Help me choose a conical - Morebeer 14 gallon or SsBrewtech BME Chronical.

I'm trying to choose between these two and am looking for advice/opinions on why one is better than the other.

Also, does anyone know if the Jaybird yeast harvester from NorCal Brewing Solutions will fit on either one of these without leg extensions?

I'm mostly doing 5 gallon batches, but want the capacity to do 10 gallons when the need arises, hence the 14 gallon fermenter choice.

Thanks for any input!

 

Morebeer definitely. However if you can wait, Spike Brewing is coming out with new ones:

http://spikebrewing.com/collections/fermenters

Let me clarify why. SS Brewtech makes a fine product for a really really good price. However, they utilize weldless fittings. Morebeer and Spike use all welded connections, and both utilize TC connections. Those are what the big boys use. You will be able to hook your Yeast Harvester right up to it. As for leg extensions I can't tell you that, however I know both companies sell them or in the case of Spike, can custom make yours if you need to.

Next move onto price and support: Morebeer is a great company and they do all their welding in house. Support is good, but not great. Its a huge company and lag time is going to be longer than some place like Spike. Not a negative for Morebeer. I've had several great experiences with them.

Spike is handsdown my favorite. I've only had one transaction with them, but they absolutely crushed what I was asking for and seriously continued to converse with me over and over for months before I pulled the trigger. The price was more than fair and the product is just amazing.

Price: Spike wins this contest. Morebeer is $699 for a 14G and Spike is $550 But they are not available till September.

Features: Spike has a sampling valve and 2 dump valves. one for yeast and the other for beer dump. Morebeer has 1 dump valve for yeast only and a sampling valve that doubles as a rotating racking arm. Both should be able to do pressurized transfers. Spikes other ones did, I don't see him not doing that again.

Personally, if you can wait get the Spike. If you can't you will be super happy with the morebeer conical. If you can reach out to Ben at Spike and see if he can confirm or deny any of the pre-production features for you and see if you can place an early-bird order.

 

Thanks, that was a great contrast and comparison! I'll give Spike a look, but I'm not sure I can wait that long. I appreciate your response!

 

No problem. If it was in the cards for me I'd be on a waiting list for a Spike, but I'm committed to my Spiedel Experiment for the time being.

 

I have 1 Stout and 2 SS Brewtech 7 gallon conicals. What I like best about the SS Brewtech product is the available FTS temperature control system. Unless you have a big enough fermentation chamber or a walk in refrigerator, you need some way to warm or cool the conical during fermentation. While I still like my Stout conical, I only use it for saisons now because I can't control the termperatures. So factor in how you will control the temperatures with the other conicals you are thinking about buying and how much extra that will cost.

 

Thanks all for your input.

I ended up going with the ssBrewtech BME Chronical with all of the bells and whistles (blow off cane, CIP with TC fitting, FTS temp control, pressurized racking setup, SS stone on TC fitting (from MoreBeer)). The primary reason I chose this one is temp control. I plan on putting it on a glycol system.

I ruled out MoreBeer's conical simply because I emailed them a basic question about one and they didn't bother to reply. I've bookmarked Spike brewing and will take a look at theirs again when the new one is released, but if it doesn't have temp control, I'm not sure I want to lift it in and out of either of my chest freezers. It's enough to lift the BrewBuckets and Speidels. I'd like to one day have all conicals connected to a glycol chiller and CIP capability. Unfortunately, I wasn't born rich, so I'll have to piece it together one at a time...

 

I think you will be very happy with the BME Chronical. If I was going to buy SS. that one gives you the best of the higher end features with a nice pricepoint. I dont know if Spike will have any kind of integrated chilling however it would be intriguing if Spike could adapt the use of SS's chilling system that they sell separately.

 

I have both a 14gal BME and 14gal standard SSBrewtech chronicals. To be totally honest, I am not sure why one would need CIP. It takes me a grand total of about 5 minutes to disassemble the standard and clean it. It takes maybe an additional 5 minutes to clean the BME because of the coil. For both I roll them out to the driveway, take the valves off and put them in a bucket of PBW, hose the fermenter down, scrub with soft sponge and rinse. As mentioned the BME takes longer as I use a two different brushes to scrub the coil.

I have both connected to a glycol chiller. I use the almost drip free quick disconnects someone posted on the long thread I believe mfabe started regarding his SSBrewtech and glycol chiller thread.

These things have been fantastic to ferment with. I wish I had gone down this route earlier.

 

You will like the ssbrewtech. I've had my half barrel chronical for a couple years with no problems. Not sure why folks say they have weldless fittings. Mine is all welded. Maybe the 7 gallon product or brew barrel do?

 

I would go Ss all the way, I know many people on this board are familiar with my chiller thread. But here is my latest creation. I converted my standard Chronical to BME, then built a CIP pump cart with a Chugger NANO pump. Honestly the second best investment I made behind the chiller.

I dont ever remove a valve or fitting from the unit any longer, and the pump is extremely powerful, post fermentation, I set it up and let it run for 15 mins with PBW at 0.75 Oz/Gal, then do a 15 minute Acid #5 rinse at 1 Oz/Gal. It comes out sparkling new, then air dry to repassivate. Then on my brew day, I do a 20-30 minute wash with Saniclean before the next batch goes in.

I seriously threw out all the brushes, and cleaning gadgets... I wont ever go back to scrubbing my gear.



I'll probably do a dedicated write up on this guy... but let me know if anyone is interested in the setup, it might motivate me...

I like Ss as many others mentioned because of the temp control and the ecosystem of accessories they offer. I wouldn't have been able to do the glycol build or CIP build without the Ss accessory stuff!

 

@mfabe--Awesome! I'd love to hear more about the setup.

 

I use a cooling jacket from cool zone on my stout conical along with a silicone heating strip... works very well without having any coils in my beer the keep clean.
I also use a chiller and a homemade controller with stc1000 units to cool 4 conicals off of the single chiller.. the pre built kit from SS is very cool bit its really just an off the shelf chiller, $20 heater and $20 temp controller that someone took the time to gather up, test and sell as a kit. It's convenient for sure but it's totally possible to use one of the cooling options like mentioned above or stouts peltier cooling kit for control on the stout conical too.

 

I am doing what Mcfabe is doing with a few twist. I purchased the brewershardware cip ball and bought tri clover elbows (90 degree on top and a straight barb in 1 inch on bottom) and use a pond pump rated at 1100 gph.

I am taking out my sample valve as the oring is on the outside and that makes me nervous for some reason.