Need for racking in a conical fermenter

[Triwing]

Hello fellow cider enthusiasts,

My first batch of cider was successful and tasted exquisite. So thanks to you guys for answering my first questions about making cider in a previous thread.

Now comes the part where I want to brew again, however I got a question remaining. My previous batch was first fermented in a plastic fermenting bucket and was then racked into a glass carboy. Yesterday I got gifted a stainless steel conical fermenter, something like this:

https://www.geterbrewed.com/brew-monk-stainless-steel-conical-fermenter/
So now my question is how should I use it? Should I let my cider ferment in this steel fermenter and then drain the dead yeast and garbage with the valve at the bottom? This way I shouldn't have the need to rack my cider, right?

Thanks for answering this question!

 

[Rick Stephens]

Not having ever used one.... more accurately, not having ever seen one, I can't directly refer to what would work. However, lees tends to cake up and be more solid than the fluids above it. If you drain from the bottom, IMHO, you will only remove a very small portion of the lees even if you drained all the cider during the attempt.

 

[Dland]

This is for beer, but I think it applies to cider pretty much too: When using a two port conical, you sort of have (at least) two options;

One is to dump solids, lees, trub, from bottom after primary fermentation is done, and continue to finish in fermentor.

Two is to rack off from upper port to secondary vessel and leave lees behind. This will have cleanest results.

With beer, I do both, dumping some of the solids and checking gravity from sample from lower port, then later, when finished or nearly finished working, I rack to kegs for conditioning/lagering etc.

In either case, it is good to add some CO2 gas to vent at top when racking or dumping lees to reduce chance of oxidation.

 

[Triwing]

This is for beer, but I think it applies to cider pretty much too: When using a two port conical, you sort of have (at least) two options;

One is to dump solids, lees, trub, from bottom after primary fermentation is done, and continue to finish in fermentor.

Two is to rack off from upper port to secondary vessel and leave lees behind. This will have cleanest results.

With beer, I do both, dumping some of the solids and checking gravity from sample from lower port, then later, when finished or nearly finished working, I rack to kegs for conditioning/lagering etc.

In either case, it is good to add some CO2 gas to vent at top when racking or dumping lees to reduce chance of oxidation.

Thanks for the extensive answer, it helps me out a lot! So, the conical fermenter should definitively have some use as a primary fermenter or I could indeed dump the solids. However, is this stainless steel fermenter a better alternative than my plastic fermenting bucket? Does it have better properties or does it fine-tune the process in any way?

 

[Dland]

I'm not familiar with the brand of conical you have, but I'm pretty sure it is a big step up from a plastic jug. Easier to clean & sanitize, does not let in gasses in (like some but not all plastic), no chance of plastic leaching or carrying over flavors from past uses.

You can test gravity without o2 exposure, and I find dumping and racking ports add a lot of room to "fine tune".

I brew about 30 10 gallon batches of beer a year, and at this stage I would not want to still be using a plastic bucket. The fermentation and aging cycle for cider is different I know, (I used to make it in 50 gallon barrels when I was in apple country). But conical would still be my first choice for primary.

I don't know what you are doing for temp control during primary, but I suppose if your bucket fits in fridge and you conical does not, and you don't have a cool place to ferment, that would be the only advantage of plastic bucket.