West Coast Brewer Home Brewing Blog

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Installed New Blichmann RipTide Home Brewing Pump Upgrades

 

I initially purchased my March home brewing pumps about 7 years ago, well before stainless steel homebrew pumps were really a thing. Once stainless pumps became more popular, I considered upgrading, but my existing pumps worked fine and I could not justify the cost.  Then Blichmann released their RipTide home brewing pumps which feature a tri-clamp attached head!!! In my opinion that is a big deal because it allows you to easily gain access to the pump cavity for easy cleaning.  As it stood, I had to rely on hot water and PBW to do all of the cleaning unless I wanted to spend an extra 30 minutes breaking down, clean and then reassembling each of my March pumps; which is really not something I wanted to do after a long day of beer brewing.  The one down side was that a new Blichmann Rip Tide home brewing pump will run you $199+. So I waited…..

Then, Blichmann release the RipTide Upgrade Kit! The Rip Tide Upgrade Kit allows you to upgrade some of the most common existing home brewing pumps to a Blichmann Rip Tide, for just $99. With this RipTide Kit, you can upgrade your March or Chugger pump with the Riptide’s Tri-Clamp housing.  The RipTide’s head is made from stainless steel and can rotate 365 degrees to fit almost any home brewing setup. The kit also comes with Blichmann’s  integral linear flow valve, which provides superior control and eliminates the need for an upper ball valve in must situations.

 

Blichmann Rip Tide Home Brewing Pump Upgrade Kit

Blichmann Rip Tide Home Brewing Pump Upgrade Kit

Here is a list of home brewing pumps that the Blichmann Riptide upgrade kit is compatible with.

More Beer Homebrewing Pumps:

H340, H331, H332, H315HF, H350 and H375

Chugger Homebrew Pumps:

CPSS-CI-1 (115V),CPSS-IN-1 (115V), CPSS-IN-2 (230V), CPSS-CI-2 (230V), CPPS-IN-1 (115V), TCPSS-IN (115/230V) and TCPSS-CI (115/230V)

March Home Brewing Pumps:

809-SS-HS, 809-BR-HS, 809-PL-HS, 809-BR-HS-C, 809-PL-HS-C, 809-SS-HS-C, 809-BR, 809-PL, 809-SS, 809-BR-C, 809-PL-C, 809-SS-C, 815-BR, 815-PL, 815-SS, 815-BR-C, 815-PL-C and 815-SS-C

The Blichmann Riptide Upgrade Kit Can Be Purchased Here for $99

 

After verifying that the Blichmann RipTide Upgrade Kit would work with my current March homebrew pumps, I place my order for two of them.  After placing my order, it took about 8 days for them to arrive. I purchased them from More Beer, but the pumps were shipped directly from Blichmann.

RipTide Homebrew Pump Upgrade Kit

RipTide Homebrew Pump Upgrade Kit

Blichmann RipTide Upgrade Kit Installation Instructions

Next step was to read the instructions (which were relatively simple), make sure I had everything needed (which was just a screwdriver, a couple of wrenches and some PTFE thread seal tape. The instructions from Blichmann came in black and white and unfortunately the contrast made it so that it was difficult to see where the washer was supposed to go, so I included some color photos here to help you out if needed. I began by breaking down my existing march pump per the instructions and removing my existing fittings.  It is important that you just remove the pump head and NOT the magnet collar! The pump head was held on by 4 stainless steel screws in my case.  Here is an image to help:

Blacihmann RipTide Upgrade Instructions

Blacihmann Rip Tide Upgrade Instructions

Next I mounted my home brewing pump on to the included stainless steel pump riser. This was not required in my situation but I like the idea of it because it raised my pump up a couple of inches, bringing it close to my kettles, reducing the amount of tubing that I needed and giving me a little more space to empty the pumps when I had to clear wort from them.  Everyone’s situation is a little different, but it works well on my home brewing rig.  After that you will want to mount the Tri-Clamp adapter bracket on to your pump.  Blichmann includes two sets of screws to use, so make sure that you select the appropriate screws for your pump. Be careful not to over tighten the screws; doing so could crack the bracket or damage the pump. Next, place the impeller housing and the impeller into the pump magnet as shown in the following images:

