Plastic Conical Temp Regulation

[picieslefty]

I'm opening a small packaging brewery that will be using 300 gallon plastic conicals to ferment in to begin with and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for temperature control inside of these fermenters?
Cheers!
Dave
Mount Anderson Brewery

[Beluedog]

Yeah, get Jacketed stainless.

[picieslefty]

If that was an option with my budget, I would, but it's not. With that said, I know there are a lot of brewers that have been successful with these plastic conicals, so I'm just curious what they are doing for temperature regulation.

[GritCity]

If that was an option with my budget, I would, but it's not. With that said, I know there are a lot of brewers that have been successful with these plastic conicals, so I'm just curious what they are doing for temperature regulation.

There are a handful of threads on here that cover plastic conical temp fermentation. A couple guys posted links to videos showing their setup. Just search Plastic Conicals and you'll fine them.

[Junkyard]

Yes, there are many threads on here on the matter, I posted a tidbit on one of said threads where i posted pictures of my setup.

What worked very well for us: We basically plumbed immersion chillers inside the fermenters. They were mounted in the lid so they could be taken out and cleaned/sanitized between batches. You dont need much, maybe 30-50 feet of 1/2" stainless coil for a 300 gallon fermenter. We actually coiled ours ourselves with a tube bender so they would be easier to clean. Add a thermowell and a glycol chiller and your off to the races. This method works much better than cooling the ambient temps around the fermenter. Yeast put off a lot of heat, and plastic is an insulator. you really need direct contact with the beer in order to cool it properly.

[IronSightBrewer]

Hey I would be happy to help, I use plastic conicals and I could send you some pics of my set up

[Hoppydan]

Hey I would be happy to help, I use plastic conicals and I could send you some pics of my set up

Could you please email me pic of your set up at bigokebrewing@gmail.com thanks from South Africa

[josesitojose]

Hey I would be happy to help, I use plastic conicals and I could send you some pics of my set up

Do you mind sending me some pictures of your set up as well? Here's my email: josepinosv@gmail.com. I'm getting 250 gallon plastic conicals to start my brewery in Ecuador - South America. Thanks

[public]

This has probably been discussed a zillion times but the system I am using works rather awesome...

We use stainless coils. They were custom coiled by nybrewsupply- the price and speed of production was fantastic.

We drilled holes for rubber stoppers in the fermenter lids- the kind with a hole that homebrew airlocks go into-make sure you get the pre-drilled ones

Use sharkbite fittings and pex to run cold water or glycol to the coils.

Our chiller is a marine cooler with a hacked airconditioner in it. Each fermenter has its own pump (harbor freight pond pump) connected to a johnson controller.

My brewery is in Tucson, Az and this setup keeps my temps within one degree using water.

hope this helps.

[Onebadsc]

This has probably been discussed a zillion times but the system I am using works rather awesome...

We use stainless coils. They were custom coiled by nybrewsupply- the price and speed of production was fantastic.

We drilled holes for rubber stoppers in the fermenter lids- the kind with a hole that homebrew airlocks go into-make sure you get the pre-drilled ones

Use sharkbite fittings and pex to run cold water or glycol to the coils.

Our chiller is a marine cooler with a hacked airconditioner in it. Each fermenter has its own pump (harbor freight pond pump) connected to a johnson controller.

My brewery is in Tucson, Az and this setup keeps my temps within one degree using water.

hope this helps.

I would like to see some pics of your setup, I am about to start building the same sort of setup. I plan on using a large aquarium chiller to chill the glycol and using a single pump to run the coolant through a loop in my cellar, then have each fermenter connected to this loop. I will open and close electronic ball valves to regulate temp in each fermenter. Do you think this will work?

Thanks