Conical Selection Help, SS Brewtech vs Spike

So I will be finishing up my MBA in two months and my wife said she would buy me a conical for a graduation present. Ive always been to cheap to spend money on my brewing equipment but rather engineered and built it all. This will be the first thing I have outright purchased. With that said I think I narrowed it down to two different conicals and I need some help selecting one.

SS Brewtech Chronical looks solidly built and a lot of people here seem to like it. It is cheaper at $400 than the spike kettle, while still having a lot of nice features.

Spike 7g Conical isnt on the market yet but may be by the time i graduate. I really like the larger opening and the the upgrades it has. Some of these upgrades are on the brewmaster edition chronical but that version comes with a chilling coil an such that i will not need since i have a dedicated ferm fridge.

So what thoughts do you guys have on one vs the other. What do you like about the ones that you have?. Would you recommend another conical instead?

Also, the 14 gallon is only like $75-$100 more than the 7.. i dont do double batches terribly often but is there any harm in doing a 6 gallon batch in a 14 gallon fermenter?

I'm curious to see the spike set up. It looks like a nice unit. I like the lid clamp as it looks a little more robust.

I have two ss brewtech conicals. One is in a temp controlled fridge and the other has the coils installed and I run it on glycol. Both work well. They are easy to clean and it's a pleasure to work with.

I'm not sure if spike will be offering coils for temp control, I think they are planning on it. That may be something to look into depending on how you plan to control temps.

I would like a little more headspace in the ss brewtech version, I'm not sure what the head space will be in spike yet. You will not have a problem with a larger head space in a 14 v 7 gallon unit the co2 will limit exposure to what little if any o2 remains after primary. You may want a double batch at times and it's nice to have room if your making a something like a big RIS with Nottingham which always has such an active fermentation. I usually only do 12 gallon batches of really big beers in my half barrel to limit the blow off loss.

I don't think you can go wrong with either unit.

Congrats on the MBA! And for having a wife that will encourage the purchase of equipment!

With the large opening at the top of the spike kettle a coil would be easy to make.

Personally I would say go for the spike. All welded sanitary fittings. Easy to clean less places for contamination..

Any reason you have narrowed it down to only these 2? I dont think the ss and spike are going to be in the same league at all... Look at the weight on an SS conical vs a comparible sized stout conical for example... The spike is going to be a thicker grade of stainless and polished with no threads or welds in the conical like a stout or even this cheaper clone which still has these advantages over the SS ones http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-S...495988?hash=item4afe53f8f4:g:ZBkAAOSwvgdW3drc .

i was open to suggestions those were just the two most common that I have seen people talk about so i started with them. I live close (within an hour or so) so I could just go pick one up if I wanted. I am pretty sure im set on a Spike Conical.

The one you linked looks good, but I like the handles on the spike and since im in a rental house I cant brew electric in the basement (no plug). I will have to brew in the garage and haul it to the basement.

Mirilis said:

i was open to suggestions those were just the two most common that I have seen people talk about so i started with them. I live close (within an hour or so) so I could just go pick one up if I wanted. I am pretty sure im set on a Spike Conical.

The one you linked looks good, but I like the handles on the spike and since im in a rental house I cant brew electric in the basement (no plug). I will have to brew in the garage and haul it to the basement.

Click to expand...

yeat handles would be good in that case.... if your concerened about installing a plug in your basement its very easy to do unless you electrical box is enclosed in a finished wall or something... if you hired an electrician it can easily be done in less than an hour otherwise..

The issue is i moved into a rental for the next couple years and dont want to bother. I already have the stuff because i was going to have it wired in my last house but i sold it to relocate.

on the bright side i think there are a couple different 20a circuits in the garage so I can just use my 120v setup and eventually find a way to vent steam and brew in the basement (once i solve the issue of chilling in there)