Some questions guys, thanks for the patience.
All brewing spirits condemn me to hades for this, but any reason I can't use my Spike 20 gallon HLT as a primary fermentor? I know that using a tri-ply brewing vessel for a simple open wine fermentor is a bit of...overkill, but on the other hand, I don't have any other vessel this large. I also may have an undue prejudice against plastic, so totally open to advice on that, too.
Unlike the other 2 brewing vessels, which have either a WP or Vorlauf return, this vessel just has the thermometer port, and bottom exit port. Plenty of dip tubes of various kinds for racking. (Brewing is now a kind of "maybe" thing but I don't want to "ruin" the HLT for brewing by doing this - but can't see why I would, given proper cleaning and sanitation; right?)
Finally, presuming red wine, could someone give an estimate of capacity, how much must I can load in with this? If it matters, the 20 gallon vessel is pretty close to 1:1 aspect ratio at 18 D x 22 T.
One regret is that I didn't go for T/C when setting up the brewing system. The above vessel is NPT with a ball valve. As a beer fermentor, I'm not sure on using NPT. Opinions on that for wine?
Speaking of T/C, I do have a 10 gallon square fermentor, with T/C and a butterfly valve. Anything weird about a square fermentor? And as with the 20 gallon vessel, is there a rule of thumb for me to know the overage one needs in calculating max. must volumes?
Finally, A lot of the vessels online (e.g., MoreWine) I see are quite tall. Is that normal for primary fermentors? I'm only going on memory from California, which is a really long time ago, but I thought I recalled the red wine fermentors, at any rate, getting their pumpovers, were much wider and shallower than, say, the Speidels or Blichman's I see on the web. Something like a traditional open vat v. modern CCVs. Can someone advise?
Thanks much.
All brewing spirits condemn me to hades for this, but any reason I can't use my Spike 20 gallon HLT as a primary fermentor? I know that using a tri-ply brewing vessel for a simple open wine fermentor is a bit of...overkill, but on the other hand, I don't have any other vessel this large. I also may have an undue prejudice against plastic, so totally open to advice on that, too.
Unlike the other 2 brewing vessels, which have either a WP or Vorlauf return, this vessel just has the thermometer port, and bottom exit port. Plenty of dip tubes of various kinds for racking. (Brewing is now a kind of "maybe" thing but I don't want to "ruin" the HLT for brewing by doing this - but can't see why I would, given proper cleaning and sanitation; right?)
Finally, presuming red wine, could someone give an estimate of capacity, how much must I can load in with this? If it matters, the 20 gallon vessel is pretty close to 1:1 aspect ratio at 18 D x 22 T.
One regret is that I didn't go for T/C when setting up the brewing system. The above vessel is NPT with a ball valve. As a beer fermentor, I'm not sure on using NPT. Opinions on that for wine?
Speaking of T/C, I do have a 10 gallon square fermentor, with T/C and a butterfly valve. Anything weird about a square fermentor? And as with the 20 gallon vessel, is there a rule of thumb for me to know the overage one needs in calculating max. must volumes?
Finally, A lot of the vessels online (e.g., MoreWine) I see are quite tall. Is that normal for primary fermentors? I'm only going on memory from California, which is a really long time ago, but I thought I recalled the red wine fermentors, at any rate, getting their pumpovers, were much wider and shallower than, say, the Speidels or Blichman's I see on the web. Something like a traditional open vat v. modern CCVs. Can someone advise?
Thanks much.