Racking arm

[BigWilley]

Does any one know of a racking arm atachment that could be installed on a
1 1/2" tri-clamp fitting? None of my fermenters have racking arms but they all have a 1 1/2" Butterfly valve about 1/3 the way up the cone(the valve is removable via 1 1/2" triclamp fitting). I would love to install a racking arm here if possible. Thanks.

[beertje46]

Have a local machine shop make one for you?

[Moonlight]

Not a problem. You can have one made in 1" or 3/4". The limiting factor is how deep it is from the outer rim of the T/C fitting to the inner lip of the tank. Especially if it is a multiwall tank, this distance can be so long that the curve of the racking arm won't fit through. Either you can go to a smaller diameter arm or have your racking arm made with a (more expensive) continuous gentle curve instead of welded elbows. I've had to have the welder cut an elbow into thirds and reweld with alternating strait sections to make the arc fit thru the tank pinchpoint. This is a great reason to over-size these ports when having a tank built or modifies.

[MikeJordan]

BigWilley,

This is something I've done and I used JVNW to fab up custom racking arms for some 30 bbl. Century CCT's. It always puzzled me why they weren't included with the tank design. Guess that's why they went out of business! Anyway...it's fairly straight forward if you have blueprint specs for your tank. If not they should be able to help you figure out what measurements they need such as cone slope, etc. Good luck!

[lhall]

Not having seen one of these bad boys, can anyone describe one in detail? Is it a curved piece of pipe welded to the valve? Or a separate piece clamped between the valve and the tank? Our DME fermenters have a racking port 1/3 the way up too, and using it leaves a good bit of beer still left in the tank that could be recovered.

Cheers,

Linus Hall
Yazoo Brewing

[Moonlight]

A racking arm is pretty convenient. Basically the racking arm is a tube size (or two) less than the racking port. It T/C's to the tank, especially with a slippery teflon gasket. Going to the outside of the tank, next there is welded a 8inch or so handle of rod so you can rotate the arm assembly at the tank fitting. Next is the ending T/C that you would want to clamp a valve to, and ideally a sightglass. Inside the tank, the arm curves dramatically enough that you can aim the arm down to just above the yeast/trub/dryhops, so you can get all the clear beer and either waste less beer lost with the sediment, or suck less sediment into wherever you are racking to.
I have found their savings is always worth their cost. My last post on this said it is more expensive to have the arm bent than welded, but that only depends on who you can find that has a pipe bender-it could be cheaper.

[MikeJordan]

The racking arm is a seperate angled or curved piece that would go through the racking port you have on your tank. It would be clamped (TC fitting) to the racking port and then a valve would be clamped to the end of the racking arm. On the end of the racking arm, between the 2 TC fittings, would be an adjustment arm that you can turn to maximize the amount of beer recovery while leaving the yeast behind when emptying the tank. In order to rotate the racking arm the fitting (TC or DIN) has to be slightly loosened so the arm can be rotated. This is where racking arm design is crucial. If it's not designed properly it may not rotate far enough into the cone, or even worse scrape against the interior wall of the cone. Hope this information helps.

MJ

[Diamond Knot]

If you don't know anything about welding, then certainly have a shop fab them up for you. I made ours for the (3) 7 Bbl Grundies we use at our first Brewery. I used (2) 1" TC ferules and a length of 1" OD SS .062" wall tubing. I had a MIG welder at the time set up for stainless wire.

Weld the (2) ferules back to back.......so the tube ends are connected and the gasket flanges face outward. Weld the tube onto the face of one of the TC gasket flange faces (centering over the 1" DIA hole). Do not get weld spatter on the gasket flange if you have a MIG weld. TIG is by far better, but not required. Use a regular conduit bender from Home Depot or similar with a black pipe handle to bend the pipe at the location and angle you want......put your weight into it.
Then, using a punch, mark the "top" of the welded back to back ferule portion with the tube turned down completely. This is done because you can't see the tube in the fermenter and it allows you to see the "clocking" of the tube.

Mine fit perfectly inside the 1.5" TC ferule on the tanks and have been in use for 11 years now. The 1"TC ferule and the 1.5" TC ferule take the same gasket, so this works out great.