conical fermenters..

Right now I have glass carboys. Are steel conical fermentors worth their weight in gold? I am considering it, but dont know if the price tag is worth it. need some input! please

i've been considering the same thing for a while now.
From what I hear, they pluses are:

Single Vessel Fermentation-- Fewer transfers mean less hassle and lower risk of infection
Easy trub removal-- Drain trub and cold break before pitching
Yeast harvesting-- Easy repitching
Easy Racking-- Internal elbow fitting ensures clear runoff
Syphonless transfers-- Less hassle and lower risk of infection
Easy to clean.


So far, I haven't been able to totally justify the cost, but if you have some extra cash lying around, I would say go for it... it certainly seems like it eventually pay itself off in the time and effort.

But then again, that's just my two cents.

sethful said:

i'm been considering the same thing for a while now.

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Me too. When my converted fridge/kegerator kicks it I'll be purchasing one along with a standup freezer. The ease of kegging is extremely appealing. I'll then convert one of my chest freezers to a triple tap keezer.

I also say go for it as you won't be sorry.

On my list of brewing items a conical fermenter comes right after getting a walk in cooler for fermentation.

a walkin would be Awesome Bashe!!

A conical fermenter is not worth its weight in gold. There are certainly advantages (mentioned above), but none of the benefits are enough to offset the cost of any fermenter I've seen for sale (especially the uber-cool ones from MoreBeer). With a little ingenuity, you can build one for far cheaper than you can buy one, but it's not easy. I've had some success, but none of my fermenters have been perfect (even the ones I've sold - see DeathBrewer's recent post about a weld that is hard to clean). If you have some disposable income, a conical is nice, but it's far from necessary.

Basic Brewing Radio did a great show on the pro/cons of conical fermentors. Download that and check it out. Revvy might be able to help out with a link.

Cheers.

Roman

I bought this one

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/conical-fermenters-120533/

Its in my room bubbling like crazy. First batch. 68*f within two degrees. It seems the 10-11 gallon batches were easier to keep constant. I have a window air conditioner in a small room

The weld in the bottom was porous. Not leaking that I know of, but not of kitchen quality to me. I am a weldor. Now that I tried to fix it I can see how easy it is to screw it up.

So far I like it. I will be able to harvest liquid yeast. To sanitize it, for the first batch, I filled it right from the kettle at knock out. That and a cube. I am sure both are sanitized. I chilled right in the fermenter. I sent O2 in the racking valve for 2 minutes with no stone or anything 5 to 10 Psi, 3/8" hose.

I fermented in an open 1/2 keg for years once the original plastic bucket wore out.

I went for the smaller size because I can't get an open 1/2 keg full of wort from my garage to my bedroom. This one is 7 gallons I can move my self.
Way more sanitary than my old method. So is a 6 gallon bucket with an airlock.

David

I am using a 15 gallon inductor tank conical, plastic but works damn well and a lot cheaper. The problem comes in if you want to ferment multiple beers at the same time. Then you need more conicals. Ace 15 Gallon Biodiesel Tank / Wine Tank (A-IN0015-19)

samc said:

I am using a 15 gallon inductor tank conical, plastic but works damn well and a lot cheaper. The problem comes in if you want to ferment multiple beers at the same time. Then you need more conicals. Ace 15 Gallon Biodiesel Tank / Wine Tank (A-IN0015-19)

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That is pretty cool. Does it come with an airlock hole or did you just simply drill one? If so did you fit and an o-ring with a groove or something in it?

I have the 14.5 gal sanitary Blichmann. It is nice to be able to easily harvest yeast and remove trub from the bottom. Also bottling/kegging is nice as you can rotate the racking arm to maximize your yield and not get trub in your bottles/kegs.

It is more of a hassle getting the thing ready when racking though. Gotta take apart the hole thing to sanitize. I think it is overpriced. I happened to have extra money at the time of my purchase so that is why I bought mine. I like mine but I would not buy a second one.

I have a 7 gallon blichmann with standard fittings. I got it used (perfect condition though) for a screaming low price and I love it! I want to get a bigger one even though full price for the next bigger one is going to be a bit of a pain.
One of my favorite things I do with it is inbetween beers when my conical is empty (usually only a few hours while the beer is brewing) I pour my yeast in after I decant, and then I dump some of the yeast into sanitized white labs vials. Makes an easy way to pre-harvest yeast when its in its healthiest state.

Paul_Aris said:

That is pretty cool. Does it come with an airlock hole or did you just simply drill one? If so did you fit and an o-ring with a groove or something in it?

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Drilled a hole for whatever sized rubber stopper I had lying around. Bought a large 12 inch or so O ring to help seal the lid and put a homemade rubber gasket between the tank and the flange that the lid screws into. It's pretty airtight at this point, would not try to pump in pressure for transfer but I have a plastic racking arm installed for draining the beer out. Also have a 1.5" ball valve at the bottom for dumping. I built a rolling stand out of left over 1.5" metal tubing and steel corner tube clamps.

There are several threads on HBT talking about this kind of set up.

Today I went to take a hydrometer reading from the racking valve. I got mostly yeast, so I drew some off the bottom. It sez draw off 8 ounces.

This is what i got. It has been sitting for a couple of hours.

You should take your hydrometer readings off the racking valve, not the dump valve. The dump valve during fermentation is going to dump out a lot of yeast and possibly stall your yeast.

I would love to have a big conical fermenter... but heck if it can't make the beer taste better than what I am getting now.... Why bother....... Someday I would like to brew larger batches, but that could be my downhill slide to alcoholism... wish me luck!!

