Hey everyone. I used to be a little more active about 10 years ago, but I am glad to see this place is still very helpful and growing! I still come back and stalk around
Been doing the homebrewing thing on-and-off for about 10 years now (more on- than off-), and most recently this year already brewed 20 gallons (I do 5 gallon batches). I have "upgraded" my boil kettle to a Spike and love it.
Man, there has been so much change in the last 10 years in all the equipment available. I mean, I can't believe you can get a completely wired with outlets temperature controller for $30 on Amazon. I originally got my kegerator to temp by tweaking the fine adjustment thermostat screw over a period of 10 days to get the right temp in the freezer lol.
So now seeing all this new stuff, and I've always wanted to brew some lagers and cold-crash more frequently (my only method of cold crashing is my kegerator; if I have 2 or more kegs in there, there's no way to fit my fermenter in there so I just mostly skip it), I'm looking into either a conical or ferm chamber.
Now, I may be making excuses to have some money burn a hole in my pocket, and although a new shiny stainless conical might not make my beer better, I do expect that good temperature control for both fermentation and crashing would actually make measurably better beer. I would likely be considering the stainless conical options with the integrated cooling coils to manage temperature.
Pros for a conical: less space needed compared to a new fridge/freezer, stainless fermenter that is easy to clean/sanitize, one piece of equipment to primary/age/condition/carb/cold crash/closed transfer
Cons for a conical: more expensive compared to a new fridge/freezer
Pros for a ferm chamber: less cost to get many of the benefits I'm looking for
Cons for a ferm chamber: not getting all the features of a conical, larger real estate needed in my already small brewing space, adding another refrigerated box that needs to be cleaned and monitored for microbial growth...
To those of you with conicals - do you swear by them, and would you do it again? Which route would you go?
Been doing the homebrewing thing on-and-off for about 10 years now (more on- than off-), and most recently this year already brewed 20 gallons (I do 5 gallon batches). I have "upgraded" my boil kettle to a Spike and love it.
Man, there has been so much change in the last 10 years in all the equipment available. I mean, I can't believe you can get a completely wired with outlets temperature controller for $30 on Amazon. I originally got my kegerator to temp by tweaking the fine adjustment thermostat screw over a period of 10 days to get the right temp in the freezer lol.
So now seeing all this new stuff, and I've always wanted to brew some lagers and cold-crash more frequently (my only method of cold crashing is my kegerator; if I have 2 or more kegs in there, there's no way to fit my fermenter in there so I just mostly skip it), I'm looking into either a conical or ferm chamber.
Now, I may be making excuses to have some money burn a hole in my pocket, and although a new shiny stainless conical might not make my beer better, I do expect that good temperature control for both fermentation and crashing would actually make measurably better beer. I would likely be considering the stainless conical options with the integrated cooling coils to manage temperature.
Pros for a conical: less space needed compared to a new fridge/freezer, stainless fermenter that is easy to clean/sanitize, one piece of equipment to primary/age/condition/carb/cold crash/closed transfer
Cons for a conical: more expensive compared to a new fridge/freezer
Pros for a ferm chamber: less cost to get many of the benefits I'm looking for
Cons for a ferm chamber: not getting all the features of a conical, larger real estate needed in my already small brewing space, adding another refrigerated box that needs to be cleaned and monitored for microbial growth...
To those of you with conicals - do you swear by them, and would you do it again? Which route would you go?