Lopsy
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I am trying to visualize how this system would work. I haven't found anyone who is doing something like this. So please direct me if you know some online material that describes a way to do this. Let me outline some of my requirements:
2.) The conicals must not be hidden in a fridge/freezer. Why have them if you hide them in a freezer?
So with that said, how would this baby work? Here are some of my ideas...
The wife and I both love brewing so we have everything stored on the main level and even try to pass it off as decorative... so forgive the vanity, but aesthetics are a big part of this decision.
Please tell me any thoughts you have. I would greatly appreciate it.
P.S. I'm thinking the Brewer's Hardware 14G jacketed for the setup. And no, I don't have this kind of money laying around... yet
Lops
1.) The ability to control >6 conicals (14g+) at once
2.) The conicals must not be hidden in a fridge/freezer. Why have them if you hide them in a freezer?
3.) Temperature control must be done with nothing wrapped around them. Thus, the jacket must be used for heating and cooling.
4.) Ale temperatures are being discussed here. But my house fluctuates a lot, so heating and cooling is a must.
5.) Heat/Cool system should be as discreet as possible. It will obviously be visible and make some noise, but it shouldn't be ridiculous.
6.) We meticulously control the temperature of each beer. We really like to do different temp profiles for a split batch. So the conicals must be capable of being at around 20-30F temp differences from each other.
So with that said, how would this baby work? Here are some of my ideas...
A) Individual liquid source to heat/cool each conical. It would be water (glycol wouldn't be needed because the fluid temps would be comparable to beer temp). This would require individual tanks/pumps/controllers for each and every conical. The tanks would be sitting in a communal giant freezer and then heated with heat sticks separately to keep temps. This would be crazy inefficient/expensive. I only propose this option because the later ones start to reveal the beauty of this concept...
B) One cool tank. One hot tank. Both glycol or both water. Cold tank is in a freezer or is coupled with an AC unit. Hot tank is controlled with a heat stick. Ball valves would be controlled automatically to circulate glycol for chilling and water for heating. This would be quite the expense in controllable ball valves! And how do you prevent the glycol and water from mixing too much? Maybe you just use water for both, because you wouldn't need the cold tank terribly cold for ale temps (must use freezer then). The big catch is... there could only be one conical being heated at a time and one being cooled at a time; however, you could probably just get a big enough pump (sump pump maybe) so that you could rock multiple pump lines at once (hope it's not too loud...I hear the sump pump from 2 floors away)
C) Just forgo requirement #3 and have a heat blanket wrapped around each one and chill with a single glycol tank with controllable ball valves... but it would look so schlocky! Wires everywhere.....why even bother. AND you would have to heat the stagnant glycol in the jacket before you could heat the beer when the beer needs to be heated. But common sense would say that if heat is required, glycol wouldn't be needed very much for that beer so you wouldn't be heating cold glycol very often. Might as well stick with our 16 carboy fermentation chamber with a 54CF upright freezer. At least it is simple to look at.
The wife and I both love brewing so we have everything stored on the main level and even try to pass it off as decorative... so forgive the vanity, but aesthetics are a big part of this decision.
Please tell me any thoughts you have. I would greatly appreciate it.
P.S. I'm thinking the Brewer's Hardware 14G jacketed for the setup. And no, I don't have this kind of money laying around... yet
Lops