Conical fermentors

[hoffie38]

I understand how usefull conicals can be for fermetation and yeast collection, but without spending well over $2000 for a refrigerated model, how usefull are they really? Are conicals now built to fit into refrigerators/chest freezers? Yes, as homebrewers many of us depend on our dark closets and pantries for fermentation, but someone convince me that it's worth the cost to replace my 6gal. carboy.

 

[jdoiv]

I don't have one, but I think it would be most useful if you were interested in reusing your yeast. It's more of a ease of use thing than anything else. If you do a lot of different beers, and don't use the same yeast over and over, I don't think it would really be worth it unless you have the disposable income to justify the cost.

That said, I am planning on building two of my own as I have a refrigeration unit that will be perfect for the job. I also plan on reusing my yeast over and over, so after a couple of hundred batches, I may break even..

 

[hoffie38]

Thanks, jdoiv. I may reuse yeast in the future, but only if I can find time to brew more than once a month. I am planning on purchasing a chest freezer for tighter ferm. temp. control. I found some pics of some 5gal conicals and they may fit nicely.

 

[JoeRags]

That said, I am planning on building two of my own as I have a refrigeration unit that will be perfect for the job. I also plan on reusing my yeast over and over, so after a couple of hundred batches, I may break even..

What sort of refrigeration unit you planning on using?

 

[abracadabra]

I don't think you can justify it on a purely cost basis unless you have an event horizon of 25 years or more.

Safety is always an issue with large heavy glass objects so you'll have to make the call there. You can get horror stories of people being injured and people telling you they've used glass for 10 years without incident. So that will be your call.

After all is said and done this is a hobby so if you want to make your hobby easier and perhaps less work then this could play a role. Your budget, and the level of ease of use you want come in to play.

Harvested yeast should keep in the refridgerator for 3 months at least. So that could help you justify the cost as yeast seems to be getting more expensive.

Another thing the Stainless Steel conicals do is protect you beer from light and eliminate the need for a secondary transfer but if you transfer to a cornie keg for a secondary and also serve out of the same cornie then there no real time saving there. It is easier to transfer and you have the option to pressure transfer up to 6 feet high with a SS conical.

It also seems like less of the trub and yeast is tranfered into the secondary which should help clear the beer making it better to look at.

 

[Focus]

I have one of the 15 gal conicals but have only used it once

The things I like about it:
Higher capacity than my 5 gal ale pail
Ease of harvesting yeast
Ease of dumping trub and no transfer to a secondary at bottleing - a MAJOR plus no one's mentioned yet

Things I don't like about it and have to fix:
Didn't come with a gasket or seal around the lid of any type so I have to buy one or risk contamination
Large and bulky - mine doesn't fit in any fridge or chest freezer out there (however, the Fermenator models do)
No easy way to control temp apart from setting it next to an AC vent in my kitchen. I plan to fix this one by building a insulated box - kinda like "son of fermentation chiller" - and running a vent tube from my beer fridge freezer to the box with a computer fan and a thermostat.

IMO, a good buy but I don't know if I'd drop 2K. Mine was something like 300 and fits my needs.

 

[jdoiv]

What sort of refrigeration unit you planning on using?

I have a commercial true refrigerator I picked up on ebay several years ago that I plan on putting a couple of conicals in. I use it now with glass carboys and it does great. Check out my thread in the all grain section I put up yesterday. there is a picture of the fermentation fridge. Fridge only cost me about $100.