Conical Fermenter Owners - What do you think?

Been researching, dreaming and finally am in a financial position to get my first conical fermenter. The front runner in the More Beer 7 gal, heated and cooled.

I like the idea of the heated/cooled version so i can leave it in my basement with a set temp and not have to worry about it. I also dont like the looks of a chest freezer or DIY fermentation chamber.

I only see myself brewing 5 gal batches in the foreseeable future, since i like to constantly be trying new flavors and experimenting.


That being said: i would like to get some feedback from people who use conical fermenters and hopefully the more beer one i am looking at. What has been you experience with them? Do you have trouble cleaning/sanitizing the 2 valves and lid? Share your thoughts..

Please if you dont own one, dont post about them being a waste of money. If they are I would like to hear it from people who have used them.

I have four 30 gallon conicals... I think they're a waste of money... and they're plastic so a small fraction of what one stainless conical with about 5% of the capacity would hold.

They're super pretty. The bling factor is high. If you have the cash and want one, get one... but... Unless you are a "pro" or a homebrewer who's fermenting north of 100 gallons at a whack, I think they're a total waste of money.

"But you can collect yeast from them!". I never got that... I can collect yeast from a 5 gallon carboy. I rack my beer off of it and then... this is where it gets tricky... I... tip it over and pour out the yeast. Sorry... that was more wise ass than it needed to be. I just hate that argument.

Me... personally... I would take that cash and buy a few dozen non-conical fermenters and temp controls and have 20 times the capacity. If you don't need the capacity, I would just save the cash.

I had two and recently sold both to finance a blichmann top tier and 4 tap keezer. While they looked awesome, poster above me is right, I harvest yeast out of my buckets. I saw no improvement in my beer. They are cool, if you already have a Brewstand and keezer I'd go for it

I have a Stout 14.5 gallon conical and love it.

A lot of people will complain about how there is more to clean or the beer doesn't get better because of one.
I think that my main reason for loving it so much is that I never have to transfer off the yeast to another bucket, which would greatly increasing the chances of infection or O2 exposure in the process.

I brew alot of Alt Biers so lagering is a must, so being able to drain out the low flocing wyeast 1007 every 5-6 days helps with clarity immensely. Also helps to make sure no O2 has been introduced before lagering for a month or two.

Another Plus is the thermowell that I can stick the thermo probe into and get very actuate readings from the center of the beer. ( I know this is available for bucket fermenter now too. )

Oh also its stainless and if taken care of should last a long time. If you have the money to spend and love this hobby I'd say go for it!

I have a brewhemoth with the internal chiller. I am very happy with it and have used the coil to both heat and cool. I have done 5 to 18 gallons and they have all come out fine.

Thanks for all your responses. I do have a keezer and at the moment dont need a brewstand. My biggest reason for looking at this fermenter was the temp control. I like the idea of just setting and forgetting. And, not wanting to look at a chest freezer (not to mention disturbing the trub when taking it out to rack) or a DYI fermentation chamber this seemed to be the best option. Plus after fermentation i could rack directly to my kegs for carbing/aging all under co2.

I have a Blickmann 14 Gallon and really like it and as far as I am conserned the ease of cleaning is the sellling point of a SS-Fermentor.

I also like how I can get just about everylast drop of beer from it by moving the drip-tube.

My only problem, and I just have not invested enough time to figure out how to do it, is to get the yeast and trub out before it becomes a solid mass.

I have tried a few times to release the yeast and either nothing comes out or very little and then BEER.... ( a channel through the "muck" develops".

It is something i would like to figure out since I would like to harvest yeast.

DPB

I have a plastic conical and I agree with most of the above. It makes harvesting yeast and dumping trub easier, but harvesting yeast from a carboy isn't that hard. However, I have a fermentation chamber, so if your primary motivation is ease of temperature control, then it's a very nice (albeit expensive) option. Way more expensive than using a tub of water, but easier, cleaner, and prettier.

I have a 14 gallon temp controlled conical from Morebeer and I absolutely love it. I brew in my pole barn behind our house year round, when this summers Michigan temps got up to and over 100 degrees, I managed a consistent 65 degrees ferment temp with this unit. I was able to crash cool it down into the 50s during that time. I went with this one for several reasons:

Consistent temp control- very accurate controller allows me to set it to within 1-2 degrees. I didn't want another refrigerator to take up more space.

Butterfly dump valve- the 1-1/2 inch valve dumps even thick trub with ease, something the Blichmans just miss the boat on. Plus, it dumps straight down and doesn't go through a ninety degree elbow which can clog further.

