Conical Fermenter..... How to use?

Okay its actually a Fermentap with an upside down carboy, but if i get it to work it is the same thing as a Conical.

The wort is fermenting now for about 6 hours, and things are starting to settle onto the bottom/top of the carboy. I have agitated it some to settle down into the neck. It is an ale yeast if this matters.

Should I start draining out the settled stuff right away or wait?

Is this stuff dead yeast?

Once it is done, do I just let the beer age longer in the same carboy until ready to keg?

Thanks

It's not the same thing as a conical. The sides on a conical are slopped a lot more so the yeast will drop out when you crack the valve. A carboy will leave a lot of yeast in there. Wait for the fermentation to finish before you start trying to pull off sediment.

mward said:

It's not the same thing as a conical. The sides on a conical are slopped a lot more so the yeast will drop out when you crack the valve. A carboy will leave a lot of yeast in there. Wait for the fermentation to finish before you start trying to pull off sediment.

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I have solved this problem of the carboys shape. I give the carboy a little shake and then spin it. This agitation gets the yeast floating and the spin deposits it in the neck. If I can get the sediment to settle in the neck should I try to pull some out?

Sure why not? Let us know how it turns out too. Several people have posted bad results with the system but I'm not sure they were giving it a spin. Take pictures if you can.

So what I have been doing is picking up the carboy and agitating it a bit and letting it settle twice a day and pouring off the results.

The first photo is what it looked like after 1 day of fermenting.
The second photo shows the result of the agitating.
The third photo shows what I have racked off from the efforts.

What do you think:
Should I be getting more yeast after 2 days?

A concern I have is the agitation is putting the settled matter back in solution not into the neck, Is this likely?

What risks am I facing by agitating the wort at this point, while fermenting is still occuring?

It all may be a moot point as the cider i started a few weeks before this batch is showing signs of bacteria spoilage in the secondary. I am hoping it is a result of poor sanitation techniques on my part and not the questionable air quality in my kitchen. I won't know for a while if there is a problem with this batch but would like to take this opportunity to evaluate the fermentaps potential use.
Thanks

How does CO2 get out of that thing?

Ryan_PA said:

How does CO2 get out of that thing?

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Yikes That's one large bottle bomb.

I'm not a conical user, but I think you should've waited a bit longer than 2 days to start pulling settled yeast out. Your beer can sit on the yeast for up to a month (or longer) without any ill effects. As mward said, you should've waited until fermentation stopped -- at least a week -- before dumping the yeast. You risk an incomplete or stalled fermentation, or the inability of the yeasts to "clean up" fermentation byproducts.

And, the settled yeast is not dead, just dormant. You can wash this yeast & re-use it in your next batch.

But, it sounds like you might've found a technique to get the fermentap to work for you -- the swirling sounds like it should work the yeast closer to the neck, where it can be dumped.

Ryan_PA said:

How does CO2 get out of that thing?

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I've wondered the same thing about glass carboys and the fermatap. Anyone?

racking cane stuck through the valve in the neck, up to the headspace in the top (er.. bottom of the carboy). co2 is forced down the racking cane, through the beer, then out the neck

jelsas said:

As mward said, you should've waited until fermentation stopped -- at least a week -- before dumping the yeast. You risk an incomplete or stalled fermentation, or the inability of the yeasts to "clean up" fermentation byproducts.

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Woops, I thought mward's suggestions were based on the Fermentap being an inferior/ incapable product and not effective as a conical. There is still a lot of yeast in there, and I won't drain any more but keep on stirring to try to get it to the bottom of the neck. I had made a 6 cup starter that was very active so lets hope there is plenty of yeast to keep things going.

I had used the fermentap way long ago, when I was a very active brewer and it made my life very simple. The way it works is there is a valve at the bottom that you can use to drain what settles against the neck of the upside down carboy. Through the middle of this valve is a racking cane whose other end is above the headspace in the carboy. When you invert the setup some of the wort in the carboy drains out the racking cane and a little bit stays in the neck(curved part) of the racking cane. The CO2 goes up into the headspace and then down the tube. The wort left in the neck of the cane acts as a airlock, with a bit of hose attached so the airlock wort does not bubble out the end. You can see the entire setup in the attached photo. Hidden behind the flash glare is a small portion of the top of the racking cane. It is a little more effort filled than a conical but at $35 a lot cheaper. Although it seems like i am off to a bad start, I'll keep you informed on how it works out,

My favorite part of homebrewing is drinking the product, followed by the crafting and brewing.

My least favorite parts were bottling, and re-racking and the all the cleaning involved with both of these projects. Between the fermentap and kegging the process to get my beer drinkable post pitching of the yeast was maybe an hour at most, leaving me more time to enjoy the favorite part of brewing.

If racking to a secondary was a pain then stop doing it. I never secondary my ales and they're all great. It seems to be the 'in thing' now to not use a secondary. I use some gelatin to get really clear beer.

So no secondary needed then? Makes my life easier. Okay I brewed on Saturday, I was supposed to leave town on this coming Sunday for at least 2 weeks, it got pushed back till wednesday. Should I drain the yeast on Tuesday or just leave it? It has pretty much stopped fermenting at this point. The one advantage to removing the yeast now is it is the only way to get to the beer and get it into a hydrometer to check the gravity to see if the yeast got all the sugar or I screwed it up by removing some of it.

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread, but I was curious if anyone knew where I could get one of these. All the sites Ive checked are back ordered.