Spike Conical- observations and best practices

[Blazinlow86]

For those with chillers, can one rig up something from a small dorm fridge to keep the glycol cold(er)?

I've had my eye on these for a couple of years, but don't know if I would want to shell the same amount of money for an additional glycol chiller. The cheapest Penguin chiller can cool 4 conicals. I think one will be all I ever have when I pull the plug, so I wonder if something utilizing a small cheap dorm fridge (or my current keezer) could be made.

The cf5/10/15 all fit in a stand up freezer. It will give you the best cooling with the least power draw in the smallest footprint for the cheapest price. I payed less than 100$ for mine. You also don't need to buy a coil or insulation and can easily heat the freezer as well. You could even do a 3 gallon batch in a cf15 if you wanted too. Cheers

 

[CodeSection]

Some awesome stuff on this thread! Thank you all for sharing. My current dilemma (?) is whether to get the CF5 or CF10. I use the Grainfather right now so I can’t Brew 10G batches but that’s not to say I won’t increase later. I also do a lot of fruited kettle sours and NEIPAs.

I’ve secured my spot with the Stasis Kickstarter glycol chiller. Which is forcing my hand to finally pull the trigger. I don’t believe the stasis has the ability for 10G batches but most people recommend going to a CF10 because it does 5gallon batches. Is this still true? Or are the coils freezing still, since they’re exposed to the air above the wort.

Thanks for helping me! Already a great thread!

I have never heard of the exposed coils over a five gallon brew ever freezing. A well known member here routinely brews five gallons in his CF10 and has never mentioned it....at least I have never come across it if he did.

I agree with @ZmannR2, buy the CF10....it just gives more options on the size of brews and only costs a fraction more....

 

[Jag75]

The cf5/10/15 all fit in a stand up freezer. It will give you the best cooling with the least power draw in the smallest footprint for the cheapest price. I payed less than 100$ for mine. You also don't need to buy a coil or insulation and can easily heat the freezer as well. You could even do a 3 gallon batch in a cf15 if you wanted too. Cheers

Blazin do you think the massive head space in a cf10 or 15 would be an issue with a 5 gallon brew or smaller?

 

[jturman35]

I have the CF5 as I prefer 5 gallon batches even though my brewing system will handle 10g. I get bored drinking the same beer, so it’s all going to boil down to personal preference. With this said I typically brew beers 6-10% abv. I have 4 out of 5 kegs on tap. At the moment I have these below in kegs.

10% Westy 12 Clone
8% Old Chub Clone
9% RIS
5% ESB

Those of you doing 10 gallons are you brewing Pilsners and Light lagers?

 

[Blazinlow86]

Blazin do you think the massive head space in a cf10 or 15 would be an issue with a 5 gallon brew or smaller?

I don't think it would be a issue. I do 10 gallon batches in my cf15 regularly. Fwiw I always seal mine up during active fermentation so I feel the headspace doesn't matter. Additionally I flood with c02 when the ports open and purge after closing. Cheers

 

[Jag75]

I don't think it would be a issue. I do 10 gallon batches in my cf15 regularly. Fwiw I always seal mine up during active fermentation so I feel the headspace doesn't matter. Additionally I flood with c02 when the ports open and purge after closing. Cheers

Cool thanks man

 

[Blazinlow86]

Cool thanks man

Anytime. cheers

 

[KyleF318is]

I have never heard of the exposed coils over a five gallon brew ever freezing. A well known member here routinely brews five gallons in his CF10 and has never mentioned it....at least I have never come across it if he did.

I agree with @ZmannR2, buy the CF10....it just gives more options on the size of brews and only costs a fraction more....

This makes the most sense to me just making sure I’m not over doing it. Thanks for the reinforcement! You guys should have stock in Spike! Haha! Much appreciated to this forum, as usual!! Cheers!

 

[CodeSection]

This makes the most sense to me just making sure I’m not over doing it. Thanks for the reinforcement! You guys should have stock in Spike! Haha! Much appreciated to this forum, as usual!! Cheers!

