Conical

[theQ]

Alright I got myself some conicals on blackfriday - It went with Spike, the unitank version.

I brew last night I am slightly concerned about the pressure, I have a spunding valve ( went for blichmann's version, due to better price Spunding Valve) .
Among the few things I noticed is that one lid gasket might leak a bit (Air/CO2) - i noticed a hissing when I push the wort in but I left it as was (didn't want to take the lid of and fiddle with it while having fresh wort in there). Anyone has issues with that gasket ?

Anyhow here some specific questions:
- when do you take the trub out, before of after the fermentation starts? if after what would be the rule of thumb, days to wait
- when do you harvest yeast
- do you also take the hops deposits out after dry hopping ?
- I plan a closed transfer but I don't have a cooling element yet, how should I approach and set the spunding valve for that scenario ? 1psi and then force carbonation ? Since the room is at 68 I assume thatnot alot of CO2will get in beer and the transfer will up.
- oh, I plan do transfer it by weight (to keep it closed circuit) - should I roughly estimate the weight of 5.5 gals of water, to know when to stop ?

Yeah, changing the process doesn't come with headaches, hope to do ok

Cheers to y'all!

 

[eric19312]

Hmm we got 74 pages of discussion of that unit right over here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/spike-conical-observations-and-best-practices.645440/
short answers to these questions
- when do you take the trub out, before of after the fermentation starts? if after what would be the rule of thumb, days to wait

up to you. If I fill the fermentor above pitching temp and finish chilling in the tank I will dump a bit of trub before pitching yeast. Once active fermentation is going not really possible to dump until it slows back down.

- when do you harvest yeast

I harvest yeast after fermentation is done, before I dry hop

- do you also take the hops deposits out after dry hopping ?

I do

- I plan a closed transfer but I don't have a cooling element yet, how should I approach and set the spunding valve for that scenario ? 1psi and then force carbonation ? Since the room is at 68 I assume thatnot alot of CO2will get in beer and the transfer will up.

You can spund at close to 15 PSI in the tank which will turn into about 7 PSI at serving pressure. So you will still need some force carbonation but not all force carb.

- oh, I plan do transfer it by weight (to keep it closed circuit) - should I roughly estimate the weight of 5.5 gals of water, to know when to stop ?

I put 40-41 pounds of beer into a corny keg. I think you can get a bit more in if the beer is not carbonated but I transfer fully carbonated beer.

 

[eric19312]

I brew last night I am slightly concerned about the pressure, I have a spunding valve ( went for blichmann's version, due to better price Spunding Valve) .
Among the few things I noticed is that one lid gasket might leak a bit (Air/CO2) - i noticed a hissing when I push the wort in but I left it as was (didn't want to take the lid of and fiddle with it while having fresh wort in there). Anyone has issues with that gasket ?

the gasket is pretty reliable. there is a learning curve to getting it right every time, I found this diagram helpful when I was learning to do it right
https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/7288227/Conical_Lid_Install_Instructions.pdf

 

[theQ]

Hmm we got 74 pages of discussion of that unit right over here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/spike-conical-observations-and-best-practices.645440/
short answers to these questions
- when do you take the trub out, before of after the fermentation starts? if after what would be the rule of thumb, days to wait

up to you. If I fill the fermentor above pitching temp and finish chilling in the tank I will dump a bit of trub before pitching yeast. Once active fermentation is going not really possible to dump until it slows back down.

- when do you harvest yeast

I harvest yeast after fermentation is done, before I dry hop

- do you also take the hops deposits out after dry hopping ?

I do

- I plan a closed transfer but I don't have a cooling element yet, how should I approach and set the spunding valve for that scenario ? 1psi and then force carbonation ? Since the room is at 68 I assume thatnot alot of CO2will get in beer and the transfer will up.

You can spund at close to 15 PSI in the tank which will turn into about 7 PSI at serving pressure. So you will still need some force carbonation but not all force carb.

- oh, I plan do transfer it by weight (to keep it closed circuit) - should I roughly estimate the weight of 5.5 gals of water, to know when to stop ?

I put 40-41 pounds of beer into a corny keg. I think you can get a bit more in if the beer is not carbonated but I transfer fully carbonated beer.

Thanks a lot for all the answers. They are great!

5.2gals is roughly 41.8 lbs (now, alcohol density is less than 1, you are right can probably fit more in there) - do you you counter pressure ?

Do you have any good recommendation on avoiding foaming at transfer time ?

 

[eric19312]

Thanks a lot for all the answers. They are great!

5.2gals is roughly 41.8 lbs (now, alcohol density is less than 1, you are right can probably fit more in there) - do you you counter pressure ?

Do you have any good recommendation on avoiding foaming at transfer time ?

For transferring carbonated beer you just need to keep everything pressurized. I hold the pressure in the keg with a blowtie type spunding valve during filling. If beer for example in the fermentor is at 10 PSI I might have the keg set to 12 PSI while pushing the beer out of the fermentor with 14 PSI in the conical headspace. The pressure 2 PSI pressure difference is enough to push the beer and positive pressure above the beer at all times keeps down foaming.

 

[Golddiggie]

IF you followed the instructions for how to install the gasket, it will seal fully. Keep in mind the orientation of it (you need to have it installed in the lid correct side up) as well as how tight you turn the clamp (IIRC about a 1/4" gap between where the clamping ring closes) is. I always make sure the conical doesn't retain pressure when transferring wort into it. Otherwise the transfer is both slower and can give you issues.

For dumping things... With whirlpooling in the BK, I get very little trub into the conical. Combined with the wort strainer (before the plate chiller). Which means I don't do anything for that. IF I'm going to harvest the yeast, I dump that before I add any dry hops to a batch (once fermentation is complete and the yeast has fully flocculated out). I carbonate in conical (I have the chill coils for mine) so I do it at a lower temperature to make sure I don't get too close to the 15psi max rating (or the ~14psi the relief valve trips at). I then transfer the finished beer into the keg watching the fill indicators I have (both level on the side of the keg and the pressure relief tubing going into the container of Starsan). Using the racking arm Spike sells means you can pick up above any trub you might have in the conical. That allows you to remove clear beer better and means you get the most out of the conical. Since the racking arm leaves a set amount behind in the conical, removing trub/hops/yeast before transferring means you'll get LESS finished beer out.

I'm considering moving the carb stone from the racking arm to where the sampling valve normally goes. I'll be installing a butterfly valve on that spot so allow me to swap out what's connected there without much trouble. I could also use the racking arm connection (fitted with a liquid ball lock post fitting) to pull samples if I want. I've really only pulled samples from a couple of batches so far, so not really concerned over that aspect right now. I'd rather have an easier way to carbonate the batch.