Drink directly from Conical?

[Ladder23Brewing]

So lets have a discussion about drinking directly from your conical... Here is my vision, help me if I am wrong:

If you have a conical that can pressure ferment such as the Brewhemoth, then why cant you dump the yeast regularly to avoid the packed yeast cake, cold crash the conical, attach your tap to the racking port, and dispense your fresh beer? (This is all after the proper fermentation periods of course). I mean how cool would it be to drink fresh carbonated beer right from your sexy conical?!?!


The Brewhemoth for example has an available spunding valve that will allow the brew to self carbonate as it ferments so all that is needed then is to cool the brew and serve right?

I am taking this idea from the Williams Warn Personal Brewery as this is generally how their product works.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone tried this?

 

[Yooper]

Hmmmm- I now have 7 kegs and many fermenters, so I would need about 10 conicals to do this (7 serving, and three as fermenters). Someone I don't see that working for me!

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

Hmmmm- I now have 7 kegs and many fermenters, so I would need about 10 conicals to do this (7 serving, and three as fermenters). Someone I don't see that working for me!

I wish I was so lucky to have an endless supply of kegs and fermenters.

 

[aquenne]

Yes, at my little brewery the conical is the bottle neck in the process. It would definitely suck if I had to wait until the beer was done to ferment another.

Dont worry, transfering from conical to keg under pressure is easy as can be.

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

Yes, at my little brewery the conical is the bottle neck in the process. It would definitely suck if I had to wait until the beer was done to ferment another.

Dont worry, transfering from conical to keg under pressure is easy as can be.

This is true, I did not consider the fact that there will be a lag time in between batches with that idea... Hmm ok keg it is then.

 

[limulus]

Yeah, it was a good thought, but there is that "bottleneck" thing. If there were a way, I'm sure brewpubs would have already found it. That stainless equipment cost $$$ and takes up space

 

[aquenne]

Some brew pubs do use serving tanks rather than kegs. But still, very different in design than a conical. Just think very large keg with temperature control.

 

[limulus]

Some brew pubs do use serving tanks rather than kegs. But still, very different in design than a conical. Just think very large keg with temperature control.

Yeah, that was my point. If you could serve directly from the unitank/conical, you would eliminate some expensive and space consuming tanks, i.e. serving tanks.

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

Thanks for the BBT reference, I did not know what those were so I did some research.

So it seems that for a home brewer like myself, if all of the yeast is dumped out once primary and secondary fermentation is complete, then in "theory" you could put the same conical into a stand up kegerator and serve fresh brew right from the conical (after it was carbed via a spunding valve during fermentation).

The only downside for a home brewer would be not having valuable fermenter space while you serve out of it, which leaves a month +/- of no beer on tap while you brew your next batch. So my thought is why not have enough bottles on hand to hold you over for a month while you create the next master piece.

Just a simple thought to simplify my brewing to serving experience.

 

[fakr]

This could work well if you had, lets say 2 conicals. One as a fermenter and the other as a fright tank in a fridge. The bright tank one could be transferred to from the fermenter and would give you a large supply of your favorite session beer. You can then continue to ferment and keg with the other one, making kegs of specialty beer. That wouldnt be a bad idea... But of course you'd need multiple fridges to serve from.

I have 2 brewhemoths and have only really used 1 at a time as my ferm chamber is too small for 2 brewhemoths. Just bought a cooling coil so i'll soon switch to my original plan of fermenting in one and clearing/aging in the other.

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

This could work well if you had, lets say 2 conicals. One as a fermenter and the other as a fright tank in a fridge. The bright tank one could be transferred to from the fermenter and would give you a large supply of your favorite session beer. You can then continue to ferment and keg with the other one, making kegs of specialty beer. That wouldnt be a bad idea... But of course you'd need multiple fridges to serve from.

I have 2 brewhemoths and have only really used 1 at a time as my ferm chamber is too small for 2 brewhemoths. Just bought a cooling coil so i'll soon switch to my original plan of fermenting in one and clearing/aging in the other.

Yes I thought about that too. That does make a lot of sense. I was only planning on having one stand up kegerator but I could ferment in my house which stays right around 72* and then transfer to the kegerator brewhemoth as a serving tank.

If I did that, would you think I could dispense from the dump valve to the tap instead of the racking port since there in theory would not be any yeast in the tank? That would save give me a few more pours out of every batch.

 

[fakr]

I'd probably stick with the racking port. The dead space is only a pint or so out of 20gal.

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

Ok I just got my brewhemoth with spunding valve so I am moving forward on this plan. I just started my first 5 gal batch of belgian wit yesterday! I had good yeast activation prior to pitching so I know its working in there but the spunding valve still shows 0psi after about 30 hrs. My hope was to get between 5-10 psi by the end of secondary so I am concerned that I may not achieve that. I read earlier in the "brewhemoth?" thread that with larger batches they were seeing pressure reaching 5 psi in as little as 24hrs. Maybe 5 gal does not produce enough CO2 in such a large container to raise the pressure to that level? Doses anyone have experience with pressure fermenting 5 gal batches in the brewhemoth that can lend some thoughts?

 

[ChefRex]

Yes I thought about that too. That does make a lot of sense. I was only planning on having one stand up kegerator but I could ferment in my house which stays right around 72* and then transfer to the kegerator brewhemoth as a serving tank.

If I did that, would you think I could dispense from the dump valve to the tap instead of the racking port since there in theory would not be any yeast in the tank? That would save give me a few more pours out of every batch.

What types of beers are you making if you are fermenting at 72F ambient temps?
Would be fine for some styles but pretty limiting.

 

[Ladder23Brewing]

Right now I'm brewing belgian wit's, but I was under the impression that pressure fermentation allowed for warmer fermentation temps?