After rereading your post and my response, I want to clarify what I previously wrote. Just because the cooling coil is exposed in the head space, that in itself does not cause freezing of the coil. The coil would freeze inside the coil if you used too little glycol in your mix. Here is a link to help determine the proper amount https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/propylene-glycol-d_363.html

If you cold crash below 32F (not with a Stasis) a chuck of ice would form on the outside of the cooling coil in the beer depending upon how long you crashed at the lower temp. Unless there is moisture on the upper coil (in the head space), there should not be any real amount ice forming.

So, in deciding between a CF5 and a CF10, you really do not need to worry about any ice issue.

 

[mongoose33]

Blazin do you think the massive head space in a cf10 or 15 would be an issue with a 5 gallon brew or smaller?

The beer doesn't know how large the headspace is. When you have an airlock or airlock jar protecting a fermentation, your headspace is essentially unlimited, i.e., the headspace is the atmosphere.

The only time this is going to matter is if you're fermenting under pressure. In a closed ferm chamber with limited headspace, you can close the fermenter with about 5 points of gravity remaining and that will get you about 2.5 volumes of CO2 (maybe a bit less).

With a larger headspace--such as that in a CF10 with a 5-gallon batch--you'd want to go a bit higher, maybe to 7 points or 8 points remaining, because rather than the small headspace pressurizing and forcing the CO2 into the beer, some of that pressure is lost in the headspace.

Think of it this way: suppose you have a full keg of uncarbonated beer. You apply 30 psi to the keg and then remove the gas. What happens? The small amount of high headspace pressure is quickly absorbed into the beer, and the headspace pressure equalizes with that in the beer. Let's say it provides you with 2 psi.

Now do it again with a keg that has only 1 gallon of uncarbonated beer in it. Apply 30psi; there's a lot more volume of pressure available, and the beer ends up carbonating to a higher pressure, say, 5 psi.

The numbers are guesses, but the point is the same. It's why you can't just pressurize a keg to 30 psi and expect it to carbonate fully. You need to leave the keg on the gas for enough time for that to happen. At 30psi, probably 24 hours give or take.

 

[mongoose33]

The freezing temperature of beer goes down about .8 degrees F for every 1 percent of ABV. So the freezing point of a 6 percent ABV beer would be....27.2 degrees.

When I crash my beer, I usually set my chiller at 28 degrees. All my beers are 5.5% ABV or higher, so I'm not getting ice on my chilling coil.

 

[ZmannR2]

At the moment I have these below in kegs.

10% Westy 12 Clone
8% Old Chub Clone
9% RIS
5% ESB

Those of you doing 10 gallons are you brewing Pilsners and Light lagers?

Most of what I do is IPA's around 6%. But I have the beer in my sig also on tap at the moment (honey hibiscus wit) and a Marzen Oktoberfest in my CF10 at the moment so no I brew all kinds of crazy stuff but my go to is definitely 10 gals of IPA cuz I can knock those back like no one's business, lol.

 

[FswBG]

Some awesome stuff on this thread! Thank you all for sharing. My current dilemma (?) is whether to get the CF5 or CF10. I use the Grainfather right now so I can’t Brew 10G batches but that’s not to say I won’t increase later. I also do a lot of fruited kettle sours and NEIPAs.

I’ve secured my spot with the Stasis Kickstarter glycol chiller. Which is forcing my hand to finally pull the trigger. I don’t believe the stasis has the ability for 10G batches but most people recommend going to a CF10 because it does 5gallon batches. Is this still true? Or are the coils freezing still, since they’re exposed to the air above the wort.

Thanks for helping me! Already a great thread!

Hey I thought I would provide an alternate op from most. I was in the same conundrum a few mos ago when I decided Spike was the conical I wanted.

So yes, you can use a cf10 for 5 gal batches for the off-chance you need more volume out of every x brews. I am at the point I only make 5g because I like variety and I don't drink THAT much too quickly.

