Reactor Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter Temperature Control Lid

Took my brewing to the next level

As the experts say, temperature control is the number one factor in brewing great beer. I should have invested in this "temperature control" lid for my Northern Brewer fermenter a long time ago, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on a vapor compression chiller to provide coolant to the heat exchange coil in the lid. Then it struck me that the Northern Brewer beer transfer pump in my possesion could be repurposed to circulate water between the fermenter and a plastic cooler containing a gallon jug of ice, all controlled by a wireless Inkbird controller. This proved superior to lowering a fermenter into a temperatuare controlled freezer, providing very fast response to temperature changes. My first experiment was fermenting a Speckled Hen clone, which requires careful temperature control to get the desired diacetyl in the finished product. I afterwards found that this cooling circuit could reach and hold 45 F for lager production. What's not to like? Well, the edges of the lid are sharper than on the original lid that came with the fermenter. Not razor sharp, but surprisingly sharp. Another reviewer advised to wrap fittings with lots of layers of teflon tape, which I did but still had to go back and torque fittings more than the lid appeared able to endure. However, I am happy to say all is well and look forward to using this product for making all my beers.

Once it is set up, it’s great.

This setup is great for fermentation temp control outside of a fermentation chamber. The issue I ran into is that it leaked at many of the fittings unless I wrapped insane amounts of plumbers tape on the fittings and tightened them like hell. When you think you put on enough tape, wrap it 5 more times. The other thing to note is that there is no good way to tighten the 90 degree elbows without putting a ton of force on the tubing. I’d recommend to whoever designed this lid, add a spot that can be gripped with a wrench for tightening the elbows on the underside of the lid or something. All of that said, once everything was leak free it worked well.