Sanitary fitings and valves for beer brewing

Generally speaking, the Tri-Clamp Fittings, Sanitary Valves,Sanitary Hoses,Sanitary Strainers,Sanitary pumps are necessary component for beer brewing, and for Food, beverage, pharmaceutical, dairy industries.

Tri-Clamp Fittings
Some of the most common and popular types of stainless fittings are tri-clamp, also known as tri-clover. These have a practical and straightforward design.

Using a gasket and clamp, the tri-clamp system creates a leak-proof environment for your favorite beverage.

Tri-clamp fittings connect flush against each other, with a gasket seal in-between. They are held firmly together by a clamp, which completes the assembly. Elegant and low maintenance, this is the industry standard.

Because the design is so simple, this means sanitization and assembly are quick. Even replacing gaskets is a breeze, making these fittings great long-term investments.

Tri-clamp fittings come in a variety of designs and sizes to fit every possible need. In our selection, there are reducers, elbows, laterals, and much more. You can design the perfect brewing system for just about any need.

You may hear the term “tri-clover” when discussing fittings. Generally, the term is interchangeable with tri-clamp. Without going into historical context, both stainless connectors are essentially the same.

Tri-Clamp Fittings

Sanitary Valves
Valves can come in a variety of designs to suit your particular needs. Whether you need to reduce interior tank pressure with a relief valve during fermentation or introduce clean water with a simple ball valve, valves are an important component of your hardware.

Quality stainless steel fittings should fit valves and match the style you desire. A suitable valve should be leak-free, operate efficiently, and be simple to clean. They’re also available in various types of seating material and handle colors.

The most common types of valves are ball valves and butterfly valves. The former is a ball with a hole drilled through it, allowing flow when rotated. The latter is a disk that turns on a shaft.

Ball valves offer less all-around resistance and can maintain pressure more efficiently, while butterfly valves are generally cheaper and easier to maintain.

Sanitary valves

Sanitary Hoses
Food grade hoses allow you to transport the beverage from one place to another. They do so while offering flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

These must be USDA and FDA compliant and can come in various lengths and fittings to pair with the rest of your brewers’ hardware.

Quick disconnects are easy with quality hoses that use stainless connectors. These are made from various materials with different temperature ranges.

Sometimes hoses are made for the type of beverage you’re moving, such as wine or beer, making for more diverse options in your setup.

Sanitary Hoses

Sanitary Pumps

Sanitary pumps are suitable for transporting clean liquid materials without solid particles, pure water and other medical products, beverages, and alcohol.

Sanitary Pumps

Sanitary Strainers
The last of the brewers’ hardware we’ll be discussing are stainless strainers. These provide another tool in your hardware toolbox.

Whether being used as tank sprayers or mesh filtration, they improve the product’s purity and quality.

Even mesh overlays should be made with high-quality stainless steel. They should also come in various sizes and lengths, thus allowing for better control throughout the brewing process.

For more detailed information, please visit our website http://www.sansunstainless.com or contact us at sansun@sansunstainless.com.

Tri Clover Fittings For Brewery

Tri Clover Fitting Background and Sizes

Tri Clover fittings, also called sanitary fittings, are widely used in the commercial food processing industries. 

They can be found in dairies, soft drink plants, wineries and of course: breweries.  They allow for pipe and tubing connections to be made in a sanitary fashion that is designed to be cleaned in place (CIP) but is easily broken down for further cleaning, inspection and repair.  For an installation to be truly considered sanitary, it most conform to the “3A” standard.  Among a long list of requirements, the two that stand out are:

  1. No exposed threaded connections.  All connections end to end must not have any threads. There can be connections made with threaded fittings, but they are special fittings that use a gasket or seal between the threads and the fluid.  Connections between Tri Clover fittings and NPT fittings are not allowed in the 3A standard and that’s why those fittings are hard to find.
  2. No abrupt changes in internal diameter.  If you need to reduce a 3″ pipe to a 2″ pipe, there is a special reducing fitting that offers a gradual taper between the two diameters. 

Benefits of Tri Clover Compatible Fittings in the Home Brewery.

As you can see from the two basic requirements above, it’s pretty difficult to maintain a truly sanitary installation of Tri Clover Compatible fittings at the home brewery scale.  So why bother with them?  Because they make excellent connections.  They are very easy to clean since there are no pockets, nooks or crannies and they don’t leak.  All other quick disconnect designs on the market depend on an o-ring captured in the QD body or on the plug.  Unless you remove the o-ring every time you clean them, they tend to trap sticky wort. These o-rings are also susceptible to tearing and leaking.  Used on the inlet side of a pump that can lead to an annoying air bleed that will cause the pump to cavitate.  That’s not to say that quick disconnects are bad, they are certainly easier and faster to use and if the o-rings are properly maintained, they will offer years of service.

Sizing Tri Clover Compatible Fittings for your Home Brewery.

Like all pipe and tube fittings, the sizing of Tri Clover Compatible Fittings can be confusing.  Unlike all other pipe and tube fittings, Tri Clover Compatible Fittings are a lot easier to understand: The size of a Tri Clover Compatible fitting refers to the outside diameter of the sanitary tubing it makes a connection for, NOT the flange diameter.  1/2″ and 3/4″ Tri Clover Compatible fittings share the same .984″  flange size just like 1″ and 1.5″ fittings share a 1.984″ flange.  See the table for Tri Clover Compatible size vs. flange size.

Tri Clover Compatible Size    Actual Flange Size
1/2 “, 3/4”.984″
1″, 1.5″1.984″
2″2.516″
2.5″3.047″
3″3.579″
4″4.682″
6″6.570″

The most common size used in the home brewery market is the 1″-1.5″.  Since they share the same flange size, they can be interconnected with no problem.  A 1″ ball valve will connect to a 1.5″ ferrule without a problem.    1/2″ Tri Clover Compatible fittings are a little more compact and weigh less, but since they are not as widely used they tend to be more expensive.  Sabco uses 1/2″ Tri Clover Compatible in it’s Brew Magic® system.  Every other commercial home brewery I’ve seen uses 1/1.5″ fittings. 2″ Tri Clover Compatible fittings can be used to make a connection with a Sanke Keg ferrule.

What’s Needed to Make a Tri Clover Connection.

To make a Tri Clover Compatible connection you need two fittings, one gasket and one clamp. The fitting can be a Tri Clover Compatible ferrule, a Tri Clover X NPT fitting, a Tri Clover Compatible valve or site glass etc. Each connection requires a clamp and gasket. Tri Clover Compatible gaskets are available in a wide variety of materials but the most useful ones to us as home brewers are Silicone, PTFE Teflon® and BUNA-N. Silicone offers great heat resistance and is soft so it forms a seal very easily. Silicone sanitary gaskets are my favorite for almost any connection. Teflon® is more rigid than BUNA-N and requires a little more clamping pressure to get a good seal. It also has a high heat resistance, and it’s definitely the material of choice if the connection is a rotation point like in a fermentor racking arm or rotating pickup tube. BUNA-N is an inexpensive and easy to seal material.

More information, http://www.sansunstainless.com sansun@sansunstainless.com

Sight glass for brewing

 Sight glass for home brewing and craft brewing .
Sight glass with TC connectors. The sight glass allows you to see the wort color during circulation. Also great to use during oxygenation to get a view on the oxygen flow.
It’s for easy cleaning and rugged design.
Normally usede between a 3-way valve and the counterflow cooler.
Moreinformation, www.sansunstainless.com   sansun@sansunstainless.com

Sight glass for brewing