Fermenter shape.

[Jokester]

I am trying to get a fermenter that has a conical or tent shaped top.
Is there such an animal ? I think the smaller surface area and the fact that it has low volume for height up there would fill it with co2 faster and hence serve to be more sanitary from wild bacteria/yeast incursion.

Is that right or am I missing something ?

Cool.
Srinath.

 

[Vale71]

You're missing the fact that most beer infections are anaerobic so removing oxygen faster would actually only favor them. But you do get points for inventiveness...

 

[McKnuckle]

Also, infections take place in the liquid, not the headspace, so how quickly the latter fills is irrelevant.

 

[Jokester]

Yea, I guess I have been too focused on hyper fermenting a carbonated beer.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

[Jokester]

I am seeing some nice dome top ones, but that brings up the next stupid question, 3gal and the next one up is 7.9 gal ? 5gal is conspicuously absent. Any reason ? I would guess, 5gal is over 80lb, in a simple plastic bottle its barely liftable by adult weakling male, so 3gal with the stand and fittings would be movable by nearly anyone, while 7.9 is for "bring the fork lift" situation. Is that right ? or am I missing something again.

Cool.
Srinath.

 

[Robert65]

Most people are brewing to end up with either 5 gallons or 2.5 gallons packaged. Those sizes are oversized sufficiently to provide necessary room for headspace and expected losses in trub, etc. for those size batches.

 

[Jokester]

Oh OK that's the math involved. Thanks much.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

[marjen]

Yeah for 5 gallon batches you need 7-8 gallon for headspace for fermentation and losses as explained above. Otherwise a mess will ensue, trust me.

 

[Jokester]

Ok so here comes the next bright idea. We should have a set of scales to sit these fermenters on. Of course overflows and spills will mess up the weight = gravity style measurement, but lets say you start at 90lb container and all. As it ferments co2 is getting out, law of conservation of whatever would make the bucket lighter and lighter. Say you hit 85lb, and it stays there say 3 days. You know its done fermenting then, no need to have to break the seal to know its gravity via hydrometer. Of course you need real real accurate scales, not this .2 lb and 2 consecutive times I stand on it it may be 1-2lb off, just seconds apart - that wont work. Ofcourse smaller kitchen scales are more accurate, even down to a 10'th of a gram, but they usually top out at 5lb, not even capable of measuring 1 gal.

Cool.
Srinath.