A buddy of mine gave me his 7-gal More Beer chilling conical since he moved up to larger batches. I have been keeping it in the garage and doing my usual way of brewing since that was what I was comfortable with. Better bottles and temp controlled fridges. But finally after using up all my space last weekend I decided to give this conical a try.
I was a little intimidated by all the parts I'm not going to lie. So much to clean, so many clamps and washers and stainless valves. But none the less, using the PDF instructions I put it together, cleaned it with PBW and sanitized it prior to pumping my fresh beer from pot to conical.
So far so good. Temps are right were I want them for the 90 shilling ale. I used two packages of re-hydrated dry yeast for my recipe. Everything went as planned. With the two packages of yeast I was expecting within 12 hrs to see some co2 bubbles in this blow-off tub. Well, so far nothing. It's been 48 hours, and not a bubble has plopped from it. Since you can't see what's going on through the conical I had no idea if my yeast had a failure or what. So just now after work I opened up the 3-inch clamp from the top and pointed a flashlight in there. I see plenty of krausen action going on and it looks pretty good.
So my question is, am I doing something wrong here? I have checked every clamp and valve to make sure it was tight and not leaking the co2. I even put a worm clamp over the blow off tube to make sure it was a secure fit. That blow off tube is huge in diameter compared to what I normally do in my Better Bottle carboys. But I figure the CO2 needs to be going somewhere? Or is it just filling the conical and staying? I'm confused. To be honest I'm not impressed with these conicals so far. Seems like a lot of work compared to what my usual process is. Makes for a good conversation piece though.
I was a little intimidated by all the parts I'm not going to lie. So much to clean, so many clamps and washers and stainless valves. But none the less, using the PDF instructions I put it together, cleaned it with PBW and sanitized it prior to pumping my fresh beer from pot to conical.
So far so good. Temps are right were I want them for the 90 shilling ale. I used two packages of re-hydrated dry yeast for my recipe. Everything went as planned. With the two packages of yeast I was expecting within 12 hrs to see some co2 bubbles in this blow-off tub. Well, so far nothing. It's been 48 hours, and not a bubble has plopped from it. Since you can't see what's going on through the conical I had no idea if my yeast had a failure or what. So just now after work I opened up the 3-inch clamp from the top and pointed a flashlight in there. I see plenty of krausen action going on and it looks pretty good.
So my question is, am I doing something wrong here? I have checked every clamp and valve to make sure it was tight and not leaking the co2. I even put a worm clamp over the blow off tube to make sure it was a secure fit. That blow off tube is huge in diameter compared to what I normally do in my Better Bottle carboys. But I figure the CO2 needs to be going somewhere? Or is it just filling the conical and staying? I'm confused. To be honest I'm not impressed with these conicals so far. Seems like a lot of work compared to what my usual process is. Makes for a good conversation piece though.