Some cons to getting the cf10 for 5g batches.
1) If you get the temp coil it will not cool as efficiently as only the bottom portion of the coil will be submerged in wort.
2) the thermowel is barely at the 5g mark so your temp readings would be off if you are close to the line or after trub dumps. I have heard you can swap the thermowel to another port, but haven't looked into the odd configuration that would take.
3) oxygen... If as you mentioned you may only do 10g batches in the future or as a one off, you will have a lot of headspace in every batch. This not only has the potential or introducing your wort to more oxygen, but again will cause inefficiencies in cooling.

I chose the CF5 and have no regrets. IF I decide to go up to 10g batches in the future I'll look at a second conical. No point in spending the amount of money to then battle with the above if you're not consistently making larger batches. Just my 2c for what it's worth.

Cheers and flamesuit on and ready!

 

[Blazinlow86]

Hey I thought I would provide an alternate op from most. I was in the same conundrum a few mos ago when I decided Spike was the conical I wanted.

So yes, you can use a cf10 for 5 gal batches for the off-chance you need more volume out of every x brews. I am at the point I only make 5g because I like variety and I don't drink THAT much too quickly.

Some cons to getting the cf10 for 5g batches.
1) If you get the temp coil it will not cool as efficiently as only the bottom portion of the coil will be submerged in wort.
2) the thermowel is barely at the 5g mark so your temp readings would be off if you are close to the line or after trub dumps. I have heard you can swap the thermowel to another port, but haven't looked into the odd configuration that would take.
3) oxygen... If as you mentioned you may only do 10g batches in the future or as a one off, you will have a lot of headspace in every batch. This not only has the potential or introducing your wort to more oxygen, but again will cause inefficiencies in cooling.

I chose the CF5 and have no regrets. IF I decide to go up to 10g batches in the future I'll look at a second conical. No point in spending the amount of money to then battle with the above if you're not consistently making larger batches. Just my 2c for what it's worth.

Cheers and flamesuit on and ready!

I agree it you don't end up using the extra capacity the cf10 offers and only do 5g batches the cf5 is the better choice. 10g batches of the same beer can be alot for one person to drink but of course that's different for everyone. Ill probably sell my big system now that it's payed for itself and build a smaller 5g ebiab to allow me to only brew for myself and have a better variety. Long story short I agree bigger isn't always better. Cheers

 

[orono]

New member here and I think this is my first actual post. I hope not to hijack this thread but I do have some questions. Maybe this should be in the equipment thread. And if so, someone please move it for me.

My wife told me to get a hobby and boy oh boy am I getting "deeper" into my hobby. Over the course of the past few weeks I have read this entire thread. I am currently looking into going electric (there will be questions in that thread, too) and adding a Spike conical(s). The reason for the (s) on conical is that I am strongly considering buying 2 right off the bat. However, I'd like opinions on a few things. (1.) So far I have only brewed 5 gallon batches and I do not see myself going to 10 gallons anytime soon. My question is should I buy the CF5 or CF10? (2.) Should I buy 2 right "out of the shoot?" (3.) Currently I ferment in a separate chest freezer from from Keezer and with a CF I will be moving away from fermenting in the chest freezer to fermenting in the CF. I plan on getting the TC bundles w/heating but should I also look into a glycol system? If yes, Penguin brand seems to be a popular/ recommended/reliable system. What other systems should I consider? I will be posting on the equipment thread something like "if money was not in the top 5 of your brewing/BIAB concerns, build me your dream 5 gallon electric BIAB system."

 

[Jag75]

Hey welcome to the forum ! If your not going to be brewing 10 gallons I'd just go with the cf5 . I like making different style beers and 10 gallons would take too long for me to go through. Plus I have a Grainfather so all I do is 5 or 5.5 gallon brews anyways so I went cf5. Is there no way you can use the chest fermenter with the cf5 ? I know lifting will be a pain and if theres no way you have 3 choices . Go with an upright fridge or freezer , buy a glycol chiller or what I and many others did , diy chiller . You wont be disappointed with spike cf models . Its proven to be a smart investment

 

[orono]

Hey welcome to the forum ! If your not going to be brewing 10 gallons I'd just go with the cf5 . I like making different style beers and 10 gallons would take too long for me to go through. Plus I have a Grainfather so all I do is 5 or 5.5 gallon brews anyways so I went cf5. Is there no way you can use the chest fermenter with the cf5 ? I know lifting will be a pain and if theres no way you have 3 choices . Go with an upright fridge or freezer , buy a glycol chiller or what I and many others did , diy chiller . You wont be disappointed with spike cf models . Its proven to be a smart investment

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to hear your opinion on whether to buy 1 or 2?

