So I was wondering if anyone here has designed any gadgets or equipment that they'd like to share? I recently came up with a variation on evaporative cooling for fermentation, but instead of a wet T-shirt on the fermenter, I decided to try a traditional evaporative cooler, similar to what we use out here in the intermountain west for cooling our houses. For those of you who live where the humidity is high, this won't work at all. As shown in the picture below, I've got is a acrylic box where recirculating water wets a fibrous pad from above. (A pond pump immersed in a bucket of water below does the recirculating.) The fan sucks air in through the pad, which cools the air due to the latent heat that is necessary to evaporate the water. The air then enters the fermentation cabinet. Depending upon the humidity, I get on the order of 10 degrees F cooling. I just brewed a pale ale and am trying out the arrangement for the first time. At the moment the interior temperature is 69 degrees. A bit cooler would be better, but it could be worse!
Nice setup I'm looking for a way to control my fermentation temperature also...this gives me a first idea!
My proudest kludge is probably my wooden brew stand, just because of how cheap it is compared to the fancy steel ones everybody builds. I used 2x3's, a partial sheet of OSB from the cull bin at The Home Depot, and a $10 roll of radiant heat shielding. I tried for a while to tell people they could use wood for their brew stand, but nobody believes me. Everybody thinks you need a welder to build one. "Oh nos the wood will catch on fire" seems to be the prevailing worry, but I'm probably pushing 60 batches on this thing with no issues.
Ha, I don't even use the radiant protection. It gets warm, but no fire concerns. http://i.imgur.com/1nWFU.jpg
I'm sure they are pricey if you had to purchase new. I scavenged them from a larger acrylic box that was no longer being used for anything. There is no reason that something similar couldn't be built from much thinner acrylic. One could maybe start with a plastic box of some sort and go from there, maybe a large plastic electronics-project box. I just happened to have the acrylic lying around.
Building things for my brewery is one of my favorite things about the hobby (besides drinking super awesome delicious beer that I created). So far i have built: A pump in a toolbox A copper imersion wort chiller A 10 gallon steel brewstand A magnetic sttirplate A two tap kegerator A 50 Qt. mash tun A mini hop drying oast I'm always looking for new ideas. My next project will be to convert my chiller to a recirculating chiller.
I have been geting tired of shaking the bucket so I built a stainless steel stir drill that will go in my drill motor. I will try it out this weekend.
Here's a counter pressure bottle filler I built years ago (back when I had easy access to the parts needed). It's made out of off the shelf parts with only one simple modification. The smaller diameter fill tube passes straight through the tee to the top liquid valve. I attach the beer line there with a hose clamp. The gas comes in through the side valve and down the Tee around the small but but inside a larger tube. The only thing I had to do was drill out the bottom swage fitting t make sure the small tube fit through it with some clearance for the gas to flow. I use this to occasionally bottle from the keg. Works great, easy to clean, have been using it for probably 15 years now, the only thing that needs to be replace occasionally is the rubber stopper.
Yes. I realize that alot of homebrewers use pure oxygen I don't want to have the tank in my garage. I have 3 CO2 tanks and that is enough.
Have you considered the small disposable Home Depot type O2 canisters? They don't take up much space.
I don't know exactly how much they hold, but I'd guess they are good for about a dozen batches for me. I do use different amounts for lager vs. ale, and for different gravities, but I'm thinking at least a dozen batches on average. Maybe someone who has actually keeps track will chime in.
I haven't really tracked either but I get roughly 10-12 batches per bottle, depending on what I'm brewing, same as you.
Awesome, that's better than I thought. I always assumed using O2 for aeration was a bit of an investment, but now I'm seriously considering it. Thanks!
Well I tried out my paddle drill this weekend to aeriate my wort and am quite happy with the results. I used the drill for 3 minutes and was easier then shaking the bucket. The only issue is that I need a "T" handle on my motor to hold better. I realize that O2 is best but for the time being I will use my paddle drill. If I knew how to post a picture on this site I would show what it looks like for those interested.
