DIY Conical < $50.00

[Homegrown Hops]

Looks like B3 has a 12" funnel for winemaking, its a little bigger than a 6.5gal bucket but I think that it may work with the orings in place.

http://morewinemaking.com/product.html?product_id=15776

HH

[plasticmann]

Thirsty Boy

Great gadget !!! I'll definately have a crack at one.

Is the racking port just a standard bulkhead fitting made from Bunnings bits & pieces. From the pics it look like a small length of copper pipe poking in.

Any help greatly appreciated !!

PM

[Thirsty Boy]

Plasticmann

Its a brass fitting from bunnings. A male to male (lunchmeet) step down from, I think 20mm, to the 15mm needed for the ball valve. I used the stepdown fitting because it had a nice wide flat bit to squash against the rubber washer on the inside. Saves making a bulkhead fitting. But a bog standard bulkhead fitting would certainly do the job.

Thirsty

[zymurgest]

Makes me feel a lil toopid..I used a half barrel keg to make my fermenter. Welded 3 legs onto the bottom, removed the spear and replaced it with a vented #11 bung, then ported the bottom and had a coupler welded onto the hole and a nipple affixed to that and a ball valve affixed to that. Not much of a cone though, but it does separate the yeast from the beer ok. Maybe I could stick an arbor through the fill hole and use a hydraulic press to make a more angular cone in the bottom. Any thoughts on how successful this operation would be, or should I just leave well enough alone? At any rate, it works pretty darn well so far.

Prost!

Michel

[friedlbug]

You're the man Thirsty Boy. I made one that looks very similar to yours, but I used a 12" sheet of rubber gasket material that from the local hardware store to make a gasket instead of the O-rings. The 12" funnel worked very well. I ended up cutting the inside out of the lid for the bottom bucket to use the lip to make a tighter fit for the funnel to sit in. The bottom on mine is just a couple inches of 1 1/4" clear tube hoseclamped to the bottom of the funnel with a PVC valve hoseclamped on the other side.

[Milton B]

I'm a little too drunk right now to appreciate this thread.

Milt

[BeerMan]

I used a half barrel keg to make my fermenter. Welded 3 legs onto the bottom, removed the spear and replaced it with a vented #11 bung, then ported the bottom and had a coupler welded onto the hole and a nipple affixed to that and a ball valve affixed to that.

First of all my hat is off to thirstyboy if innovation is really the mother of invention you are the Mutha, Great job. Another approach If you have access to a stainless fabricator, you can have the bottom cut off a corny keg, a stainless 60 degree conical fabricated and welded to bottom of the corny, for about a 100 to 150 bucks you get a 5 gallon stainless conical.

[rico567]

This is a really innovative approach to a conical fermenter. I particularly like the incorporation of the quality ball valves. I particularly like the way it can be broken apart easily for cleaning /sanitation.

I have several issues with it:

1. The OP lives in Australia. I would think that someone living elsewhere would need to exercise great care in measuring the components making up the body of the fermenter to make sure that they'll give a good fit. The OP states that the fit between the funnel and bucket was fortuitous.

2. It's clear how the ball valve on the side of the funnel would obtain a good seal, and could be disassembled and reassembled as required for cleaning / sanitation. The ball valve attached to the spigot of the funnel appears far more precarious.

These are intended to be constructive observations, and I would appreciate any and all comments that address them