Grainfather Conical Transfer

[RStolz]

Hello everyone!
I recently became the proud father (owner) of a Grainfather Conical Fermentor. Love my first use so far. However, when brewing the other day I started thinking about a less laborious way of transferring my sort from the brew kettle to the fermentor that requires less lifting and gravity feeding.

Does anyone have a good idea or ideas for transferring the chilled wort into the fermentor? A pump system? Closed transfer system? (Although unnecessary cause I’ll have to dump yeast in anyways and aerate the wor).

I know grainfather has a closed CO2 transfer system for bottling and kegging.

anyways, just some thoughts. Welcome input!
Cheers!
Rick

 

[Jag75]

What kettle set up do you have?

How far is your kettle to the fv? Is your fv on casters?

 

[RStolz]

The kettle is just a 8 gal. SS brew kettle with a ball valve and hose barb on the front.
Right now the kettle and fermentor are within a foot of each other for transfer but ideally, if I’d love to be able to transfer over longer distances….maybe across a room? But, if anything a few feet.

 

[Jag75]

You could use a pump. I have the Grainfather and run wort through the cfc then to my Cf5. Pumps make things a lot easier.

 

[RStolz]

Would a pump be able to transfer from the brew kettle outside to the fermentor inside? Say….40ish feet? I mean, would the pump be that strong?

 

[Jag75]

Would a pump be able to transfer from the brew kettle outside to the fermentor inside? Say….40ish feet? I mean, would the pump be that strong?

I'm not sure tbh. That's a good ways away. Maybe someone here that does this can give some advice.

 

[RStolz]

Understand that. I want to move it from my brew kettle outside to my fermentor inside. Welcome any thoughts from others. I’m guesstimating the distance cause I’m not home at the time.

 

[Jag75]

Can you put your fv on casters to roll? Then you could roll out to transfer via pump , then roll inside .

My fv has casters and I do the same . I prefer that over pumping a long distance. However you gotta do what works best for you.

 

[RStolz]

Certainly could be an option if the long pump idea doesn’t work. Right now I just have the grainfather sitting up higher on a table for easier access to the sampling ports.

 

[Nagorg]

A pump is generally only restricted by the "lift" distance. How high it has to push the liquid up. 40 feet is a decently long horizontal distance but the pump should do that with ease. The distance from the floor to the inlet of your conical and the actual height of the liquid as the conical fills is the most important factor here.
I pump from my kettle to my conical over ~15-20 feet no problem with a chugger and can fill a half barrel conical with ease.
Of course, the longer your hose, the more wort will be wasted in the tubing... But thats easy enough to compensate for.

 

[Nagorg]

Here's my post about this setup. Looking at the pic, its probably more like 10-15 feet but I'd feel good about a longer distance if needed.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/finally-using-my-half-barrel-bme-chronical.579210/#post-7516839

 

[RStolz]

Thanks for that! Just measured and it would be about 34 feet horizontal and about seven feet of elevation at the end where the fermentor is. Just want to know if I can get a pump that would be that strong.
Also, couldn’t you just disconnect the tube at the pump and carry, dump into the fermentor?

 

[Nagorg]

Reading up on this, what I'm referring to as "lift" looks to be called "Head" or "Feet of Head" in pump jargon.

You haven't mentioned a specific pump so I'll refer to Chugger since that's what I have and its a popular choice. Chugger has a specs sheet that lists a max head of 18ft. So I'd expect a Chugger should have no problem filling your conical that's about 7 feet above the floor.

Referenced spec sheet for Chugger Pump.

And the Blichmann Riptide references 21 feet of head for comparison.

And sure, you could dump whats in the hose into the fermenter. But I'm not sure that would be so easy to manage given the length of the hose and other aspects of this. I think I'd just accept the loss and increase my batch size to compensate for it.

Using an online calculator for the volume of a 34 ft long 1/2" hose, it looks like that's an increase of ~.347 gallons or ~44.4 Fluid Ounces or 3.7 12oz beers!

 

[RStolz]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[Cloud Surfer]

I transfer wort from my BrewZilla to my Grainfather conical using the pump and CFC. The CFC is one of my favourite bits of gear because of how easy it makes transferring cooled wort into the fermenter. I do have them next to each other for the transfer, and I doubt the pump could push through the CFC and then a long distance into the fermenter.

Get the pressure transfer kit as well, one of my other favourite bits of gear. Once the wort is in the Grainfather my entire process is low oxygen all the way into bottle.

 

[freecalculatorskit]

I use CO2 pressure transfer to move the beer into kegs cleanly and without oxygen exposure. Here’s the step-by-step I follow:

1. Sanitize everything thoroughly — keg, lines, fittings, and transfer kit.
2. Connect the transfer kit (Grainfather’s Pressure Transfer Kit works great) to the lid of the fermenter.
3. Set a very low CO2 pressure (around 1–2 PSI) to gently push the beer out. This avoids foaming and keeps things smooth.
4. Purge the keg with CO2 first to minimize oxygen pickup.
5. Slow and steady transfer into the keg, watching carefully to avoid over-pressurizing.

This method gives me clear beer with minimal oxidation every time.
If you don’t have a pressure transfer kit, you can also gravity transfer using sanitized tubing, but just make sure to minimize splashing to reduce oxygen exposure.


Hope this helps — happy brewing!

 

[day_trippr]

"Purge the keg with CO2 first to minimize oxygen pickup."

Very difficult to do well, it takes a prodigious amount of CO2 to actually purge a volume to an acceptably low O2 ppm...

Cheers!

 

[Whisky River]

One thing you might consider if you’re thinking about doing a 40 foot transfer is how you’re going to keep your 40 foot hose absolutely clean and sanitized. I have a hard time drying out 6 foot hoses I’m not sure what cleaning technique would make me sure enough that I got the hose clean and dry all the way along, for me to be comfortable running chilled wort through a hose that long. It kind of reminds me of my CFC which I love and do my very best to clean and dry but I just moved it this weekend after not using it for several months and sure enough a bunch of water came out.

Maybe you could recirculate through the hose during the boil, but would the liquid temp be at the far end be enough to sanitize it? IDK but it might be something to think about before you start fighting infections.

 

[hungupdown]

The OP, about four years ago, was wanting to transfer from brew kettle to fermenter.
But perhaps he'll be transferring that batch, to Kegs by now.