Hobby Water Jacket Bottle Filler

[Zucker Lager]

Here is my first homebrew canner. Electric heat source in contact with a 4 gallon Baine Marie that I added a drain / spout to. A local kid did the welding nice work hey?
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I've read enough here on MT to figure out that I needed to add a water jacket.
Started by making an extension / bulkhead fitting

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Turned a half coupling with a lip for accepting the heater element and square ring gasket.

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The water jacket is 20 gauge galvanized (no contact with syrup) It has supports soldered inside that the baine marie sits on. A hole through the front of the water jacket where the extension screws through that clamps it in place and creates a water tight seal. 4 elevator bolts soldered onto the bottom to bolt it to the plywood base plate and a drain pipe.

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[Zucker Lager]

Here are the remaining pictures:

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Next will be insulation, a heater control, assemble it all then try it out! Jay

[johnallin]

Nice job on the bottler, but I've got to say "That's the largest assortment of pliers and cutters I've ever seen on one wall!"

[UPnorth]

Nice job. I also plan on making a hot water bath bottler this winter. Like yours, I also want to expose more of my syrup tank to the hot water, ie. taller water tank, and insulate it as well. I am curious as to how you sealed the outlet, preventing water from leaking out around your filler spout. I take it you will be able to remove the syrup tank for cleaning it and the water tank. Thanks.

[Zucker Lager]

Hey UPnorth:
To seal the spout / bain marie from the water jacket I cut two gaskets from thin teflon that is about as hard as Tupperware plastic. one goes in front of the bain marie spout and that is inside the water jacket wall then the second gasket goes outside the water jacket wall and the extension screws through that and the small hole in the jacket and inner gasket to "clamp" it all tight to the water jacket like a bulkhead fitting That is wrench friendly with the flats I cut into it and will be how I remove it for cleaning. The only thing I might do differently there is to use 1 1/8 inch instead of 7/8 dia stainless to make the fitting for the bain marie and the extension for a little larger gasket purchasing area. The thread on the extension is silver soldered into the extension body and matches the thread of the tapper spout I think it was M16 - 1.5 ? JFYI I cheated and used a stainless bolt so I didn't have to single point cut that thread I just drilled the bolt out and cut it to length.. Jay

[Zucker Lager]

While testing the Bottler I found that when I filled the water jacket with the bain marie empty it tried to float so I installed a bracket at the top and soldered in the rear half of the cover to fab a way to fasten the bain marie so it would not float. Here are pics of the insulation. Testing went well heated up fast and stayed at proper temp in the bain marie Plus / Minus about 5 degrees. Jay

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[Zucker Lager]

Lastly I did install a fitting so I can fit a thermometer into the water jacket and made a filter bay out of a 2/3 rds size steam table pan that is a snug fit into the top of the bain marie. I'm hoping that the heat from the bottler will pre heat the filter bay if I keep it covered. Was a fun project can't wait to use it. But its still teens below zero at night and single digits daytime here in Sugar Camp Wisconsin Jay

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[mol1jb]

Very cool project. I like your filtering idea. Could you share what control you used for the heating element? I would like to put one of these together but am a novice when it comes to rigging the heating element aspect.

[maple flats]

That looks like a great project. The SS welds look very professional. You saved big bucks on that and should be using it a long time. You want to have a very good ground on the outer tank to minimize the possibility of electrolysis between the 2 different metals. After a year of use check to verify. If it does start, you may find it necessary to remove the galv. tank and build a SS outer tank.
I'm not saying it will occur, just the possibility. The "super" ground suggestion comes from my 25 years experience in Outdoor Wood boilers, they needed HD ground wires to reduce electrolysis between the water jacket, the SS flue tubes and the firebox.

[Zucker Lager]

Very cool project. I like your filtering idea. Could you share what control you used for the heating element? I would like to put one of these together but am a novice when it comes to rigging the heating element aspect.

Hey Mol1jb: its an old "OLD" meat smoker control I had laying around if I ever have to replace it Im going with a digital instead driving an SCR. I used this one for my smoker and it works great. https://www.sausagemaker.com/Digital-Temperature-Controller-p/20-1031.htm The wiring is simple just remember to size the SCR to the heater wattage at the voltage your using. Here is a controller with SCR kit This SCR would work just fine and they include wiring instructions. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-LCD-PID-REX-C100-Temperature-Controller-set-max-40A-SSR-K-Thermocouple/201734392383?hash=item2ef84e8a3f:m:mzDtEZV-bmYgyPrdqh8P0dg If you get the SCR part number you should be able to find one and use it with any controller. Jay

[Bricklayer]

The pink ridgid scares me a bit. Will the outer jacket not get hot? I had a warming box at work we made to keep guys lunches warm in the winter. It was a plywood box and had 2" ridgid on the inside. We had 2 100 watt light bulbs in there and a little computer fan.
It worked great for a bit. But when it was left for a couple hours and not opened it started to melt the insulation. Doesn't get over 200F in there. So I'm a bit worried about your insulation. And it stinks when it melts too.

[Zucker Lager]

Hey Bricklayer I wasn't sure how much heat that would take????? Maybe I'll replace it with some aluminum faced fiberglass hard board insulation. I'm sure that would take the heat. We used to use that hard fiberglass insulation for steam piping and it held up well. Thanks for the tip.
Hey Maple Flats yes it is grounded I guess its really just a mini water heater so same as a house water heater it can have issues with galvanic reaction. Stainless is always better but $$$$ Jay

[maple flats]

The ground I speak of would be best if it is a 8 or 10 ga. copper stranded wire clamped snug to the surface of the outer jacket and run direct to a ground clamp to be most effective. The usual ground connection is not enough to keep electrolysis in check. It satisfies the safety aspect but not the electroplating that tries to start in the water between the inner and outer shells, for that you want the extra ground with the galvanized outer and a SS inner.