 

[Jag75]

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to hear your opinion on whether to buy 1 or 2?

If I could afford to have 2 I would get another one lol. I have carboys and a fastferment still as well. Theres only been a few times in which I had 2 fermenters full. It really depends on your brewing schedule. I've done back to back brewing and man it's a long day . Having more then 1 allows you to do that or stagger your brewing a week or so apart .

 

[Blazinlow86]

New member here and I think this is my first actual post. I hope not to hijack this thread but I do have some questions. Maybe this should be in the equipment thread. And if so, someone please move it for me.

My wife told me to get a hobby and boy oh boy am I getting "deeper" into my hobby. Over the course of the past few weeks I have read this entire thread. I am currently looking into going electric (there will be questions in that thread, too) and adding a Spike conical(s). The reason for the (s) on conical is that I am strongly considering buying 2 right off the bat. However, I'd like opinions on a few things. (1.) So far I have only brewed 5 gallon batches and I do not see myself going to 10 gallons anytime soon. My question is should I buy the CF5 or CF10? (2.) Should I buy 2 right "out of the shoot?" (3.) Currently I ferment in a separate chest freezer from from Keezer and with a CF I will be moving away from fermenting in the chest freezer to fermenting in the CF. I plan on getting the TC bundles w/heating but should I also look into a glycol system? If yes, Penguin brand seems to be a popular/ recommended/reliable system. What other systems should I consider? I will be posting on the equipment thread something like "if money was not in the top 5 of your brewing/BIAB concerns, build me your dream 5 gallon electric BIAB system."

I would start with 1 unitank myself before getting in to deep money wise. As exciting as getting into the hobby is you would really need to brew once a week to need a second unitank. That would also mean you need to be drinking 5gal of beer a week otherwise you will quickly get backlogged with beer. The cf5/10/15 can all be cooled with a ice bath,stand up freezer or glycol. I personally feel the freezer is the best choice and that glycol is a overly expensive and complicates way to cool 2-3 cases of beer but alot of people do go that route. Cheers

 

[Jag75]

I would start with 1 unitank myself before getting in to deep money wise. As exciting as getting into the hobby is you would really need to brew once a week to need a second unitank. That would also mean you need to be drinking 5gal of beer a week otherwise you will quickly get backlogged with beer. The cf5/10/15 can all be cooled with a ice bath,stand up freezer or glycol. I personally feel the freezer is the best choice and that glycol is a overly expensive and complicates way to cool 2-3 cases of beer but alot of people do go that route. Cheers

You know what Spike says Blazin......
Your liver will fail before ...... lol

 

[orono]

I would start with 1 unitank myself before getting in to deep money wise. As exciting as getting into the hobby is you would really need to brew once a week to need a second unitank. That would also mean you need to be drinking 5gal of beer a week otherwise you will quickly get backlogged with beer. The cf5/10/15 can all be cooled with a ice bath,stand up freezer or glycol. I personally feel the freezer is the best choice and that glycol is a overly expensive and complicates way to cool 2-3 cases of beer but alot of people do go that route. Cheers

Thanks for your reply. Great advice that I appreciate. Seems I need to re-evaluate my schedule of making beer. By your comment, are you saying that a beer can go from brew day to drinkable in a week in a cf? Wowza, if that's true, I've really been asleep at the switch! I am relatively new to brewing (<2 yrs) and have brewed about 75 batches. They aren't/weren't all for me as I gave a lot of kegs away to friends. I am currently brewing about 3x/mo. I am going through 5 gallons (not all personally consumed) about every 12-15 days. My FIL is one of my largest consumers at about 1.5 gallons/week in growlers. Not included is what he drinks while he is here. I have a 5 tap keezer plus I generally have 1-2 "on deck." Right now I have a petite saison, stout, kolsch, citra pale ale and watermelon kolsch on tap. Plus I have a belgian (about 1 week from ready), an octoberfest and a yuengling clone ready to go. My plans are to brew again Sunday. I think I could keep 2 cf's busy.

