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GotMead Live 11-24-15

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JDWebb

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Dec 26, 2014
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Sherman Oaks, CA
www.jamesdwebb.com
Tonight on GotMead Live - Guy McConnell owner of the soon-to-be-open Laughing Leprechaun Meadery in Colorado. Oskaar will be LIVE with us tonight, and J.D. is going to be talking about his Rube Goldberg mead making setup. You won't want to miss it!

Join us at 9PM ET/6PM PT and listen and call in live. http://wp.me/p6ONlo-109

Tune in or catch the replay, either way, its the only show that will make you drink the entire bottle before they sign off, Vicky, AJ and JD, they'll either have you laughing so hard you'll hurt, or face planting your forehead in your beans...its all live tonight at 9pm est. Don't miss it!

Here are the projects JD will talk about tonight

Digitally Controlled External Chiller

This is an inexpensive way to digitally control the temperature of your carbouy if you don't have room for a refrigerator.

Project Box $8.10

STC-1000 $16.77

Submersible Pump $14.99

Electrical Outlet $2.99 (Home Depot)
Grounded plug $2.99 (Home Depot)
3-wire electrical cord (less than $10) (Home Depot)
40 feet 3/8" copper tubing $55 (Home Depot)
Plastic tubing - less than $10 at Home Depot
Small hose clamps - less than $5 at Home Depot

Insulated Carboy Wrap
Less than $10 at Home Depot
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Mead Transfer Vacuum Pump (racking from one container to a carbouy)

Pump $22.58
Tubing - less than $10 at Home Depot
On Off Switch - less than $5 at Home Depot

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bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
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Saratoga Springs , NY
But there is nothing "rube" about the pump set-up... How else could you use a pump to transfer liquids without the aid of gravity? But that said, my quick and dirty modification would be to suggest that the tube going into the target carboy or vessel be a) far shorter and b) shaped so that the liquid runs down the inside wall of the target vessel. What that does is to allow the liquid to be degassed even as it is being transferred (given the fact that you are pouring the liquid into a vacuum I don't know that you need to be overly concerned about "oxidation" - there being no O2 to speak of in a vacuum).
Also, is there really a need for shut-off valves? As soon as you shut off the pump the flow will cease... and since you have a limited volume of liquid in the source vessel and the target vessel will have been chosen to accept the entire volume there is no likelihood of an overflow - so in my opinion those valves are unnecessary complications to what is really a very simple and effective set-up
 

JDWebb

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Dec 26, 2014
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www.jamesdwebb.com
Most "wine pumps" are centrifugal pumps like a water pump, which are quite expensive at brew shops. Mine is very simple, inexpensive, and works well. Its impossible to shape the tubing to stay in one place, but I've already solved the degassing part. I simply attach a tube to a bung, and control the suction with a valve. It does a good job of sucking out the co2.

The valves are in place to control the flow. Once the fermenter/carbouy become close to empty, I can slow the flow so as not to suck air into the must on the other end without having to scramble for the shut off switch. The other valve near the overflow controls the amount of vacuum pressure.
 

jdranchman

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Oct 20, 2014
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Centennial, CO
JD - consider using a piece of ridged plastic pipe in the destination carboy - say from an old or new racking cane. The bend in the cane top is actually perfect. Use a drilled stopper and push the long end straight up the bottom. Insert the the curved end into the carboy and adjust it to rest against the narrowing carboy neck - then trim the long part down as necessary. I do this with a cane I bought as a replacement. Mr Paranoid also tries to initially purge out the air space in both with CO2 first and leave a slowly running CO2 hose in the source carboy neck. I do this with my cider and mead.
 

JDWebb

NewBee
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Dec 26, 2014
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Sherman Oaks, CA
www.jamesdwebb.com
JD - consider using a piece of ridged plastic pipe in the destination carboy - say from an old or new racking cane. The bend in the cane top is actually perfect. Use a drilled stopper and push the long end straight up the bottom. Insert the the curved end into the carboy and adjust it to rest against the narrowing carboy neck - then trim the long part down as necessary. I do this with a cane I bought as a replacement. Mr Paranoid also tries to initially purge out the air space in both with CO2 first and leave a slowly running CO2 hose in the source carboy neck. I do this with my cider and mead.

Worth a try, but rather using a stopper, I might try using the orange topper thing, might be easier to get the stiff part of the cane through since that part doesn't have to be airtight.
 

JDWebb

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 26, 2014
365
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Sherman Oaks, CA
www.jamesdwebb.com
I built the vacuum pump. Totally works!

Already have a pretty similar homemade cooling system.

Yeah baby! Now, what you need to do is get a whole house filter canister and use it as a spill over while using the same setup to degass your carboys. Use a tube that fits into the bung hole. The filter canister will prevent liquid from getting into the pump.
 

zpeckler

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Mar 7, 2014
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Newark, De
I had all that stuff on hand. I took my racking crane and tubing and attached that to one port on an orange plastic carboy cap. The other port on the carboy cap was hooked up to a vacuum flask as insurance against overflow. I'll use the same vacuum flask hooked directly to a drilled stopper for degassing.


Edit: A clarification. The destination carboy has a second racking crane pushed down to the bottom like Jdranchman describes. The plus is that the mead doesn't splash so much as it transfers so oxidation is minimized (yes I know there's a vacuum, but I'm paranoid). The minus is that if the origin carboy goes empty it'll start bubbling out the bottom of the receiving carboy's crane because just air is being sucked in from the empty origin carboy. You have to be watchful and slow the pump down before it bubbles.

The debate I'm having is whether it's better to have my tubing hooked directly to the orange carboy cap and have the mead splash down to the bottom of the carboy under vacuum -- or hook my tubing to a racking crane and have it gently deposited into the bottom of the carboy, but suck a few bubbles into the mead once the origin carboy is empty.
 
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