I am brewing again this weekend. Since there was an issue last time with the friendly bubbles not showing up (I really missed those bubbles), I decided that I would do some upgrades to my attachment for the Big Hose. I took the bucket lid all apart and added some parts. Here are all the parts for Rev 2.
You will notice that one addition is a stainless steel bolt, a nut, and some washers. Here they are.
All of those parts are stainless steel so they won’t rust. I am going to plug the little blow hole in the lid using that machine bolt so that I will know beyond all doubt that it will not come out of the hole. Sometimes we have to hit Murphy back with some Heavy Hardware.
How sure am I that this one will stay put? Here are some calculations.
The tensile strength of a stainless steel bolt is about 100,000 pounds per square inch. I got that from the internet, so it must be correct. =:O
The area of the 3/8″ bolt is π * R2, where π = 3.14159265359.
The diameter D = 3/8″ = .375″ so the radius R = D/2 = 0.1875″
R2 = 0.03515625
R2 * π = 0.110446616728
The cross section of the bolt contains about 0.110446616728 square inches.
So the tensile strength of the 3/8″ stainless steel bolt is:
0.110446616728 in2 * 100,000 pounds = 11,044.6616728 pounds
OK fine.
So how much does a batch of beer weigh?
At 70° F (which coincidentally is the temperature at which I pitch the yeast) the density of water is 0.9979955 g/mL.
We can convert this to lb/gal as follows:
0.9979955 g/mL is 997.9955 g/L (multiply by 1,000 duh).
There are 3.785411784 L/gallon, so that is 3,777.82392608 g/gallon.
There are 453.59237 grams in each pound, so divide by that number and you get
8.3286760888 pounds per gallon.
Whew!
Almost done.
OK. A gallon of water weighs about 8.328676 pounds.. so the 5 gallon brew is 5 times that weight, or about 41.64338 pounds.
But, beer wort is heavier than water because of all the sugar in it.
The beer specific gravity (the ratio between the weight of the wort and the weight of the water) is about 1.063, so the batch of beer will weigh 41.64338 times 1.063 = 44.26691294 pounds.
Also, the beer has to be kept in something, right? The bucket weighs 3 pounds 12 Oz. (I weighed it on the kitchen scale… don’t tell). That is 3.75 pounds.
Add that to the weight of the wort you get 48.01691294 pounds for the whole rig.
So, the bolt would theoretically be capable of holding up
11,044.6616728 / 48.01691294 = 230.01607135 batches of beer.
I think maybe the top of the bucket will blow off before the bolt fails, so we are good to go.
I am so glad you asked.
Here is a photo of the outside end of the bolt, in place.
I put the head of the bolt on the inside.
Looks pretty professional.
The next problem that I saw was that there was leakage around the hose fixture. So I got out a second O ring,
I put one around the threads of the hose barb before screwing it into the lid.
I put the barb through the hole, and put the other ring over the threads.
I secured it with my plastic nut, and we are double sealed.
Done!
We are ready to rock and roll tomorrow. This time, it’s gonna work! Happy beer bubbles!