Coniclal Fermenters. Plastic or Stainless??
 

Im intrested in getting a conical fermenter.

-The Stainless steel ferementer is pretty expensive. And it is said to be better than plastic because it has a less chance of harboring bacteria. I saw it on this link:
www.blichmannengineering.com

-The Plastic one seems more in my price range. And alot ligher to carry around. I saw it on this link:
www.minibrew.com

Has anyone used either the stainless or plastic? What do you think about them?
Is it well worth buying a conical fermenter?
Could I bottle my brew from the fermenter?

These products would probably eliminate the need from more buckets and carboys.

Thanks
808

Stainless steel
 

I got a 14.5 gallon fermenator and i love it. As for the plastic one, I got to say that i was in your position and thought the plastic fermenters were cool, inexpensive, and light. Good deal huh, no. Seeing how your considering a conical fermenter your probably fermenting in plastic buckets like i used to. Have you seen your plastic primary bucket. No matter how careful you are you always manage to scratch it. Same thing with the plastic conicals. I guarentee you will be buying a new one down the road. I know people dont always have the money to drop on stainless, but its definately worth it. All the valves on mine you can boil to sanitize and it will last a lifetime. I hate to see you settle for a cheapy. Wait like i did, and save up for the fermenator you will thank me later. Oh i got the 14.5 so that i can brew 5 or 10 gallon batches. Got mine from austin homebrew supply. good luck

I am not sure if I will ever go conical, but if I do it will be stainless. No matter how thick the plastic ones are they will eventually let in oxygen. And if you are not super carefull scratch.

I think the cost factor makes people get into the plastic conicals. They are so much cheaper, and I fully believe this makes people decide on them. I think if the s/s conicals were around $150, there would be more people using them. At least I would be anyway.

I used to use plastic buckets for primary fermenting, and moved completely to glass. The buckets get stained, and Im not a big fan of bleaching them all the time. Plus they can get scratched. I luckily have never scratched one... yet. Carboys can be a pain to clean when you have a nice dried trub ring, and buckets are much easier to clean that off, but I manage. Also, carboys need a more patient hand when moving and cleaning. So, there are pro's and cons to each of those.

As for s/s conicals, I would really like a low cost version, as I believe they would ultimately be the thing to ferment in.

Well the conical becomes the primary and the secondary fermenter, so no sanitizing, no transfering, from start to finish is done in the conical. You want to make the conical your secondary after your primary fermentation, then take a cup or something place it under the bottom valve and open it up for a short burst to get the beer off the sludge. Your done now its your secondary. The fermenator i have has the cornelius keg door opening so i could unlatch and throw in hop, zest, fruit, etc. That valve can be your sampling valve or bottling valve, it has a racking arm on the inside of the fermenter so that come to bottling time all you have to do is rotate to get the most out of the fermenter. I usually end up with about a cup of sludge left compared to the glass carboys which you waste about half a gallon. The bottom valve is your dump valve.

here ya go kids!

A cheap fix for your conical woes!

www.toledometalspinning.com/products/hoppers/priceList.asp


$170.00 for 12.2 gallons.

then just get the plumbing for the dump and the racking arm and you are rocking for just over $200.


now i just have to find $200 !!!!

Thanks, Nwcw2001! I really didn't need to see that, I've got way too many brewery projects already. Now I have to redesign the fermentation cabinet (just in case).

LOL, yup....looks like another project to start!

What is used for a top for these?

They have dome lids and flat lids for them, but you have to clamp the sides yourself to keep the lid on. There is allot of ways to do it, but the simplest would be to drill holes around the lid and lip of the conical and use a stainless steel nut and machine screw. Oh dont forget the gasket. You can pick that up at any rubber specialty shop which will fabricate you one for about 20 bucks.