Boil in Conical

[JVD_X]

Does anyone do a boil directly in a modified conical?

It would seem that if you added an element to a stainless steel conical you could whirlpool and then drop the sediment out without having to transfer to a fermenter - eliminating at least one potential source of contamination.

 

[Parker36]

I feel like there is some reason why this wouldn't work so great because of the shape and the area where heat is applied, but I have nothing to back that up with

 

[nebben]

I am not a conical owner, but some thoughts come to mind...

Are the gaskets heat-tolerant? Will it be cooled after boiling, or just left overnight? ...I guess my concerns aren't that big after all. I'm not sure how well the whirlpool thing would work out though, since a whirlpool will have a vortex effect coming down the bottom, and no guarantees that the trub will fall out first. You would probably want to use a heatstick or a couple of them, since you don't want to leave a heating element in the fermenting wort for any longer than it would take to boil. Gas heat is probably right out since you wouldn't have any place to apply heat effectively. Steam jacketing could work, but at this point, your conical's cost will be sky-high as you're doing some professional grade stuff.

A benefit I could see is that you would probably have less contamination risk since your fermenter would be sanitized during the boil, and you wouldn't be transferring wort anywhere.

I suppose this could easily be done by anyone with a metal conical and a heatstick, with little extra gear needed.

 

[JVD_X]

You would probably want to use a heatstick or a couple of them, since you don't want to leave a heating element in the fermenting wort for any longer than it would take to boil.

I don't imagine this would be too much of an issue. Any interaction that could take place would have during the boil.

 

[nebben]

I don't mean that the heatstick will infect the beer or anything, only that the wort might corrode the element or parts of it. During the boil, the exposure is minimal.

 

[Brewers Hardware]

I've thought about this. I thought about a ring-shaped burner with jets focused on the cone. I thought it would actually be kind of efficient since the heat wash would have to ride across the cone and up.

My main purpose was just as you described, dropping the trub out and maintaining a sanitary environment.