Homebrewdude Review of Spike CF10 Conical

[homebrewdude76]

I agree the beer is down...
But during fermentation the krausen rises then subsides.
This layer of gunk is the most difficult to clean.

It is always typical to scrub this area, not the bottom portion where the liquid sits.
This is common for brewing in buckets or conicals.

Hmm maybe I'm having some lingering affects from last nights home brew but the Spike looks much better to me. The spray pattern looks wider and more powerful. The other ball looks like it has about a 6" spray diameter. Also it looks like 50% of the spray would be directed straight up (towards the lid). I don't know about you but my beer is held at the bottom of my fermenter

 

[homebrewdude76]

I brewed another batch for the conical, a big barleywine. 12gal worth
Fermented some time with my temp control - no major issues.
My sample port clogged, had to blow backwards to clear it out.

I then dropped temp for 2 weeks to 45F

Today I "dumped" the yeast trub. What a solid mess.
I rocked the valve back and forth, and it slide ride out. 2" solid mass.

So, I can see why the 2" bottom port now.

In a few weeks I will rack and then try to CIP this barleywine mess of trub.

 

[homebrewdude76]

I am going to post some photos, then say what I did different....

This almost 30 days of Barleywine fermentation

 

[homebrewdude76]

I removed the lid for inspection and photos.
In the future, I don't see a need to remove the lid.

This is after 20min of the pump running.

 

[bnachtig]

I removed the lid for inspection and photos.
In the future, I don't see a need to remove the lid.

This is after 20min of the pump running.



What did you do different??

 

[homebrewdude76]

Oxyclean.... worked like magic.

 

[stux]

Oxyclean.... worked like magic.

So, basically the problem was the little yellow packet? I always use PBW for my brewery washes. I'm guess one of the active ingredient is probably the same as Oxyclean. Sodium Percarbonate.

Here's a quote from another board

The short answer is that Oxyclean and PBW have an ingredient in common - sodium percarbonate. Oxy is a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium percarbonate. Sodium carbonate is a decent cleaner, but the big player is the percarbonate. It releases oxygen in water, making bubbles and acting as a bleaching agent. PBW is somewhere around 1/3 sodium percarbonate, with the bulk of the remainder sodium metasillicate. The metasillicate is the real star of the PBW mixture, contributing most of the soak-clean power. Basically, with Oxy it will get clean, but you'll have to mechanically scrub more. PBW will dissolve almost anything organic with a long, hot soak - with no or very little scrubbing required.

(just researching unitanks...)

 

[augiedoggy]

I agree the beer is down...
But during fermentation the krausen rises then subsides.
This layer of gunk is the most difficult to clean.

It is always typical to scrub this area, not the bottom portion where the liquid sits.
This is common for brewing in buckets or conicals.

I agree, most of the required cleaning power is needed for the krausen ring left towards the top. this is what has been exposed to drier conditions and left to harden in the fermenter. the area submerged by beer usually rinses clean with little effort.

I can say a powerful pump for the spray ball makes a huge difference in cip cleaning power. We use plastic conicals at the brewpub and you can see how much faster a 3/4hp pump clean vs the 17gpm pump we tried which took for ever by slowly dissolving and rinsing more than actually spraying clean with mechanical force.