Pro & Cons of Conicals

[gnef]

I went the middle road with chapman stainless fermenters, which are really just stainless buckets. I have the 14 gallon one, and am quite happy with it. I hope to get another so I can do two batches simultaneously. Right now I still have to use my plastic buckets if I want to brew more often.

I went this route because I was retiring some of my buckets, and was looking at alternatives. I didn't want to pay the cash for the conicals or even some of the more expensive stainless bucket style, and then found the chapman. I've also seen some modifications to use triclamp fittings for racking and CO2 transfers that I'm considering for the future.

I think the chapman stainless fermenters are a great deal, though they have been creeping up the cost the past year. Even with those cost increases, their 14 gallon fermenter is still the best deal out there that I've found.

I might eventually go for a conical in the future if I save enough money, but I really am quite happy with the chapman stainless bucket style.

 

[beerman1957]

The thing about conicals is the fact you can get the dead yeast off the trub and avoid off-flavors dead yeast can give. A SS conical will last a lifetime unless you purposely drop it. If I were to recommend ONE single item in a brewery, it would be an SS conical. Nothing else compares to the ease of use, durability, quality of beer and overall coolness factor. I have NEVER regretted spending money on my SS conical.

 

[swampbrewcrew]

The thing about conicals is the fact you can get the dead yeast off the trub and avoid off-flavors dead yeast can give. A SS conical will last a lifetime unless you purposely drop it. If I were to recommend ONE single item in a brewery, it would be an SS conical. Nothing else compares to the ease of use, durability, quality of beer and overall coolness factor. I have NEVER regretted spending money on my SS conical.

I generally only use a secondary if I'm going to bulk age a batch for awhile, or it's one I plan on entering into a competition. Removing the trub would be awesome and I would probably do it if I didn't have to clean and sanitize everything to do a transfer.

 

[dpinsent]

I purchased a FastFerment conical fermenter and really don't see any advantage over buckets. You have to tape up every part that has a thread and when you're brewing you best make sure you use hop bags or at least strain out all the hops when pouring into the fermenter.

If you use liquid yeast, they're supposed to be quite handy in the harvesting. I wouldn't know because I only ever use dry Safale-US 05 yeast and never bother harvesting. The bottling is a little bit easier. There's no racking necessary however if you bottle condition, be careful not to stir up too much sediment when adding the priming solution.

 

[Jaybird]

You know, I probably *could* put a conical in my upright ferm chamber... Hmmm...

YES YOU CAN! I absolutely LOVE mine!

The 1 thing that I like about the conical is the ability to CIP! 1-2 gallon of PBW connect and turn on the pump and walk away. Same with the Star San. Run the CIP through the plate chiller through the CIP spray head and back to the pump via gravity! I LOVE this system! Almost as much as I love fermenting in a sanke keg

Cheers
Jay

 

[mabrungard]

Stainless has substantial advantage over plastic and glass. Plastic has higher oxygen permeability (I don't think that really matters though) and plastic is more easily scarred and can harbor infections. Glass is plainly a hazard to your health if it breaks.

I've had a Blichmann conical for over a decade, but if I were to be in the market again, I'd get one of those SS Brew Buckets. While you can waste trub and harvest yeast with my conical, I never do. Doing that means that more beer is left in the cone. So, I keep my cone full of yeast and trub and recover that beer.

Not harvesting yeast through the bottom valve is not that big a deal. I can go in through the top of the fermenter and scoop out the slurry I want.

Not having the bottom valve and having a big top lid in the Brew Bucket means that it would meet everything I need in my brewing methods.

Final word: a conical or stainless steel vessel will not make better beer...but they still have advantages.

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

I ferment in stainless only but I don't believe for a minute that it makes a significant difference vs plastic in oxidation. During fermentation, active yeast consume O2 and post FG, I'm transfering my beer pretty quickly. The O2 permeation rate of the plastic isn't that high. Maybe a different story with prolonged residence in plastic.

I firmly believe that improper cold crash, without a seal or CO2 blanket, is a major cause of oxidation, no matter the fermentation material. I've been unfortunate enough (read stupid or forgetful) to run an inadvertant side by side experiment in a split 10 gallon batch in 5 gallon SS primaries. Cold crashing both and forgeting to seal one led to no difference until 2 weeks after tapping with significant difference at 5 week leading to the last gallon or so of the mistake beer getting dumped.

Many homebrewer in an effort to progress, incorporate a cold crash without proper equipment and technique. Clears the beer quicker but sacrifices it's shelf life. Consumed quickly, all is good. But for shelf life, elevate technique.