My chest freezer is not tall enough to fit a cf. I suppose I could put a collar on it with a fan to move air. If I do that, I would only be able to fit 1 cf in it at a time anyway. I am researching building a walk-in type cooler and serve, store and ferment with it. I have some time to figure out additional temp control situations with dropping temps coming in the near future.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Thanks for your reply. Great advice that I appreciate. Seems I need to re-evaluate my schedule of making beer. By your comment, are you saying that a beer can go from brew day to drinkable in a week in a cf? Wowza, if that's true, I've really been asleep at the switch! I am relatively new to brewing (<2 yrs) and have brewed about 75 batches. They aren't/weren't all for me as I gave a lot of kegs away to friends. I am currently brewing about 3x/mo. I am going through 5 gallons (not all personally consumed) about every 12-15 days. My FIL is one of my largest consumers at about 1.5 gallons/week in growlers. Not included is what he drinks while he is here. I have a 5 tap keezer plus I generally have 1-2 "on deck." Right now I have a petite saison, stout, kolsch, citra pale ale and watermelon kolsch on tap. Plus I have a belgian (about 1 week from ready), an octoberfest and a yuengling clone ready to go. My plans are to brew again Sunday. I think I could keep 2 cf's busy.

My chest freezer is not tall enough to fit a cf. I suppose I could put a collar on it with a fan to move air. If I do that, I would only be able to fit 1 cf in it at a time anyway. I am researching building a walk-in type cooler and serve, store and ferment with it. I have some time to figure out additional temp control situations with dropping temps coming in the near future.

I generally do a 2 week turn around as I don't like sediment I'm my serving kegs however you can definitely do grain to carbonated finished beer in 7 days if it's something simple without dryhops. Maybe even consider doing a cf10 if your brewing for others?

 

[Jag75]

Yeah Blazin makes a good point . If you are brewing that much maybe you should go cf10
Or go big and get 2 cf5 so you can have multiple styles of beers

 

[Bad Bubba]

I have the CF5 as I prefer 5 gallon batches even though my brewing system will handle 10g. I get bored drinking the same beer, so it’s all going to boil down to personal preference. With this said I typically brew beers 6-10% abv. I have 4 out of 5 kegs on tap. At the moment I have these below in kegs.

10% Westy 12 Clone
8% Old Chub Clone
9% RIS
5% ESB

Those of you doing 10 gallons are you brewing Pilsners and Light lagers?

I am in your school of thought. I bought a 14 gal. Chronical because I wanted the flexibility of doing 10 gallon batches. I found that I do not really consume my beer fast enough to need 10 gallon batches. In fact, I now do a lot of 3 gallon batches and I have purchased several 3 gallon kegs. So I am going with the CF5 which will do both my 3 and 5 gallon batches very nicely. Some guys in my homebrew club do 10 gallon but they go through it faster than I do.

 

[Sbe2]

@orono Go with 2 cf5 if you can afford it. I love my cf5 and try to brew every three weeks, trying to keep the cf5 working at all times.

With 2 cf5s you could always brew a ten gallon batch. From what I read you like variety, so go with 2.

 

[Yesfan]

The cf5/10/15 all fit in a stand up freezer. It will give you the best cooling with the least power draw in the smallest footprint for the cheapest price. I payed less than 100$ for mine. You also don't need to buy a coil or insulation and can easily heat the freezer as well. You could even do a 3 gallon batch in a cf15 if you wanted too. Cheers

Was that $100 for a used one? If not, got a link?

