Conical as a BK and BIAB? Somebody stop me...

[danderson42]

I'm close to purchasing a stainless conical and making 2 120v 2000w heat sticks so I can brew indoors. Then I came across the a couple of articles on brew-in-a-bag.
Now what I'm thinking is ...
Get a 14g SS conical w/thermowell, add 2 heat sticks, then BIAB. No lauter tun, mash tun, OR brew pot. Using an immersion chiller, with the dump valve I could handle cold break, and I wouldn't need any pumps to transfer. The heat sticks would be in the conical section, below the bag, which would rest on a removeable support of some kind. A permanent jacket could also be added to hold the mash temperature, help the boil get up to temp quicker, and control the fermentation temperature. With the valves on the conical I could add a pump and make it a one piece RIMS. Depending on the model the frame might need modification to remove the cross-bar that holds the cover down.

I will only be doing 5G batches, so the larger conical to hold the mash and total water and resulting headspace could be a consideration if the fermentation process doesn't produce enough CO2. Cost of the conical aside, which I'll close to incurring anyhow, what else am I overlooking, besides collecting more toys and a more exotic setup?

As an alternative, I could use the cooler mash-tun that I have now and just get a 7 gallon conical for everything else. Would the heat be too much for the valves?

(I'm feeling like this may be homebrew heresy - please don't ban me from the site!)

 

[Jipper]

That is probably the best homebrewing idea I have heard in a long time. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work out ... though you may have an issue with dumping more beer than you would like when you get rid of the cold break and hops. After you cool, dump out the bulk of it then let the wort settle for a couple of hours before O2 and pitching. Dump out again and pitch ... yeah it could work ...

 

[Retarded_Penguin_Brewing]

wow, pretty impressive. in theory it sounds pretty good, try it and let us know how it works. only suggestion i'd make is that a 14 gallon conical would be way too much for 5 gallon batchs. so your best solution would be to do 10 gallon batches instead and send me the 5 gallons you don't use

 

[wyzazz]

You'd be pretty limited in how often you could brew, unless you purchased 4-5 conicals that is.

 

[jaginger]

Brilliant!

 

[noblesquirrel]

You'd be pretty limited in how often you could brew, unless you purchased 4-5 conicals that is.

Actually, he could always rack from the conical into other fermenters post boil as well... Aside from that, he can only use the conical to ferment one beer at a time anyway...

 

[samc]

Several people on HBT (don't ask me who) leave the wort in the BK and use it as the fermenter. Don't see any reason why your method would not work.

I'm guessing MoreBeer will be testing this theory out before you get to it!

 

[uwjester]

This seems like a pretty neat idea. Have you thought about mash thickness? If you have a mash that is too thin, you won't get very good conversion. I'm not sure if BIAB resolves this concern or not. Generally, it would be better to have your mash water and sparge water separate, but I think you are combining them here, right? Maybe the bag will help keep the mash at the right ph and keep the amalyse enzymes around, but maybe it won't.

One solution would be to keep the mash thickness at the correct ratio but brew a stronger beer. Then water it down with top-off water after the bag is gone. If you were continually recirculating through the mash, you could be OK with this move.

 

[bakins]

This seems like a pretty neat idea. Have you thought about mash thickness?

No need to worry. Plenty of us don no-sparge brewing with ratios of 3.25 qts/lb and up.

I thought it would be cool if I could use an element like this:

(mcmaster page 508) and make it conform more to the shape of the conical. Or use a loop element, but they all seem to be expensive.

I like the "really it is one vessel" idea allot!

Also, you could skip the chill

 

[Hermit]

I know some people do open fermentation but I wonder what exposure to that much oxygen in the head space would mean?

 

[bakins]

I know some people do open fermentation but I wonder what exposure to that much oxygen in the head space would mean?

In a conical, CO2 will quickly fill the headspace. Think how much bubbles out your airlock.

 

[danderson42]

By my calculations a 14.5 gallon fermenter would hold 4 gallons in the cone, which, allowing for trub, etc., would mean about 8" of headspace for the fermentation. If the wort is aerated anyhow, is there any reason to (or not to) add CO2 to the fermenter, either immediately after pitching or after a couple days of fermentation? Not sure what the timing would be.

Any BIABers out there who can tell me for let's say a 14# grain bill/5 gallon batch how much container volume I'd need initially targeting the boil volume around 6.5G? My numbers say around 10.5 gallons + grain?