 

[acmebrew]

I really like to be able to pull the yeast off the bottom of my conical. I'm giving away my carboys, I don't need 'em. I keg right off of my conical. Easy to clean also.

 

[acmebrew]

The only con for a a conical that I can think of is the cost. The SS versions aren't cheap. Well worth it IMO, but pricey for sure.

 

[KEG99]

Seems all the pros and cons have been amply covered in this thread. But still hard to sort it all out. If I had to list one reason I prefer my FastFerment conicals over the glass carboys I used to use, it would be . . .

Safety - I always feared lifting or moving a glass carboy. And after I found out some carboys (the cheaper ones?) have super thin spots that you might not know of that can make the carboy very weak, I decided to get away from glass. One homebrewer on this site got cut bad when one broke in his arms. I thought about PET carboys, but now I really like the conicals for all of the reasons others have noted (in addition to safety).

I use two of the 5 gallon conicals for my 10 gallon batches and have the conicals mounted on the wall. They are a bit cumbersome to lift and place there, but at least I don't have to worry about breakage.

For moving them around, I made the little cart in the attached picture:

 

[bloombrews]

If you think moving to a Coni is just about "cool looks", then think again!
I went from glass carboys, to now 2-14 gallon and 1-7 gallon Ss Conicals. I will never EVER go back to buckets or carboys.
1) Yeast harvesting. You will be hard pressed to ferment any big beers, or Lagers, with stepping up a vial or two. The yeast collected with the use of a Sight Glass at the bottom will kick off a 12% ABV Lager or mega beer in hours!
2) Conicals do not break ! Glass and plastic, good luck!
3) Easy to install a cooling coil for Lagers and Heat Tape around the outside. The coil temp. exchanger is an accessory, but well worth it. I circulate cold water from a corn-keg stored in a converted freezer to cooler, with a $20 submersable magnetic drive pump found on Amazon with a compatable 110 vac to D.C. plug in transformer $9.90. FermWrap is one name of heat tape, but there are other "reptile" heat-tape suppliers, so look around.
4) Easy to move around your brewery with the use of caster wheels on the legs. If it gets a little wobbly, then put some uni-strut "outriggers" on the bottom legs and casters about 6 inches out.
5) Easy to clean by hand, NOT bent brushes and pain in the azz, tipping heavy glass upside down or plastic etching.
6) Accurate temp monitoring through the thermowell, NOT a strap on, hope its themp inside is what it reads outside.....
7) Easy to transfer the beer to bright beer kegs or other. Use CO2 or Nitrogen to push the beer out with about 3 p.s.i. A LOT easier then putting your lips on a hose and trying to siphon the presious liquid out !
8) Very easy to oxygenate through the tri-clamp opening on the top.
9) Much better trub, yeast, and spent hop seperation, due to the conical bottom
10) They look damn awesome, even if the beer inside sucks!
I could keep thinking of more reasons to make the move, but I am out of time......I am building a new Brewery - Bloombrews II, with a walk in cooler, and need to get busy!

 

[tchulski]

I have a few observations from the few times I've used a conical. I have one of the PTFE models the Northern Brewer sells. It has a thermometer well that was tough to seal. It took LOTS of Teflon tape to keep it from leaking wort all down the side. Big advantage is that there's just less work involved. Going from primary to secondary is closing the valve and removing the flask. That's it. No siphoning, cleaning up the carboys, sanitizing everything again. My fermenter has a large hose that connects to the bottom to transfer to your bottling bucket. I've had problems with the valve blocking. I had a recipe with oak chips and sank and blocked the valve. My last batch was dry hopped, and the valve plugged up again. Otherwise, I'm pleased.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I've read all 52 posts and cant find a real reason to spend the money on one or I would. Except the cool factor that doesn't interest me.

Cleaning buckets is stupid easy.
Racking off the yeast cake after a cold crash in a bucket sucks up no yeast unless I suck up every drop and even then its basically nothing.
I been using the same $12 buckets for 2 years AND clean with the abrasive side of a kitchen sponge with no infections.
Conicals seem way harder to lift out of the ferm chamber then a bucket
My beer on tap now was cold crashing for ten days and I never snapped the lid closed on the bucket and its an awesomely smooth beer with no perceived oxidation.
I would think Long term storage and oxidation would be were they shine but who wants to tie up there conical for months. Even then I would rack to a keg purge and store...so I wouldn't need one anyway.
So again...My thinking is its a cool factor

 

[Jaybird]

My thinking is its a cool factor

First time in a long time anyone has called me cool!

I totally hear ya man! I used buckets for 14 years! Liked just about everything about them. I needed some cool factor in my brewery since I hadn't done an upgrade in YEARS!

Cheers
Jay