Well got really busy while brewing and didn't photo anything... I'm having issues figuring out my numbers. My boil-off volume loss is not matching my gravity readings. But I got 40 gallons on my IPA into a fermenter and gave it some yeast from my pale ale right next to it.
I really like the plastic conicals. I drilled out one of the lids (which are about 16" in diameter and screw-in) to install a sprayball I got from St. Pats. Put a 1/3 hp sump pump in a bucket below the 1" bottom drain. Using 3/4" hose the pump will really drive that spray ball and clean the entire conical in minutes. There is no residual plastic taste that anyone can perceive, and these beers all taste better than what I've done at home.
These conicals cannot be pressurized, so I had someone cut the legs and weld on some extensions, in order to fit a keg underneath the cone.
I put the side port at about the 3 gallon mark, which is halfway up the cone. I think it was too high, it should be maybe 1/3 up the cone. I just leave more beer in the bottom than yeast this way. For the remaining 3 undrilled conicals I will place it quite lower.
The plastic conicals are kind of a pad for our startup costsI would've wanted all SS, but this saved us alot of money. The stainless one I may place in our walk-in, or fit with a glycol jacket to lager in the ferm. room. The plan is to replace them as we are able with stainless.
This was before I discovered those cool stainless cooling plates super-cheap that I could easily install in the lids of the plastic conicals
So I'll probably end up keeping these plastic ones for a good while.
Brewing again on Thursday, will be testing the full volume capacity of these things with a 75gallon boil volume, over 100lb of grain, and 1.5lb of hops.
Here are some pics of the conicals and the beginnings of some krausen:
