Controlling fermentation temps: carboys vs. conicals

So there are a good number of ways to control fermentation temps with a glass carboy:

Chest Freezer, water bath with fish tank heater, brew belt...etc.

So, if you wanted to upgrade to a conical fermentor, how do you keep that same control? Seems like the above options would not work...chest freezer not tall enough, conical too tall for a water bath, brew belt won't fit...etc. So, how do you control a conicals internal temp?

 

I've wondered the same thing. Some folks convert upright refrigerators I think. Apart from that or glycol I'm not sure what else would work.

 

MoreBeer sells conicals that are insulated with heating/cooling elements that can solve this problem... but you are going to pay more for this, obviously. I brew with a friend that has one of these and it works well for typical fermentation temps even in FL. It's not capable of lager temps...unless your ambient temp is already relatively cool.

 

I appreciate the feedback. After doing some research I stumbled across the coolest damn conical I've ever seen which totally answers my question and fixes my problem. Think I'll be getting one in the future.

http://brewhemoth.com/tri-clover-brewhemoth-conical-chiller

 

You're limited by the temp of your ground water with the brewhemoth unless you want to make some sort of coolant reservoir. I'd just stick the conical in an upright freezer personally. That way you have a fine degree of control for a fraction of the price of the morebeer solution, also the morebeer conicals collect condensation if you have decent humidity.

 

The nice thing is, is I brew in a barn with a concrete floor that keeps the ambient temp of the barn cold. So unless I was doing a lager, which I'm not a huge fan of, my issue has always been heating. The Brewhemoth would be fine for me as I can increase the heating my having a bucket of water with a fishtank heater in it, then run that water through the immersion chiller.

 

Not necessarily. Check some of the threads in the Equipment forum. I've been eyeing that conical as well along with the Stout version. This one is cool with the chiller option, but there is some pretty good temp differences between the top and bottom. Some people stretch out the coils to help out, but there is still a few degrees difference. Even with water, you're still going to need to run a pump, fridge, etc etc .. same with glycol. Good conical and I'm still debating going with it, but i've just had some customer service issues with them that might push me away.

I think for me, for the price of a fridge, pump, etc, I've just decided to toss up a cheap fermenation room. Some 2x4's, styrofoam and cheapy $50 a/c unit I figure should do the trick. Would probably work better also if you ended trying to run multiple conicals.

 

Win. I think this is the only reasonable solution. Combine that with a walk in lager room/tap wall and you're set!