 

[Blazinlow86]

Not to beat a dead horse here but again unless you brew every week I can't see how having a second one will be that useful unless your typically doing lagers that you want to age in the fermentor for extended periods. 5 gallons twice a month is 120 gallons per year or 120 beers to be consumed per month. Myself personally I enjoy brewing but doing it once a week would be too much imo. Cheers

 

[Sequoiacider]

I recently got a CF10, and am very happy with that size. For me, a smaller fermenter would have been a poor choice. Regardless of how much I am drinking it seems like there is never enough. There is always high demand from family, friends and coworkers. I also do a lot of bartering with people for other homemade products.

My understanding is that there are no problems with doing smaller 5 gallon batches in the CF10. You can pretty easily purge the O2 with CO2 to limit/eliminate the starting oxygen in the headspace if desired.

I'd recommend the bigger size to start. I feel like a recurring story from brewers of all sizes is wishing they had more capacity. A much less common (or even non-existent) complaint is brewers wanting less capacity than they have.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Was that $100 for a used one? If not, got a link?

It was used from a guy in my homebrew club . I've seen them on Craigslist pretty regularly for similar pricing. Brand new ones are pretty expensive. Cheers

 

[NeoBrew]

From your first question I was leaning toward suggesting getting one conical to start with, but seeing how much you brew and give away, two might make sense for you.

For my own brewing I don't count on turning around beer in 1 or 2 weeks, but I'm brewing more like once a month or a little less. I tend to let time do it's work and transfer clearer beer to the keg. fwiw.

If you are really doing this much brewing and giving away beer, maybe you should buy one 10 gallon conical and one 5 gallon conical? Then you would have options to do larger batches of beers that are popular amongst your freeloaders. lol

 

[ZmannR2]

My question is should I buy the CF5 or CF10? "

I just don't see the point in not future proofing your system.......one of my biggest regrets was buying all new equipment to go from 5 to 10 gal batches.......new boil kettle, new fermenter, etc.....I dunno, maybe me and my buddies drink beer WAAAAY faster than y'all but I'll float a 5 gal corny at one Fantasy football draft party/BBQ. That's not worth the entire Saturday afternoon I spent brewing IMO.

So my advice, get the CF10.....you even mentioned whether you should buy 2. Just get the 10 and it's a 2 in 1

 

[ZmannR2]

So I have a Marzen that is lagering in my CF10 on the yeast cake.....my plan is to leave it for 3 weeks....any issues just leaving it in the CF or should I rack it to kegs and lager in those instead?

 

[logdrum]

So I have a Marzen that is lagering in my CF10 on the yeast cake.....my plan is to leave it for 3 weeks....any issues just leaving it in the CF or should I rack it to kegs and lager in those instead?

Why not drop the yeast from the dump valve?

 

[Jag75]

So I have a Marzen that is lagering in my CF10 on the yeast cake.....my plan is to leave it for 3 weeks....any issues just leaving it in the CF or should I rack it to kegs and lager in those instead?

I have been following this Lager schedule and have been very pleased. Pitch yeast and check the gravity with a hydrometer in about 5-7 days . Once the fermentation is about 75% complete ramp up your temp about 4 degrees a day until your at 66 degrees . Leave at 66 for 3 days . Then start dropping your temp 4 degrees a day until you get 36-38 degrees then keg. So that's roughly 3 weeks in the FV.

 

[mongoose33]

Hey I thought I would provide an alternate op from most. I was in the same conundrum a few mos ago when I decided Spike was the conical I wanted.

So yes, you can use a cf10 for 5 gal batches for the off-chance you need more volume out of every x brews. I am at the point I only make 5g because I like variety and I don't drink THAT much too quickly.

Some cons to getting the cf10 for 5g batches.
1) If you get the temp coil it will not cool as efficiently as only the bottom portion of the coil will be submerged in wort.

Well, not as efficiently as if the entire coil was submerged, but...it cools well enough. I've done both 5 and 10 gallon batches in mine, the cooling effectiveness is about the same.

