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Yeah, sounds great Dave. Can’t wait to taste your brews. At this point there is a contingent of members planning to head south to the hinterlands of west Lakewood. Let’s hope the roads are better than they were last month.
…sat by a crackling fire and enjoyed a few biers with a friend last night. Figured it was safer that wiping out on my bike (again). The pavement was also questionable for motor vehicle travel last night, IMHO.
Dave your system looks awesome. Can’t wait to check it out on a brew day! RE your plans for the Kolsch, if you haven’t landed on a recipe/process yet, you might want to reach out to Ryan. He made an awesome kolsch not too long ago. Cheers!
Very nice Chuck….that stainless CF chiller made my mouth water! Obviously I can’t offer any advice on the electric side of things since I’m a direct-fire guy, but plenty of electric brewers in the club.
I will say that I’m a litte surprised that you are trying to stay in your current brew area. It seems you are fast outgrowing that space and it looked to me that you had LOTS of space in your lower level (and did I see an auxiliary kitchen down there as well?). Seems a match made in heaven if you ask me, to just slide everything over there. You could always use the original space as storage for misc brew gear.
Also, I have a stainless hole cutter sized for a standard bulkhead fitting. Not sure if that’s what you need to adappt your kettle for the temp probe (assuming you still go that route), but you can certainly borrow it if you like.
Looking forward to seeing the improvements!All sounds great Dave! I think it’s cool your wife brews with you. My wife has zero interest LOL I’ll reach out via email with contact info today.
Cheers!
OK, gotcha David. I look forward to meeting you and seeing your set-up. I’d be happy to discuss anything you have questions about regarding brewing. I’m no expert but I’m happy to chat as you see fit (take what you can use and discard the rest! LOL). I’m also brewing this weekend and have a helles on my schedule for Saturday morning. What are you brewing this weekend?
Regarding the gylcol project, I’m sort of a diy’r, and I’ve seen LOTS of tutorials on the homemade versions. I found a great deal on a 5000btu window a/c unit, so I’m going to try to build one. Currently clearing out space in an area adjacent to my cellar for the project. I think it should be fun to build. If it ends up being a waste of time, I can always unplug the homemade unit and purchase something already complete, then just plug in my chiller lines to the new unit. At least two thirds of the project is retrofitting my conicals and installing the chiller lines, so.
You should attend the next meeting if you feel comfortable doing so. I think the vast majority of the club is well vaccinated, so that always helps. If you are not on Evan’s mailing list, let us know if you’d like to be so you can receive the meeting announcements. We can always use another brewer in the group! The more people we can bounce around info to/from, the better it is for everyone’s personal growth as a brewer. Regardless, you should plan to pop over and have a bier with me in the Bier Barn. Saturday afternoons are usually the ideal time for me, but I can be flexible. Ya know, my weeks typically go like this: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Funday and Sunday! LOL
Thanks Chuck, yeah I saw the ones at U.S. Plastic, I think that was the friendliest price yet. I just wanted to make sure the fittings had an automatic shut-off. I purchased some of the stainless QD’s for a different project and neither side of the equation came with that, so I had to install shutoff valves!
I also just heard back from BrewHardware this morning and they suggest 3/8 i.d. I think that makes sense since the cooling coils for the fermenters are 3/8″ ID, so it doesn’t really make sense to go larger anyway. I think fabricating the supply lines will be part of the fun, so looking forward to that element of the project.
Yeah I know Chuck, I can usually justify the price as well. Case in point, this weekend’s mid-50’s forecast has me delaying the brewing of this season’s first lager by two days. It’s annoying, but helps to justify any expendiure for a glycol system.
OK, on to more FAQ’s; when you think about the glycol thing, we’re basically just pumping cold water. I’ve read that you should use as little glycol as possible since water has much better thermal properties and the glycol is there just to keep the water from freezing. The recent Five Star presentation spoke to glycol for home brewing (great timing on that one!) and they suggested you can even use alcohol in a glycol system if you like. Again, the idea is to get the percentage to where the fluid doesn’t freeze. All of this taken into consideration, I found a fairly cheap submersible pump with the proper GPM at Amazon for $10 each. I figure at that price point, I can afford to experiment a little.
So with the pump part of the equipment/parts list question settled (for now), I’m on to other fact-findings. If you guys have any comments on the following bulletpoints, please chime in!
1. Tubing type: Again, this is probably a moot point since anything that moves water is “probably” going to be fine to use, so the cheapest item might be the way to go (PEX or schedule 80 PVC?). I think I would like to transistion to silicone at the fermenter just due to how flexible it is. but that might represent the last 18″ of the run.
2. Inside Diameter: This is the biggest question I have at the moment. Knowing that a larger ID probably puts less pressure on the pump and increases flow, but I’m sure there’s a formula here and I’ve found nothing online that specifically addresses this. What size lines are you guys using and for what distance of travel?
3. Leakage during change-overs: When it’s time to move the product from the fermenter those lines will be disconnected. How do you avoid loss of glycol (leakage)? I assume getting air into the lines is of little concern since it’s an open loop; any air bubbles will be pushed back to the reservior next time you fire up the system? My thinking was to use quick disconnects at the fermenter end (and trying not to tip the fermenter lid/cooling coil assembly so as to dump coolant out of the coil when cleaning the fermenter/cooling coil.
