Blichmann Cornical - Good Idea? Or Gimmick?

It's a corny keg with a detachable conical bottom. Ferment in it, then detach and you have a full keg. But is it practical??

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/products/cornical

It's kinda cool I guess. I see more drawbacks than benefits, not for me but I'm sure it fits someone's needs.

Looks cool, but I'm too cheap to spend $500 on a 5 gallon fermentor.

It's always cool to see the stuff that Blichmann makes but the two biggest problems I see:

- You will have to buy more of those kegs to keep your pipeline going, at $175 a pop.

- All of that junk that is left on the sidewalls of my fermenter will now be in my keg.


Honestly I would rather just use the same money to buy one of their Fermenator conical fermenters.

I don't really see the appeal. Like Teromous said, there's always gunk on the sidewalls as well as on the top part of the fermentor above the beer from rigorous fermentation. I don't really want that stuff in my finished beer. Plus, there's something about flipping my fermentor upside down that keeps me the creeps, even though you pull the trub, yeast, and sediment out through the valve at the bottom of the fermentor.... It just doesn't seem right.

It also seems like a very expensive way to make and serve beer.

Teromous said:

- All of that junk that is left on the sidewalls of my fermenter will now be in my keg.

Click to expand...

That was my first thought. Besides the gunk on the sidewall, all of the krausen on the top will end up in the finished beer.

In my view, removing the cone is a fundamental design flaw in this product. There is no way to avoid oxygen exposure in the finished beer, which should be the primary goal when discussing a stainless fermentation vessel.

I have a lot of respect for the Blichmanns, but this product has looked like a total miss from the jump...

Cheers!