Minibrew 15 Gallon Conical

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JVD_X

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Hi Folks,

I just got my Minibrew 15 Gallon conical fermenter by UPS (quicker than expected) and I thought I would send some details.

It stands about 46 inches tall:

DSC_0748.JPG


and 19 inches wide at the widest part (the cover):

DSC_0751.JPG


It's made of very thick plastic - much thicker than expected - maybe 1/2". It's also very light.

It comes with these parts:

DSC_0747.JPG


and the conical lifts right off it's base:

DSC_0750.JPG


It does NOT come with a rotating racking arm - or any arm at all. It comes with the valves and the plugs.

The top two plugs are for various accessories - like the optional CO2 injector. The side of the conical contains a 1/2" female hole for a thermometer, it seems a little high and I would have rather had it sit a little further down for smaller batches.

What is missing is graduations... I would have thought they would at least include a sticker or something. Not a big deal but still.
 
Welcome to the club. I got mine for 400.00 off craigslist, and it came with a rotating racking arm. Child not included.
grace.JPG

Take extra good care in cleaning that plastic. I have heard nightmare stories about them scratching.
 
Glibbidy said:
Welcome to the club. I got mine for 400.00 off craigslist, and it came with a rotating racking arm. Child not included.
grace.JPG

Take extra good care in cleaning that plastic. I have heard nightmare stories about them scratching.

Funny picture...

I am not concerned about scratching it at all for a couple of reasons:

a) I don't use any utensils about the equipment (at this stage) that I can think of... maybe I use a plastic spoon to pull out krausen but I haven't done that in years

b) I will be using Clean in place.
 
Can this be moved with 10 gal. of brew in it? I brew in the garage, and would want to ferment in my basement.

Looks great either way-
 
Spames said:
Can this be moved with 10 gal. of brew in it? I brew in the garage, and would want to ferment in my basement.

Looks great either way-
Safest thing to do is move the wort in a sanitized bucket in a couple trips I would think.
 
bradsul said:
Safest thing to do is move the wort in a sanitized bucket in a couple trips I would think.

I was hoping the lack of glass weight would make moving a 10 gal. fermenter doable. Maybe I could just pipe it from my garage down into my basement :mug:
 
Glibbidy said:
Well it's sounds like you have everything dialed in. Happy fermenting!

I do the same. I brew on the driveway and then just stick a hose through my Therminator and down through the basement window into the fermenter and let gravity do the rest. With the conical I plan on putting a no-spill quick disconnect on the hose to fermentor; wait 30 minutes for the trub to settle, dump it from the bottom valve and then pitch.

When the primary ferment is done (ales for now) the upper racking port will be at just the right height to run a tube into corny's for secondary fermentation and aging.

I already have a shower in the basement where I changed out the shower head with one that has a sprayer but I didn't attach sprayer - it's a 1/2" female pipe connector. I plan on attaching a "straight through" disconnect (doesn't close off when you disconnect it) and run a 25 foot reinforced line directly to another non-spill quick disconnect to attach to the dump port. Fill it up with cleaner and run a pump driven recirculation out through the bottom dump and into the racking port. After 30 minutes hook the pump back to the line to the bathtub and that's that.

BTW - you COULD probably move the conical with two people (10 gallons weighs a lot) because it is specifically built with a big edge to make it easy to carry.
 
Yeah, 10 gallons of wort is a pain to move in my fermenter (14 gal meatpacking container- big bucket with locking ring for the lid). Dragging that thing up and down the stairs isn't easy, and it has steel handles and weighs about twice as much as a 7 gallon bucket.
 
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