2) the thermowel is barely at the 5g mark so your temp readings would be off if you are close to the line or after trub dumps.
I have heard you can swap the thermowel to another port, but haven't looked into the odd configuration that would take.

I use a TILT hydrometer in mine--it reports both gravity and temp. I've found, with 5-gallon batches, that the temp the TILT reports is the same as the temp probe in the thermowell.

Further, during active fermentation, which is when we most want temp control, that yeast is roiling up the wort quite a bit. In other words, the wort isn't static, it's being mixed.

As far as moving the thermowell--it's not a problem for me with 5-gallon batches, so I'm not touching it--you could install it in the sample valve location.

But again--I have an independent assessor of temp (the TILT) and it's not been an issue for me.

3) oxygen... If as you mentioned you may only do 10g batches in the future or as a one off, you will have a lot of headspace in every batch. This not only has the potential or introducing your wort to more oxygen, but again will cause inefficiencies in cooling.

We're going to have to disagree about this. When you start, yes, the headspace is full of air, 21 percent of which is oxygen. Of course, some of that is absorbed into the wort, which is what you want so the yeast has something to work with. Further, if we're using liquid yeast, we oxygenate--oxygenate--the wort. If this was a problem, it'd be a problem with starters, with those who just use pails or plastic fermenters, with virtually all brewing. Not a lot of evidence of that. None, in fact, that I can think of.

Further, as fermentation starts, the yeast produces copious amounts of CO2, which blows out any remaining air. Yeah, it takes a day, but early in the fermentation, yeast isn't having a problem with this, and neither is your beer.

By the end of fermentation, you can expect the entire headspace to be nothing but CO2. For each 2 points of gravity the yeast consumes, it produces about 1 volume of CO2. So if your beer starts, say, at 1.055 and ends at 1.015, that's 40 points. Divided by 2 is 20. Suppose you have 5.5 gallons. Multiply it out and your yeast is producing 110 gallons of CO2, which is flushing the headspace.

If, still, this is a concern, you can purge the headspace with CO2, but why I don't know. You *want* the yeast to be happy.

I chose the CF5 and have no regrets. IF I decide to go up to 10g batches in the future I'll look at a second conical. No point in spending the amount of money to then battle with the above if you're not consistently making larger batches. Just my 2c for what it's worth.

I've brewed a TON of excellent beer with my CF10, most of which have been 5-gallon batches. These battles to which you refer? I have never had to fight them.

 

[Jag75]

You have to come to a conclusion on what and how much you want to and are willing to brew. For instance , I use the Grainfather. I have no desire or inclination that I will move up to a bigger brewing system. So with that conclusion I went cf5. I've done back to back brews and hated it . Took way too long . I'd be more likely to brew 5 gallon batch on Saturday then brew a different 5 gallon batch in a few days or a week later then back to back again. So for me it be best to have multiple FV. You have to do what's best for you and your ways.

 

[Sequoiacider]

I've agree with everything Mongoose is saying. Add in all that to the fact that the CF10 gives you double the capacity of the CF5 for only ~20% more cost with almost the same amount of floor space used, and it seems like the way to go.

I guess if money and floor space are not concerns, then I suppose 2 CF5 vessels makes sense, but if that were the case then it seems that one CF5 and one CF10 would make more sense.

 

[ZmannR2]

Why not drop the yeast from the dump valve?

Further loss of beer, further influx of oxygen pulled into the blow off tube?

 

[logdrum]

Further loss of beer, further influx of oxygen pulled into the blow off tube?

I see, I got the gas manifold for this (and a couple other) reason(s). I've been scrubbing my target kegs w fermentation c02 out of my Speidel, and plan on doing the same w the CF-10; also pressure transfers.

 

[mongoose33]

Further loss of beer, further influx of oxygen pulled into the blow off tube?

You can resolve the "pulling in oxygen" issue if you have a pressure manifold on the fermenter and, with the conical closed up, add just a couple PSI of CO2 pressure as you dump the yeast.