Conical Regrets?

[Jako]

Getting a conical was one of the best decisions I ever made (SS Brewtech Brewmaster 10 Gallon). Yes, it is more cleaning. Yes it is more expensive. Yes, temperature control can be a challenge (read: also expensive).

But the ability to do closed pressure transfers, not have to deal with glass, not have to worry about scratched plastic, and not have to lift 5 gallons of beer to do gravity transfers more than make up for it. Especially for 10 gallon batches.

It wasn't long after I bought my conical that I sold my SS brew buckets and carboys, just because the conical was so much more convenient and produced better quality beer than the buckets. It's easier to keep out oxygen and keep tighter temperature control.

The only downside I've experienced is, I want more of them.

Edit: And I guess one other downside is, if you're not careful, dry hops can really screw up closed transfers.

yeah my first batch i had crazy dry hop issues and didn't drop the cone the right way..... well i learned and now the process is way better.

for me temp control will be an issue since it will be my first summer with my brewtech.. i am also building a house and having a brewery built out. i will have a cold storage that will buy me time but i plan on 3 fermenters temp controlled with the brewtech glycol chiller. one step at a time.

 

[Jag75]

It won't be as effective as glycol, but that doesn't mean it won't work. It'll effectively control fermentation temp for you. Will it allow you to crash to, say, 38 degrees? Probably no, but that depends on how effectively you keep the solution at 32 degrees.

Would it be effective enough to say get it down to 50 degrees ?

 

[mongoose33]

Would it be effective enough to say get it down to 50 degrees ?

It depends on ambient temperature--meaning something reasonable like less than 80 degrees--but as long as you keep the ice water cold (32 degrees), it'll do it. My experience is that you'll be able to drop the temp to 10 degrees above whatever the chilling solution is. I'm assuming you're using the same pump as Spike provides, and the neoprene cover, as well as their tubing.

And even if ambient is very warm, you could cover and wrap with a blanket to help isolate it from ambient. But I'm doing this in the CF10, you'd have the CF5, and that would work somewhat better.

You'd have to monitor the ice water, of course, but if you can create 32 degree water, you can do 50 degrees. And you probably could get it close to 40 degrees.

 

[mongoose33]

.

 

[Jag75]

@mongoose33 - I dont have the cf5 . I want to . I just want to make sure a ice chest and a basic submersible pump could get it low enough to ferment . I use a portable ac unit in that room to keep it 68-70 in the summer .

 

[zoned_post_meridiem]

yeah my first batch i had crazy dry hop issues and didn't drop the cone the right way..... well i learned and now the process is way better.

for me temp control will be an issue since it will be my first summer with my brewtech.. i am also building a house and having a brewery built out. i will have a cold storage that will buy me time but i plan on 3 fermenters temp controlled with the brewtech glycol chiller. one step at a time.

Curious, what were your dry hop issues? How did you fix them?

 

[mongoose33]

@mongoose33 - I dont have the cf5 . I want to . I just want to make sure a ice chest and a basic submersible pump could get it low enough to ferment . I use a portable ac unit in that room to keep it 68-70 in the summer .

I know, but you said you wanted one; my comments were assuming that you'd buy one. It'll work.

 

[augiedoggy]

@mongoose33 - I dont have the cf5 . I want to . I just want to make sure a ice chest and a basic submersible pump could get it low enough to ferment . I use a portable ac unit in that room to keep it 68-70 in the summer .

I know a friend who uses a cooler with ice water for his ss brewtech conical without issues..

 

[Blazinlow86]

I know a friend who uses a cooler with ice water for his ss brewtech conical without issues..

Do you know how cold he can get it using that method. What makes the cf5 so great is that it's a unitank however if you can't get the temp low enough to carb at 10-12 psi imho your wasting your money. Cheers

 

[Jako]

Curious, what were your dry hop issues? How did you fix them?

I watched a video on how to drop the cone. It's on youtube by brewery life. He has lots of cool videos that apply to homebrew as well.

Also if the hops are still in suspension you did drop the cone enough and the flow of beer is kicking it up or the beer is still fermenting. My ferment time is 3 weeks now min.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I watched a video on how to drop the cone. It's on youtube by brewery life. He has lots of cool videos that apply to homebrew as well.

Also if the hops are still in suspension you did drop the cone enough and the flow of beer is kicking it up or the beer is still fermenting. My ferment time is 3 weeks now min.

I also watch brewerylifes videos and enjoy them. The host Jasper is great. Cheers

 

[Jako]

I also watch brewerylifes videos and enjoy them. The host Jasper is great. Cheers

extremely great! sad to see him move on to other things but spending more time with his family and working on other projects makes a ton of sense.

 

[Brewjitsu]

so i use 2-14 gallon ss bretech conical fermentors. i live in az and my garage can get up to 110 degrees, however the internal temp of my ferms stay at the set temp. the water cooler can drop beers down to 40 degrees. great for lagers. i filter my beers and cold crash with gelatin in the kegs.

 

[crooow]

so i use 2-14 gallon ss bretech conical fermentors. i live in az and my garage can get up to 110 degrees, however the internal temp of my ferms stay at the set temp. the water cooler can drop beers down to 40 degrees. great for lagers. i filter my beers and cold crash with gelatin in the kegs.

How often do you need to add ice?

 

[Brewjitsu]

How often do you need to add ice?

i dont it has an electrical water cooler.

 

[Beerwildered]

I watched a video on how to drop the cone. It's on youtube by brewery life. He has lots of cool videos that apply to homebrew as well.

Also if the hops are still in suspension you did drop the cone enough and the flow of beer is kicking it up or the beer is still fermenting. My ferment time is 3 weeks now min.

I’d love a link to this

 

[augiedoggy]

I use a single micromatic 1/3hp beerline chiller to control temps on 4 110gallon plasitc conicals with stainless coils in the lids... no issues lagering down to 45.. we dont go any lower for that as we use brites in a cooler for further cold crashing later.

single layer of reflectix around the outside with bungy cords holding it on and gutter heat cable wrapped around the ourtside of each fermenter to bring temps up when needed. it all works very well but we never try to bring a bunch of beers all way down at the same time either. it holds them all there fine and brings two down fairly qiuckly with no issues... we are switching to jacketed stainless fermenters for other reasons soon.

that said even an aquarium chiller will work fine for a single home brewing conical especially if its insulated.

 

[Blazinlow86]

I use a single micromatic 1/3hp beerline chiller to control temps on 4 110gallon plasitc conicals with stainless coils in the lids... no issues lagering down to 45.. we dont go any lower for that as we use brites in a cooler for further cold crashing later.

single layer of reflectix around the outside with bungy cords holding it on and gutter heat cable wrapped around the ourtside of each fermenter to bring temps up when needed. it all works very well but we never try to bring a bunch of beers all way down at the same time either. it holds them all there fine and brings two down fairly qiuckly with no issues... we are switching to jacketed stainless fermenters for other reasons soon.

that said even an aquarium chiller will work fine for a single home brewing conical especially if its insulated.

Unfortunately the aquarium chiller only works in some situations. I use the spike cf15 and prefer to do everything in the unitank. My aquarium chiller was good enough to ferment a lager but wasn't enough to cold crash (at least in a reasonable amount of time) and carbonate so I switched to a stand up freezer. If your using a non pressureable conical and don't mind crashing in the kegs it would be fine. Just a fyi as it seems majority of people are buying the spike unitanks but it's abit of a waste imho if you don't have glycol or a freezer. Cheers

 

[augiedoggy]

True... I was speaking or a traditional conical fermenter. we transfer and cold crash in brites at the brewery and at home I do it in kegs.