 

Blichmann Rip Tide Homebrewing Pump Upgrade Instructions

Blichmann Rip Tide Home Brewing Pump Upgrade Instructions

Next is where I nearly had a problem.  Install the pump head o-ring and washer to the stainless steel RipTide pump head.  My first kit was missing the washer and the photo quality on the instructions that came with the kit were so bad, I could not tell if I was suppose to use one of the mounting washers.  Something did not seem right and I would have then been missing a mounting washer, so I checked my second pump kit and could see that there was a smaller washer that was intended for the pump head. It thankfully had two in that box, so all was good.  Here is an image to help you see where to place the o-ring and washer into the Blichmann RipTide pump head:

RipTide Upgrade Kit Installation Photos

RipTide Upgrade Kit Installation Photos

Lastly mount the Blichmann RipTide pump head on to your pump using the include stainless steel 3″ Tri-Clamp and attach any fittings that you may have. The entire process took me approximately 30 minutes per pump to upgrade an re-install onto my home brewing stand. Except for the issue with the washer, it was very painless.  Here are a couple of photos of the Blichmann RipTide homebrewing pumps after they were installed on to my homebrewing rig.

 

Finished Images Of The Blichmann RipTide Pump Upgrade Kit

Blichmann RipTide Home brewing Pumps On My Homebrewing Rig

Blichmann RipTide Home brewing Pumps On My Homebrewing Rig

Close up Image of the Blichmann RipTide Home Brewing Pump

Close up Image of the Blichmann RipTide Home Brewing Pump

After that I tested the RipTide home brewing pumps for leaks and checked to make sure all of the ball valve connections were free from leaks as well.  All was good and I also took a short video in case anyone was curious about the type of pressure or flow rate that you could expect from the RipTide upgrade kit.

Blichmann RipTide Pump Video

 

If you are looking to purchase a Blichmann RipTide Home Brewing Pump Upgrade Kit, they can be purchased here for $99

 

Pliny the Elder All Grain Homebrewing Recipe

Pliny the Elder All Grain Homebrewing Recipe

Pliny the Elder All Grain Homebrewing Recipe

 

For anyone who is interested in brewing an all grain homebrew batch of Pliny the Elder, I have posted the recipe that I brew.  It is a great recipe and tribute to one of the most famous and hard to get Double IPA’s out there. In fact it is so hop packed that this home brewing recipe even calls for a hop addition to the mash!

 

Click here to view the Pliny the Elder Homebrewing Recipe

Adding a Ball Valve to a Kettle, Fermenter or Cooler

Home Brewing Weldless Ball Valve Kit

Home Brewing Weldless Ball Valve Kit

Adding a ball valve to a homebrewing kettle, cooler or conical fermenter is now a simple and inexpensive task thanks to this More Beer stainless steel homebrewing ball valve kit. Do you have a stainless steel home beer brewing kettle or homebrew cooler and would like the ease and convenience of using a ball valve to drain liquid? Well, at just a fraction of the cost of having a spigot welded into your kettle you can install a weldless ball valve yourself with out worry of leaks.
These new weldless home brewing ball valve kits  are designed for beer brewing and are no comparison to the weldless fittings of yesterday. This homebrewing ball valve kit is also unique in that it feature 1/2″ female threads on the inside. This allows you to thread in various other fittings that you can see below. Want to later make a mashtun… no problem just thread in our stainless screen. want to fully drain your boil kettle? No problem, just add our kettle maximizer! This allows for unlimited flexibility. Best of all, they are easy to install.  I have in fact installed two my self with out any issues.  I recommend using a step drill bit to make things super easy. This weldless home brewing valve kit includes a 1/2″ Full Port ball valve and a 1/2″ barb. All fittings are made from 304 type stainless steel for a lifetime of corrosion free use. Complete installation directions are also included with this homebrewing ball valve kit.
If you are ready to install one now, More Beer currently is running a special on them and you can pick one of these 1/2″ ball valve kits up for just $26 and if not, they regularly sell for $34 which is still a bargain if you ask me.

