TL;DR: I successfully drilled through the Spike CF10 coil's TC cap to add gas and liquid posts.
I thought I'd share this in case anyone has considered the same.
I bought the BrewBuilt 14g Uni+ over a year ago and have loved it. I debated between it and the Spike CF10, and I liked the floating dip tube option for the BrewBuilt (having used it on my Fermzilla Allrounder). I wanted something that could be pressurized but still affordable.
My only complaint with the BrewBuilt is the CoolStix doesn't cold crash well at all. Just not enough surface area. To be fair, it holds lager temps well, and my bottom temp matches what MoreBeer advertises about the CoolStix's ability, so it's not really a complaint. In winter, the lowest I could hit in my cool-yet-still-comfortable brewroom was 47°F, so I wanted more.
Loving my coil in my Fermzilla, I decided to give Spike's CF10 coil a try in my BrewBuilt since they both use 4" tri-clamp caps. With my house being considerably warmer now, I was able to hit 42°F. Still not quite cold crash temp range, but better. I also added a ball valve to my coil outlet to let the glycol run through slower, and the temp drop was crazy fast, but still leveled around 42°F. Maybe if I let it run over night I'll drip slightly below 40°F, but we'll see.
The downside of this route is that I lost the gas and liquid post that the CoolStix tri-clamp cap has. I considered several options with my remaining 1.5" tri-clamp, but I'm saving that for dry hopping.
So, after a few YouTube videos about drilling through steel, I gave it a go. I now have gas and liquid posts back! I'm giving my fermenter a good soak right now, and I want to get another washer and rubber gromet for the other post, but when complete, I'll give this a pressure test. I don't pressure ferment, but I do spund to the max 15 PSI so I can start partially carbonating. We'll see if this has CO2 leak issues.
I thought I'd share this in case anyone has considered the same.
I bought the BrewBuilt 14g Uni+ over a year ago and have loved it. I debated between it and the Spike CF10, and I liked the floating dip tube option for the BrewBuilt (having used it on my Fermzilla Allrounder). I wanted something that could be pressurized but still affordable.
My only complaint with the BrewBuilt is the CoolStix doesn't cold crash well at all. Just not enough surface area. To be fair, it holds lager temps well, and my bottom temp matches what MoreBeer advertises about the CoolStix's ability, so it's not really a complaint. In winter, the lowest I could hit in my cool-yet-still-comfortable brewroom was 47°F, so I wanted more.
Loving my coil in my Fermzilla, I decided to give Spike's CF10 coil a try in my BrewBuilt since they both use 4" tri-clamp caps. With my house being considerably warmer now, I was able to hit 42°F. Still not quite cold crash temp range, but better. I also added a ball valve to my coil outlet to let the glycol run through slower, and the temp drop was crazy fast, but still leveled around 42°F. Maybe if I let it run over night I'll drip slightly below 40°F, but we'll see.
The downside of this route is that I lost the gas and liquid post that the CoolStix tri-clamp cap has. I considered several options with my remaining 1.5" tri-clamp, but I'm saving that for dry hopping.
So, after a few YouTube videos about drilling through steel, I gave it a go. I now have gas and liquid posts back! I'm giving my fermenter a good soak right now, and I want to get another washer and rubber gromet for the other post, but when complete, I'll give this a pressure test. I don't pressure ferment, but I do spund to the max 15 PSI so I can start partially carbonating. We'll see if this has CO2 leak issues.
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