Stainless Conical Budget of £500 to £800 Best One

[darkonnis]

Seems you've snatched a bargain with that willis one mate, I had a catch up with the thread just before i posted, good work Interesting to see how you get on with a maxi. You'll have to get a photo up of your collective brew porn once its all set up and settled!

how are you intending to control the temp? I had debated getting one if I couldnt get this conical in the fridge and was debating using a the controller on a pump, to avoid freezing (though i thought they had variable stats) I debated using another controller to keep the temp above 1 or an antifreeze mix?

Meant to also ask before i buy the steel tube and copper end stop, is there a better alternative before i spend the money?

-1 to the tea though, needs to be scolding hot for best results

[barneey]

I was basically going to follow the other post, that Deller mentioned, ie maxi connected via the flow and return to a coil actually in the fermenter or via one of those submarine things gnuts made for me last year. A solenoid valve being controlled via a pid or stc100 devise with a couple of the brew belts, although this conical will only reallly be used for lagers so the heat option my not be required. The screw thread for the existing nasty thermometer being used to house a thermowell.

The easiest way to get a thermowell device in your conical using the rubber bung route is via a straight piece of stainless tube just pushed through the bung the sensor then sitting in the bung, I may have one I`m not useing which I actually bought from hop&grape.

As for using the Maxi - I`m abot of a novice I`ve only had the thing for 18months (sitting in the spares box) so havnt really played around with it yet.

Cheers

[darkonnis]

Hmm, well if you do give me a nudge mate. Provided you don't want it of course.

By the way, what a shame that this isn't 13 amps + as it'd be perfect as an all in one device for those not happy with electrickery.

[barneey]

Another interesting developement regarding the Willis Conical, when I bought the conical from fleabay it was missing the silicone lid seal (seller misplaced the item) anyway the seller has tried to contact them to find a replacement only to be told they dont carry the spare for them. This will mean that I will make one out of a piece of silicone sheet, but as a back up I`ve also ordered an oring from the US supplier (keg rings) just incase the sheet doesnt work.

I know morebeer sell replacement seals (I`ve bought a couple in the past) although Ive never tried to get a replacement seal for the blichmann I`m pretty sure the answer wouldnt be, sorry we dont stock them?

[darkonnis]

This doesn't come as a surprise, look how many people have tried buying conicals from them only to be told they haven't arrived yet, they aren't doing them yet, or they just don't answer. It's a shame though and I agree, at the very least the reply should be:

This product is discontinued and we don't stock the seals, however a suitable seal can be found *here* or one could be produced from a sheet of XYZ at X thickness. Any further queries about this product please get in touch.

It's little things like this that destroy a company reputation

[barneey]

Just to close my conical adventure (until the cooler is hooked up anyway) I`ve just got the "willis" lid back from another member which has been modded in much the same way as Deller did his apart from the nasty screw in fitting has been removed and replaced with a tri clover fitting. The coil came from my "spares" box, it was originally a herms coil, but now pulled a little to serve its new purpose

[Belter]

I'd love to see your spares box one day. Is it walk in?

[barneey]

Either the room is getting bigger or the spares are dwingling

I jusr need to find a local fabricator now to exchange the nasty side screw fitting for another triclover fitting.

[darkonnis]

I brewed yesterday (last night, finished about 1) and after having a load of trouble with the hop strainer the beer went in much warmer than it should have (40c). I've left this in the fridge overnight to cool but the trouble is I don't appear to be winning, it only down to 29c and I'm hoping to pitch at 19c at some point today.

My question then, is what is everyone doing with regards to storing their conical and cooling/heating it?

The fridge isn't an ideal and the conical is a tight fit, and the thing handles like a freight train, it gets to temperature but its a long slow process and seems to struggle with fermentation (temps are frequently higher than the set point once it starts)

[Aleman]

Direct wort cooling using stainless product coils and a maxi 310 python.

The 'fridge' just acts as a constant temperature room rather than providing wort cooling/heating.

As has been said before here, with larger volumes air cooling will not allow enough heat transfer to adequately control wort fermentation.

[darkonnis]

Sorry, I think I've bungled my question and essentially asked the wrong thing.

I've seen a few photos of peoples conicals which are just sat next to their brewing gear (not in a fridge/insulated room), I'm just wondering how well this works for maintaining temperature and if most people heat their conicals (if so, how?)

I ask because if you don't need to worry about it losing too much heat I could essentially double my fermentation capacity by using the fridge for normal bucket FVs and use a chiller for the conical.

[barneey]

Thats what I plan to do with mine, I was going to just use the coil for cooling and some form of belt for heating, however having spoken to another member last week, I think I will use the coil for both heating and cooling.

[bigrichlock]

Hello,

I just have 10m of 10mm copper pipe wrapped round the outside of the conical along with a soil heating cable, and then some Armaflex around the whole lot, regulates the temp well and if i cover with a sleeping bag i can crash down to 2deg in a few hours (45L batch).

My reasoning for the above was just to avoid the use of solenoids.

Cheers

Rich

[darkonnis]

barneey how will you use the coil for both heating and cooling? You going to put that RIMS element (+pump) in series with the cooler and just wire the controller up to each?

Cheers rich, I've been debating how to go about this, with the "hot" side of my kit nearing completion I'm in a position now to focus on getting the most out of fermentation. Did you flatten the copper pipe down to increase surface area or is it just wrapped like normal? That certainly seems a much cheaper/easier way than what I had in mind, which was to bend an aluminium tube into a coil to go inside the conical. That parasene cable is a bloody good idea too!

[bigrichlock]

Its just wrapped round as tight as i could get it, but flattening it could work but not sure if its really necessary, im thinking good insulation over it is more important.

Rich