Read it again. I did take the sample from the racking valve. The cone was full of S-04 so I drew it off the bottom to fill the measuring cup.

David

saq said:

You should take your hydrometer readings off the racking valve, not the dump valve. The dump valve during fermentation is going to dump out a lot of yeast and possibly stall your yeast.

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Wow, thats a lot of yeast from your racking valve. The racking valve might be too low or the dip tube was in the wrong level. When I have my racking valve at 90 degrees I don't get any yeast out of it when taking a gravity sample or racking unless the ferment is so active there is a ton of yeast in suspension.

I may be wrong but I think the conical Droot has has a racking port but no arm. So if the yeast is up past the port there is no way, with out dropping the trub/yeast, he will be able to get a clean sample from the racking port.

Thats not a very good design because every time you take a yeast sample you'll be dumping out a significant portion of the yeast population which will require the yeast to reproduce to get back up to an optimal level to continue fermentation.

This thread does an admirable job of outlining the pros and cons of conical fermenters. Would I own one if they were $29.95? Well, yeah.

But given the cost and other requirements (they're really at their best in refrigeration), I'd only own one if it were 15 gal, and I have no motivation to go to larger batch sizes. I tend to brew lots of different beers. I've got 2 in primary and 2 in secondary right now, and two empty of each, and I plan to fill the two other primaries in a week or so. What am I going to do, buy four or five Fermenators? Well, no.

So, I can't address the question as to whether conicals are worth their weight in gold. White HDPE buckets? You bet.

OK folks Leme explain.

The racking valve is 1/2 liter above the drain in the bottom. I measured it. It has NO racking tube.

I PLAN to draw the trub off first, then the yeast and wash it to save for more beer. This is one of the reasons I bought the conical in the first place.

IF there is enough yeast that it floods the racking valve, then I can't see why not draw some off the bottom. Once fermention is done, I plan to draw off all the yeast, wash it and save it. LEAVE the beer there for some time in the "secondary", then go directly into the keg or bottle. I was doing 10 gallon batches, but wanted more variety, so the 7 gal fermenter was for me. Its not for everyone. I will still brew 10 (11) gallons and put 5.5 in a cube and the other half in the conical. I can use different yeasts for the same batch. Never done that before. I will also be able to dry hop since the fermenter is closed. I used to ferment in an open 1/2 keg. Once it was done, I transfered it into corny kegs, then usually transfered it again. I am hoping no more of that. I will not leave the beer in an open fermenter for more than a week to 10 days. Once it stops, the layer of Co2 is gone ad infection is more possible.

I just bought a new fridge, so the old one is for beer (yeast and hops) and possibly lager. All I have ever done are ales.

Nope its not worth its weight in gold, but its a cool toy!

Looks awesome in my bedroom.

Just a note, the batch I drew the yeast off is done. FG 1.014. I mashed at 156.

David

Two years later. I am getting a second fermenter. Love the 5 gal batches and the fact that I can handle them by my self. Basement where I live now keeps fermenter at 58 to 65 depending on where I put it. Got an american ale in the conical now, wanting to brew a dark German ale next. I will draw the yeast from one conical and use it in the other. This keeps me brewing about every other week leaving 3 weeks for each ferment.

Holy brought back from the dead thread Batman.

I would think that the ease of yeast harvesting in a conical vs a carboy would help me convince SWMBO of the sheer ECOfreakingNOMICAL value of making the switch...

Of course, Logic is not her realm..

I have not had a wife for a long time. It IS my girlfriend and her children that are getting me the fermenter. Its the gift that keeps on giving. They like my beer.

I have also switched to partial mash because I don't want to spend all day brewing like I did with all grain.

Make the partial mash on the kitchen stove, brew the beer outside in my 1/2 sanke Run it into my Stainless sanatized fermenter HOT. Pitch yeast next day. More my speed.

Once I have 2 fermenters I want to see how easy an 11 gallon batch is. I still use whole hops. I used Safale 05 this time, but will probably stick with liquid yeast.

Partial mash = Big tea bag...

David

Droot said:

Looks awesome in my bedroom.

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This is my dilemma - While they look cool, I'm all into temperature control. It won't be sitting in my bedroom, it will be in some kind of temperature controlled environment and I have no spare fridge. My carboys sit in a water bath (temp controlled) but I doubt I can get one of these in the water bath... so I've got more than an investment in a conical, I've also got to consider the temp control investment (space as much as money)...


So, until I buy a bigger house, build a walk in.....
it's carboys for me

There use to be a gizmonic sold by some shops that would clamp to the neck of a carboy. It had a couple of valves, racking arm and a long tube that would reach the headspace. It came with a frame that would hold the carboy up side down. Kind of like a conical rig. I never owned one or new any one who did. It seemed to be a good idea. As long as it was installed right, so the brew didn't blow out the gizmoid. Maybe that's why I haven't seen any lately.

I do like my Blichmann 14.5 conical. I would love to have another, but I don't really have time to brew more than about once a month anyway, so having just one doesn't limit me much.

I have a room I keep at 65, so ales are no problem to ferment. I don't have space for yet another refrigerator or freezer (I already have 5), so I don't do lagers right now. If I could clear out enough space for another small freezer, I'd be doing lagers too.

i have two 15.5 and one 28 gallon conical and they are good when you have plenty of room to keep and store at 68 degrees. the best investment is a huge chest freezer where you can keep 4 to 5 carboys. Another cool things about using carboys vs conicals is that you can make 10 to 15 gallons and seperate them into few different carboys and have each one with different yeast, hops, and flavoring.