I like the fact that these units all have sanitary connections throughout, (standard) which makes cleaning easier.

The biggest hurdle of course is the higher price. If you can afford it, I would pick this one over Blichman or any other any day.

Thanks for the tip barnbrew, I just ordered my x-mas gift to me!

How about sterilization? Have you had any issues with getting the lid done?

None so far. It has a nice molded shaped neoprene seal and fits around the outer edge of the lid. It has a screw down band type clamp similar to my hop rocket that you just slug it down good and tight.

I use a flight of 3 blichmann 7-gal conicals with tri-clover fittings and they are great. I also have the blow-off assemblies for each which i leave rigged permanently. This setup is obviously a little pricey but since I brew in a small apartment and I don't have closet space for fermenters so I need to keep the vessels out in the open. These vessels are so attractive that I just keep them right on my kitchen counter.

Apart from the attractiveness, the stainless steel with tri-clover fittings is really great for sanitation and cleaning. I fully break down the unit and all the ball locks each time and thoroughly scrub and sanitize it all, takes a half hour or so. I do this during the boil. One down side for some brewers is that its opaque and you can't see the yeast working. Since you have a small valve to take samples you could do refractometer readings every day if you wanted to and lose less than an ounce of beer throughout the whole process, so the opacity is a non-issue in my book since I prefer data to trying to interpret yeast activity in a carboy like some sort of soothsayer.

The vessels seal very well. The only way you will not get a perfect seal on your fermenter is if you over-tighten the lid which can slice through the silicon o-ring, creating a tiny leak (I did this once). I generally see air movement in the blowoff tube within minutes of sealing the vessel.

Nick do you have any pics of that setup?

BeerguyNC61 said:

Nick do you have any pics of that setup?

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I don't have any recent pics handy with the new blowoff assemblies present, but here is one from my old apartment where you can see that it gives the kitchen a sleek industrial look

Damn how big is your apartment??

nickharbour said:

I don't have any recent pics handy with the new blowoff assemblies present, but here is one from my old apartment where you can see that it gives the kitchen a sleek industrial look

Click to expand...

Three conicals on the kitchen counter, you must be single

My wife gives me the stink eye if I leave a bottle tree on the counter, I can't fathom a conical

BeerguyNC61 said:

Damn how big is your apartment??

Click to expand...

that one was 650 sq. ft. and my current one is 750. I do seek out apartments with ample counter space though.

Jukas said:

Three conicals on the kitchen counter, you must be single

My wife gives me the stink eye if I leave a bottle tree on the counter, I can't fathom a conical

Click to expand...

yeah still single so enjoying it while i can. the conicals look way cooler than a bottle tree though, which is ugly and plastic. provided that you have plenty of counter space i'd think the conicals are a much easier sell as a permanent fixture.

Wow Nick, Thats a thing of beauty.

But here was the other thing i was wondering, doesn't all those open ends open you up to infection when it comes time to transfer into a keg or bottles? Do you take off the first tri valve on your racking port and spray the ball valve with sanitizer before opening it up?

the sampling port I rinse out after each sample I pull, not for fear of infection but mainly to prevent the sticky dried beer residue. I'll also shoot some starsan up in there when I'm done. The port at the bottom I only use when I dump the trub at the end of primary fermentation. I also hit it with the starsan spray bottle before use and rinse when finished.

There is no need to worry about the ball lock during fermentation. I fully clean them inside and out before each batch, but they are designed in a very clever way to make it very difficult for outside critters to make their way into the beer during the opening/closing action.

One of, if not THE primary advantage of this conical is the greatly reduced risk of infection during "racking" to secondary (no racking at all) and pulling samples. If you are really needlessly paranoid about it then you can also replace the open ended tube piece on the bottom with a flat cap they give you and switch it out when you need to dump trub.

The Morebeer temp-controlled units look amazing.

Are there any other self heated/cooled fermentation vessels to consider? Constructing a brew chamber is something I would like to avoid.

I'm not aware of any and I researched it for over a year before I spent the big bucks on mine. The reason I bought mine was the fact that we have three refrigerators and I didn't want a fourth. Plus, I can roll mine under my bar when not in use and unplug it. You can build your own if you're creative enough, either with copper tubing wrapped around your conical and a pump, a room with an air conditioner, a fridge with a temp controller, and so on and so on. Mine, I pump my wort into it, set the temps, let go for a few weeks, clean when I'm done, and roll it back under my bar and it then becomes a conversation piece.