will maintain the temperature of the water bath. remove the wires for the python chiller and connect that to the ATC .. . that gives you cooling for one FV. Get a Aquarium pump (Eheim 1215) and wire that up to the second ATC . . . use that to recirculate water around the product coil and cool the second FV.
 
so just to double check i've got this right:

leave compressor alone, and have it plugged in all the time for it to switch on and off at will
disconnect the python pump and hook that up to ATC 1
add an additional pump to the python cooling line and connect that up to ATC 2

so in effect i'd need 3 pumps. one additional pump to circulate the chilled water around the line. one to circulate the fluid around the coil in FV1 and another to circulate around FV 2?

is that correct?
 
No the python pump connected to one ATC pumps water around the First FV.

Another pump connected to a second ATC recirculates via a product line and cools FV 2

The compressor does its own thing
 
so the python pump is recirculating the reservoir water around the first FV, but the second pump is going through the product coil to the second FV? effectively only actually using one of the "beer" lines?

if i haven't got it yet after this post, you've seriously confused me LOL. i was just gunna buy two pumps and run them through the two beer cooling lines, and have the python pump activated by both ATCs which is why i posed the question of overload
 
That's pretty much it. You only need the one extra pump, If you have more than one product line you can connect them all together so that the cooling capacity of the second loop is greater. . . . you will need to fill the second cooling loop with water, the first cooling loop gets the water from the ice bath.

Of course you could always use the spare product coil for chilling beer ;)
 
ah ha. got it at last :lol:

but hangon... if FV1 is hooked up to the python, and FV2 has it's own pump through the product coil; if FV2 needs to be cooled and the ATC turns on, wouldn't the cooling effect be lessened by the fact that the python pump isn't recirculating cold water around the product coil?

and what happens if the reservoir freezes (as they apparently commonly do)?
 
The product coils actually sit in the water bath . . . the python doesn't recirculate through them at all. In a typical bar use you have say 4 3/8 product lines and 2 1/2" lines covered in insulation making it about 2 inches thick. at the far end of the 'python' the two 1/2" lines are connected together with a U connector. at the other end the product lines connect to the product lines on the chiller, and the 1/2" lines connect to the recirculation lines. The Python pump, pumps water from the water bath reservoir down one of the 1/2" lines and back down the other 1/2" to the reservoir.

Beer travels via CO2 pressure from the keg through the product coil and out to the tap via the python . . . . which keeps it cool no matter the ambient temperature.

The reservoir does ICE up . . . its designed to the product coils sit in this ice bank which is how its all kept cold. . . . The reservoir shouldn't freeze solid . . . although it has been known . . . . and when used for cooling an FV it is extremely unlikely . . . Vossy's chiller is a bit of an exception ;)
 
BrewStew said:
would sticking antifreeze in the reservoir do any damage?
Only if it leaked :)

Actually its not a good idea propylene glycol is a food grade antifreeze, but it lowers the surface tension of the liquid, and the flow rate round the python is very much reduced.

Adding Salt (to a gravity of 1.020) does a pretty good job of acting as an antifreeze, but TBH I've never had the need to do it
 
The reservoir does ICE up . . . its designed to the product coils sit in this ice bank which is how its all kept cold. . . . The reservoir shouldn't freeze solid . . . although it has been known . . . . and when used for cooling an FV it is extremely unlikely . . . Vossy's chiller is a bit of an exception

Who said my reservoir froze solid :hmm: ...it didn't...but the return pipe for the python did, as it sat WITHIN the ice block which forms around the product coils...

To remedy, I simply bent the return pipe so it was WITHIN the unfrozen reservoir.

It was an exception however that I needed to tinker with the damn thing...and something I could have done without :roll:
 
I've been keeping an eye on my plastic FV over the last 48 hours.
The fv is in a insulated cupboard and in the last 36 hours the temp of the wort has increased from 17.7 deg c to 19.2 deg c and it's still climbing. I don't think it will climb much higher as the S04 should be at its peak in the next 24 hrs.

Judging by these results you should be o.k racking at 18 deg c and letting the yeast take its course, as long as the fv is insulated to the environment.

I'll keep you posted ;)
 
can somebody show how to convert beerline to my ss brewtech chronical internal coil please.
the ends are the normal hosepipe connector.
Barb type
 
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