Thanks Chuck, just parroting what I’ve read on various forums. True that I would not be cold crashing very often (probably only my Trappist/Belgian styles, just prior to bottling). The more I research it, the more I’m intrigued with building my own. The only part of that giving me pause is the overriding of the origianl air conditioner controls, but I can think of at least one, maybe a couple of OTMPr’s that could likely help with that. the only other element that’s dicey is the bending/coaxing of the condenser coils out of the original housing and stretched into a small cooler.
The danger there is creating a leak in the coolant line. I will say that the homemade versions are reputed to work really well but they look pretty crappy. I guess I don’t care about that too much since I was planning to put it in the east bottle storage area anyway, then just run the lines and cables through the wall.I’ve noticed the tiny glycol pumps are way more expensive than they need to be and wondering if I can get away with any submersible pump. I think the GPM ratings are quite low, like maybe 3 or 4gpm. A tiny aquarium or fountain pump might be the answer. I’m really cheaping out here all of the sudden eh?!! LOL My thrifty Scot genetics are kicking in.
All great feedback, thanks guys. …and it’s nice “meeting” you David, I don’t think we’ve met in person, have we? And nice set-up you have there! How log have you had your Icemaker 100?
Chuck – your comment on futher cooling my cellar was another thought I’ve had through the years, but then I do keep all of my fermenting lagers at differnt primary temps, based on yeast strain. So if I went that route, I guess a heat mat/controller on each conical could address that fine-tuning. That’s basically what I do now, just get the cellar down to about 40F and heat each fermenter as needed.
My thinking with the freezer unit would be to add the glycol directly to the freezer (I guess some have just dumped it directly into the freezer – yikes!), but I’m reading that this is the only way to get it cold enough for the freezer to actually work as a glycol chiller; the coolant needs to be in direct contact with the freezer walls(???).
Finally, both of the points Ryan made are valid in my case since my cellar is quite small. My thinking was to get the smallest chest freezer they make (and the only one that ‘might’ fit down my cellar hatch! Not sure the freezer would really have the umpf to chill the glycol as needed, particulary during high krauesen, even for a lager they can heat up a few degrees. I’d like to actually see a glycol chiller in action!
….the other thing I’m wondering is how close a glycol unit needs to be to the fermenters. It seems the sensor cables would need to be at least 15′ long in order for my cellar configuration to work for all of my fermenters.
Hey Chuck, you are now venturing down a path with many dark hidden tunnels! LOL That said, I think it’s a good idea for us brewers to give at least some thought to the water we use. That said, I stopped trying to mess with my water (for the most part), though I do monitor pH of my mash and boil… but not of the strike or sparge water. I stop short of trying to match the water for specific brewing regions (I used to do this for my various styles, depending on what I was brewing that weekend). Now I just adjust some of the mineral elements to help with the finished character but with an eye on pH, first and foremost. You discovered the same thing I did; Arvada water is reliably soft. Back when I ran a water report (many years ago) the profile came back almost identical to the town of Pilzn, Czechia. I thought perhaps that was why my pale biers always turned out pretty good! So brewing a darker bier is a bit more of a challenge for us Arvadans, since we generally do well to to adjust the carbonate levels UP. I’ve found that once you get this dialed-in, it tends to be somewhat consistent from one batch to another, thought I’ve heard that our tap water tends to vary in hardness over the course of the year, so I’m not sure how we would adjust fot that short of using R.O. water, and starting from a “clean slate”.
Your question about R.O. water will draw some hits. I know there are several in the club that take this approach. I’ve actually been interseted in experiementing with this as well.
I like that the Colorado Tap House appears it will cater to cyclists. Might be a tough sell for me though as thier web site suggests they will focus on Colorado craft beers. So long as they have Bierstadt or other like brews.. 👍 Regardless, I’ll certainly check it out.
Totally concur with Ryan’s sentiment too….. hard to spend the money if you have something tasty at home!
While I have had good and bad experiences at Falling Rock (generally associated with customer service), I ultimately agree that LoDo will be a lesser place without a good location to sit down and sip a fine import. It was always my go-to when I got frustrated with the craft-beer “here comes another one, just like the last one” scene. I had similar feelings of loss when the Cheeky Monk folded, although that was primarily a pre-game destination when catching shows at the nearby Ogden. RIP Falling Rock….maybe something else just as good will spring from the void.
I always prefer doing a long boil. So I boil for 30M even before I add my 60M hop addition. So 90M, regardless of style. I find that it helps to form and precipitate trub, making for clearer wort.
Thanks guys, these are all interesting things to consider. I do have tons of rice hulls (I use them for lautering decoction brews). I got tired of not finding them at the LHBS and just bough a giant bag of them. So I may try Chuck’s idea first. I can’t really use my hop back anyone anyway, since it is designed for leaf hops.
I also like Ryan’s ideas, especially the first one which sort of sounds like a cool ship approach (something I’ve been kind of interested in trying anyway). I think Bierstadt does something like what you desribed don’t they? That said, I’m sure I’d have more than “a cup or so” of leftover material. In order to get every last drop of wort from my kettle, I’m sure a fair amount of break material would be flowing to the cellar. The reason I haven’t tried something like this before is that I always thought you needed to wait until the wort had settled clear before pitching the yeast, and of course I didn’t want it to sit that long without some kind of fermentation getting started. But the thought of pitching and then transferring is appealing. I’d like to learn more about that whole process.