Click here for more details on this kit More Beer Ball Valve Kit

How to install a thermowell

How to install a thermowell in a stainless steel brew kettle or fermentor.

How to Install a Thermowell

How to Install a Thermowell

 

I live in Southern California and it is not unusual for me to get daily temperature deviations of more than 30 degrees depending on the time of the day.  As you can imagine, this makes regulating fermentation temperatures a bit of a nightmare.  So about a year and a half ago I purchased a chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber.  The chest freezer greatly helped in creating a more stable environment for my fermentation but I was taping the temperature probe of my digital thermostat to the side of my carboy or fermentor and that was not giving me a true reading of the actual temperature of the fermenting beer. As beer ferments, especially during times of high yeast activity a good amount of heat is created inside the fermentation vessel which means that the temperature of the beer can differ significantly from the ambient temperature of your fermentation chamber.  If the temperature in your fermentation vessel gets to high, your yeast may begin to create off or undesired flavors in your beer.  Since the heat produced by yeast activity changes significantly over the course of fermentation, simply compensating by moving the thermostat temperature down a few degrees is not ideal.  For this reason, many home brewers choose to either purchase a fermentor with a thermowell built in or add a thermowell to their fermentor.

 

A thermowell is a hollow thin walled tube that reaches from the outside wall of the fermentor to a near center point of the inside of the fermentor.  The hollow chamber of the thermowell allows you to insert a thermostat temperature probe so that you can get a far more precise reading of the actual temperature inside of the fermentation vessel.

 

For my fermentation vessel I use a 7 Gallon Stainless Steel Brew Bucket.  If is far less expensive than some of the higher end stainless steel fermentors but unfortunately it does not come with a thermowell built in.  That being said, it still costs a couple hundred dollars and the last thing that I wanted to do was ruin it by improperly installing a termowell. After doing a little research I was able to install the thermowell with no issues and it only took me about 20 minutes to do.  The tools that I used were a center punch, hammer, electric drill, 2 small drill bits, step drill bit, crescent wrench and a little fine grit sand paper.

 

How to Install A Thermowell Step1

How to Install A Thermowell Step1

 

First things first, you will want to gather your tools and mark the point on your fermentor where you want to place your thermowell.  The thermowell should be near the center of the fluid level of your filled fermentor.  Also consider that if you prepare different sized batches in your fermentor, you will want to place the thermowell so that it will be able to read the temperature of small batch sizes as well, so it may make sense to place the thermowell a little lower in the fermentation vessel.  After you mark your installation spot on your fermentor, you will want to use a punch or sharp instrument to make a starting point for when you drill your pilot hole.

 

Thermowell Installation Step 2

Thermowell Installation Step 2

 

 

Next you will want to drill your pilot hole as shown in the image above.  In my situation I actually increased the size of the initial pilot hole with a slightly larger drill bit to help accommodate the head of my step drill bit.

 

 

Thermowell Install Step 3

Thermowell Install Step 3

 

I then used my step drill bit to increase the diameter of the hole until the thread of my thermowell was  able to enter it snugly.  Once I verified that it was able to enter, I used the fine grit sand paper to remove any sharp metal and to polish the edges of the drilled hole.  Next I mounted the thermowell, making sure to use the included silicone o-ring.

 

Thermowell Step 4

How to Install a Thermowell Step 4

 

 

Lastly I cleaned the fementor and thermowell and tested it to insure that there were no leaks.  The install was a success and I currently have a batch of beer in it and the thermowell is working well as expected!

 

If you are looking to either purchase a fermentor or a thermowell for an existing fermentor, here is where I purchased mine.

 

Click Here for Fermentors and Thermowells