So just kegged up the first beer from this system. Pitched chico slurry from a brewpub and it fermented out in 3 days. Let it go for a couple more and then dry-hopped for a day, cold crashed for a day and just kegged with some more keg dry hops. First time trying a short dry-hop after seeing that brulosophy post. Anyways, kegged 8 days after brewing -- think that's the quickest I've done (normally do more like 10 days for my lower-range stuffs), but excited to see how pungent the hops will be on such a young pale.
So the brew was a complete dream -- got 75% with mill just on default settings, full-volume no sparge BIAB. I might try to tighten up the mill a bit and try to hit closer to 80. Not on the next brew though since it's an English Mild and I dont want it getting higher than expected. Brew after that is a big RIS so I'll try it then, as well as a reserve gallon or two of sparge.
The conical cooling system worked well. I opened the top a couple of times and stuck a thermometer down in the wort and it was fairly consistent. Towards the end I turned the heat on to get it to 70-72 and I did have issues there. My probe was reading 71 at one point, while the beer was at 74 top center, 77 on the top sidewalls. I am debating on installing thermowells versus just being weary of the heat-variance. Maybe the next time I try to raise it up for a 72F finish I will just kick it up to 68 or somethin.
So the main thing -- I accomplished Easy Brewing for sure. Brew day was quick and painless. The ratcheting pulley was super easy and I just let the bag hang and drip-dry, then I emptied it into a trash bag. Rinsed with a hose and hung it up. After draining to my conical I removed the TC element and disconnected the RTD probe, sprayed BK out with the hose and then took a sponge and a little PBW to it, sprayed out again. All told it was probably a thirty second cleaning for the bag, and another thirty seconds for the kettle. Oh, my insulated box idea worked... OK. Not as good as planned. There's a couple of inches of space around the bottom that the box doesnt reach down to, so this weekend I'm going to wrap the pot in a blanket first and then put the box on and see.
Loved the conical too. Dumping trub was easy. Pulling hydrometer samples was easy. Racking to a keg was easy. One thing is I'll have to learn a schedule for the racking. I think I wasted a bit of beer dumping too often. Didnt harvest yeast on this one since I still have a pint of chico slurry from the brewpub. After I racked cleaning was about the same as my brew kettle. Sprayed it out with a hose really well, took a sponge and some PBW to it, sprayed again. Never going back to carboys, tell you that.
