Does anything like this exist? Conical insert for bucket

[SonOfAVondruke]

As the title says. While sipping a gravity sample of my latest stout this evening I was thinking about how I could conical-ize a bucket and came up with this little concept for an insert. Curious if anything like it already exists.

(Volumes are estimates and I have never been great at math)

 

[Revvy]

It's a cool Idea... I would probably go with an 8 gallon bucket (like the wine fermenter buckets,) that way you can get more cooling water volume around it. So would there be a valve at the bottom to dump trub, or would this all still be a "top siphoning" fermenter?

 

[whovous]

If you want to throw a lot of money at it, you could modify this, I guess.

https://www.brewdemon.com/equipment...nt/6-gal-clear-conical-fermenting-system.html

 

[Patrick87]

Sounds like a cool idea. Personally, I think the handiest thing about a conical would be a bottom drain valve which may be tough to do on a design like that, though.

I second the idea of an 8 gallon bucket. I use them for all my brews, since the IPA's I brew usually start with 5.75 - 6 gallons of wort in the fermenter in order to get ~5 gallons of beer after the yeast and 5-7oz dry hop settles.

Link to the 8+ gallon buckets I've been using:
http://www.homebrewing.org/AIH-8-Gallon-Fermenting-Bucket-and-Lid_p_5183.html

The buckets above are also a lot easier to see through than the regular 6.5 gallon buckets if you've got a little carboy-envy.

 

[SonOfAVondruke]

It's a cool Idea... I would probably go with an 8 gallon bucket (like the wine fermenter buckets,) that way you can get more cooling water volume around it. So would there be a valve at the bottom to dump trub, or would this all still be a "top siphoning" fermenter?

The idea is that this is something you could just stick in a bucket you already have for a brew that you were going to leave in the primary longer than is usually recommended. I thought about potentially adding in a "capture vessel" to the design that was easily removable but it would have to come out upwards, either through the brew or after you already siphoned it out.

If you want to throw a lot of money at it, you could modify this, I guess.
https://www.brewdemon.com/equipment...nt/6-gal-clear-conical-fermenting-system.html

Throwing money around is the opposite of my goal here. Unless it is to manufacture something along these lines en masse. The idea of paying that much for a plastic vessel without any real extras baffles my mind.

Sounds like a cool idea. Personally, I think the handiest thing about a conical would be a bottom drain valve which may be tough to do on a design like that, though.

I second the idea of an 8 gallon bucket. I use them for all my brews, since the IPA's I brew usually start with 5.75 - 6 gallons of wort in the fermenter in order to get ~5 gallons of beer after the yeast and 5-7oz dry hop settles.

Link to the 8+ gallon buckets I've been using:
http://www.homebrewing.org/AIH-8-Gallon-Fermenting-Bucket-and-Lid_p_5183.html

The buckets above are also a lot easier to see through than the regular 6.5 gallon buckets if you've got a little carboy-envy.

I have 6.5 gallon buckets so that is what I was basing it on, there is no reason such a thing couldn't be adapted to any size though.

Do you think this is something that people would actually buy and use if it were available in their LHBS?

 

[Revvy]

Do you think this is something that people would actually buy and use if it were available in their LHBS?

Honestly for me it would be all about the price. If it wasn't priced much more than, let's say a better bottle, 30-35 bucks or less I'd be all in. (Not counting the outside bucket, which we all probably already have lying around, if we didn't want one with a drain at the bottom.)

Personally as much as I like shiny new toys, or interesting fermenters, I opt for buckets, or sometimes better bottles, simply because of the price. As much as I'd like a fast fermenter, I can't see spending the equivalent of 7-8 buckets for it. (Or that much in ingredients.)

BUT, personally I like this setup.

Especially if it was adaptable, like I COULD add a drain at the bottom if I wanted to, but I could use it without if I didn't want to pay extra.

(Like maybe if the bottom of the conical part came threaded and capped with some standard sized plastic thread, that I could either buy a pre-made valve setup from the manufacturer, or I could go to a hardware store and built something that suits my needs.)

I love the idea of a dirt cheap way of temp control using something existing like a fermenter bucket. Not just with cold water as a swamp cooler, but also I bet I could come up with a way to keep a fermentation warm in a cold room or closet.

 

[Revvy]

In fact s long as you could get the cord down in the space between the conical and the sides of the bucket of water, one of two of these (actually 1 probably, 2-3 of them are enough to sous-vide with) tea immersion heaters and my Stc-100 temp control setup would be enough to keep the liquid in the bucket warm enough for just about any fermentation temp...even ghetto lagering in an unheated garage in the winter, where you just need to keep the fermenter from freezing.