Conical vs Carboy

[hammerthreat]

I have recently upgraded my home brewery with an awesome CF10 conical fermenter from Spike. I have only done 3 10gal batches so far so I am still learning the equipment. I have kegged 7-8 gals all 3 times. What I’m trying to figure out is if my losses are worth it or not. With the carboy I brew up 6 gals, keg pretty close to a full 5 after losses in dry hop and secondary transfer. I realize my 10gal recipes have an insane amount of dry hops and I’ve calculated about 3/4 gal loss in the bottom of the fermenter. Any body have any thoughts or similar experiences?? Cheers!

 

[augiedoggy]

I normally adjust my recipes for 10.5-11 gallons into the fermenter so I can take samples and dump trub without worry... keep in mind in a real brewery there is much more waste to ensure a cleaner final product..

I dont have the spike brand conical but I do have a spike clone of thier older conical and theres only about a pint of beer under the side sampling valve I use for transfers top the keg... so with the loss of the volume from dumping yeast/trub and whats left in there when transfering I lose about 2 pints or so on average.

 

[kh54s10]

I was also thinking that you could increase the volume going into the fermenter so that you end up with more when finished.

Try to limit your losses by using a hop spider during the boil and bagging your dry hops. I sometimes pull the dryhop bag, squeeze out some of the beer and let that settle before packaging.

 

[chickypad]

Sounds like you need about 12 gals going into the conical to get 10 gals finished, that's about what I need on a highly hopped beer and sounds consistent with your own experience on your 5 gal batches. Expecting only 3/4 gal loss on a 10 gal batch is unrealistic.

 

[augiedoggy]

dry hopping aside which changes everything.
I own a few different brand conicals myself and a couple pints is the norm which honestly should be about the same as if you used a bucket and transferred to a secondary... You could also not dump the dead yeast and trub (same as not transferring to a secondary) and then you wont lose any beer. but then theres no practical benefit vs a bucket really either.. basically its all still a tradeoff, better final product requires more waste.

The hops you add to the fermenter are going to soak up and hold some of the beer so you have to account for that with any form of fermenter.

 

[MaxStout]

I've lost a gallon in a 5 gal. dry-hopped batch, so scaled up, 2 gallons for you seems about normal. You ask yourself if your losses are worth it. It's up to you if it's worth it to get 8 gallons of great beer from 10 in the fermenter. Like the angel's share with whisky, you could consider your 2 gal loss to be "the cost of doing business."

 

[hammerthreat]

Thanks for the suggestions and help! I will have to see what I end up with putting 12gal into the fermenter!