Conical Fermenter Disadvantages?

[d2005]

I've owned a SS conical fermenter for years but i struggle with a few aspects that maybe some people here can help out with.

1) Sampling beer infects the sampling port
How do you sample beer out of the "sampling port" without coating the inside of the sampling port with unfermented or partially fermented wort? Thus exposing the rest of your wort to bacteria when you transfer into a keg or bottling.

The bottom port could be used but its almost always full of "crud" and that can make taking a sample difficult.

2) Lowering the temperature draws in oxygen and "bugs"
My system current utilizes a long ~4ft 3/8" blow off tube that runs to the outside of my brewing fridge. Since the fermenter is air tight (until it reaches the bucket of water), PV=nRT takes over with constant volume. Reduction of temperature draws fluid up the tube.

This isn't a problem if the fermentation is fairly active, since the CO2 released from solution will push it back down.

Unfortunetly the perfect time to reduce the temperature is following active fermentation.

So the only viable option I've been to think of is to pop the "safety" off it a few times to let air in. Air contains oxygen, bacteria, fungus, etc which could then cause bad things to happen.

A few years ago someone suggested the conical could be pressurized with CO2, thus pushing down the air in the tube. Well that sounds like a great idea, but where do i hook up the CO2 without depressurizing the system.

Any ideas?

3) Lagering
A good friend of mine has been home brewing for around 25 years. In his opinion, active yeast during lagering is a good thing and produces better quality lager. Several books i have read tend to agree.

Well, transfering to a keg and then pressurizing/purging it does not do good things for yeast. It does seem to kill them outright.

But i have tried to lager without purging and the beer definitely suffered somewhat. And as noted above, lagering in the SS conical is a problem because of the large amount of headspace.


These really are not "end of the world" problems. These are things I've run into over the years and was curious if anyone knew how to solve them.

Thanks for the help!

 

[cfrazier77]

I don't know what kind of conical you have, but here is how you can add CO2 without contaminating. One you blowoff port put a tee with a valve for each out. One will be your blowoff, the other will be normally closed and a connection for CO2 on the other side of the valve. When you want to add CO2 before chilling close the blowoff valve, hook up the CO2, hook up your CO2, set regulator at 3 PSI, open the valve. After letting it fill for a while close the valve and disconnect the CO2. You can now lower your temp and should not have to open the blowoff valve.

 

[d2005]

Maybe i'm missing something but it sounds like you are suggesting to pressurize the conical. Wouldn't that kill the yeast? If that is done, wouldn't it be easier to just transfer over to a corny keg and pressurize to 3psi? At least it's off the yeast and trub then.

 

[JRems]

Pressurizing it won't kill the yeast. Especially at a low psi.

 

[cfrazier77]

Yep, most conicals cannot get to high enough psi to hurt the yeast. At 3 you will be fine, and you can transfer to a leg under pressure eliminating o2 contamination. most big breweries ferment under 15 psi to speed up times to increase profits.

 

[JayMac]

Sampling your beers shouldnt introduce risk of contamination. If everything is properly sanitized before the transfer (you open both the bottom and sampling valves when sanitizer is in the conical) then all ports, gaskets, etc.. will be sanitized. When you open the valve, the beer coming out will come in contact with the spigot portion of the valve, which will not be sanitized anymore as it is exposed to air. However, the mass transfer will not allow contaminants to enter the fermenter.

Think of it this way. If we have water flowing through a tube, and we have an injection point where we insert a dye, the dye will not travel to any point before the area of injection. A similar principle can be applied when opening the valve.

I agree with the pressurization of the conical that was proposed above.

I believe that you should be able to lager in your conical as long as you purge the fermenter with CO2. As noted above, a couple PSI of CO2 in the headspace should not affect the performance of the yeast, and in some cases, improves performance.