Spike Conical- observations and best practices

[OakIslandBrewery]

How are we cleaning the lid?
I can clean everything with pretty much just a sponge but the lid takes a a green scrubby to get off the caked on mess. How are you guys going it?

Not sure but I think some of the replies including my own, are talking about something different.

Are you using the Spike Solo with a flat lid or their conical CF# with the doomed lid?

The doomed lid shouldn't be getting much gunk on it from fermentation since it would be over filled past the lid gasket. I could see a build up on a flat lid.

With either as many have stated just wash the lid with something soft or use a CIP. I break down my fermenter after each batch just to make certain is completely clean and sanitized.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I have 2 cf15s and regularly have stuff on the lid. I typically fill to the brim so I expect it, especially with my heavily dry hopped beers because I try to account for all the trub loss... I still just use a washcloth and soap or pbw. Occasionally I will take some bar keepers friend to it if I have some stubborn spots.

 

[Whalewang]

Interesting. I have a CF10, but only ferment 5-gallon batches. Never had anything on the lid. What size is your fermenter, and how big are your batches?

I have a CF15 and transferred ~17 Gallons on the last batch. I feel I need to push that amount because of the losses from the heavy dry hopping rates (last batch was 3 pounds).

 

[WesBrew]

CF10, ferment 5.5g batches most often and never have anything on the lid even with the 10.5g batches. I clean in place with hot water spray, pbw, blue sponge. I use the abrasive side with a light hand on the krausen ring when needed. maybe i could reserve a bucket of condenser water and soak with pbw but so far no scratching.

 

[505-Brewer]

Just picked up 2 CF15 conicals. Going to buy some extra fittings to aid trub dumps and yeast collection. Considering using a reducer to go from 2” valve to 1.5” for sight glass/valve/QD or barb fitting. Any recommendations on staying w 2” vs switching to 1.5” i have the first gen w 1 x 1.5” port up top. Seems like 1.5” would be more useful and interchangeable.

Will start going through this thread but it will take me a while. Cheers.

 

[Nate R]

Just picked up 2 CF15 conicals. Going to buy some extra fittings to aid trub dumps and yeast collection. Considering using a reducer to go from 2” valve to 1.5” for sight glass/valve/QD or barb fitting. Any recommendations on staying w 2” vs switching to 1.5” i have the first gen w 2 1.5” ports up top. Seems like 1.5” would be more useful and interchangeable.

Will start going through this thread but it will take me a while. Cheers.

If i read this post correctly... for trub dumps from the bottom stay with 2"!
A reducer is great- you can remove-add it as needed- assuming you have a valve before the reducer.
Check amazon for super cheap parts... but be wary of whom you by from!

 

[TLaffey]

Just picked up 2 CF15 conicals. Going to buy some extra fittings to aid trub dumps and yeast collection. Considering using a reducer to go from 2” valve to 1.5” for sight glass/valve/QD or barb fitting. Any recommendations on staying w 2” vs switching to 1.5” i have the first gen w 2 1.5” ports up top. Seems like 1.5” would be more useful and interchangeable.

Will start going through this thread but it will take me a while. Cheers.

Congratulations on the new hardware.

I'm fermenting with a CF-5 and a CF-10 and use a 2" to 1.5" offset reducer after the 2" valve to whatever I need downstream. I tried eliminating the 2" valve and using only a 1.5" valve downstream from the reducer and that just clogged with yeast and trub, so not recommended. I have a 1.5" sightglass but didn't find it all that useful and it contributed to some added loss, so I don't use it in that location now.

I found it helpful to have a racking arm on the sample port in addition to the "product" port and have also upgraded to the three port cover.

 

[Merkur]

I have two CF10 fermenters that are in use regularly with 5 (6.1 gallon in fermenter) and 10 (11.1 gallons in fermenter) batches. I typically start fermentation at 2-3 psi and then set it to 5-8 psi at around 80% completion before cold-crashing.

I have the 2" sight glass and butterfly valves at the bottom of the fermenters. I would not recommend reducers are used. I use a 2" Camlock on the end of the 2" elbow and that gives good control over trub dumping. I have successfully dumped the yeast cake but have not reused the yeast. My feeling is that using a 1.5" reducer would cause too much of a restriction and channeling through the yeast bed. In addition you get a much better 'view' of the fermentation activity using the 2" sight glass vs the 1.5".

Paul
Video of setup: Yeast dump

 

[blainem]

Just picked up 2 CF15 conicals. Going to buy some extra fittings to aid trub dumps and yeast collection. Considering using a reducer to go from 2” valve to 1.5” for sight glass/valve/QD or barb fitting. Any recommendations on staying w 2” vs switching to 1.5” i have the first gen w 1 x 1.5” port up top. Seems like 1.5” would be more useful and interchangeable.

Will start going through this thread but it will take me a while. Cheers.

I've been reading the replies to your post. I don't harvest yeast, so I haven't given it too much thought (unlike going down the rabbit hole on every other aspect of my setup). What I find amusing is that I learned the finer aspects of brewing at a local brewery here in Los Angeles (All Season Brewing) by going through two full-day brew sessions. All of their 10 and 20 barrel fermenters have 1.5" ports on the bottom. They quite successfully harvest around 10 gallons of yeast slurry for the 10 barrel fermenters on every batch with no issues whatsoever. The brewmaster there was quite surprised to hear that the Spike conicals have 2" ports at the bottom. And they don't have any site glasses either... they just watch the flow of the slurry through a transparent hose and cut it off once it goes from a cream color to green from the dry hops (for the yeast dumps I observed).

All that said, I do think it's harder to pull this off with a much smaller fermenter like my 5 gal Spike conical.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Just picked up 2 CF15 conicals. Going to buy some extra fittings to aid trub dumps and yeast collection. Considering using a reducer to go from 2” valve to 1.5” for sight glass/valve/QD or barb fitting. Any recommendations on staying w 2” vs switching to 1.5” i have the first gen w 1 x 1.5” port up top. Seems like 1.5” would be more useful and interchangeable.

Will start going through this thread but it will take me a while. Cheers.

I have the older CF10 I bought new with the keg extensions. I kept the 2" dump valve which works fine but I added another elbow to point down, so it's a 90deg. off the bottom of the cone, the valve, then another 90.

I did buy the new lid with the three 1.5" TC. I reused the clear 4" TC in it too.

 

[IDMaynard]

I've been reading the replies to your post. I don't harvest yeast, so I haven't given it too much thought (unlike going down the rabbit hole on every other aspect of my setup). What I find amusing is that I learned the finer aspects of brewing at a local brewery here in Los Angeles (All Season Brewing) by going through two full-day brew sessions. All of their 10 and 20 barrel fermenters have 1.5" ports on the bottom. They quite successfully harvest around 10 gallons of yeast slurry for the 10 barrel fermenters on every batch with no issues whatsoever. The brewmaster there was quite surprised to hear that the Spike conicals have 2" ports at the bottom. And they don't have any site glasses either... they just watch the flow of the slurry through a transparent hose and cut it off once it goes from a cream color to green from the dry hops (for the yeast dumps I observed).

All that said, I do think it's harder to pull this off with a much smaller fermenter like my 5 gal Spike conical.

I have a CF5 and I don't use the sight glass anymore (waste of time), I have a 2" TC to 1/2" hose barb and do just as blainenm said watch the hose to go from cloudy to clear and stop at that point (no muss, no fuss).

 

[505-Brewer]

Thanks to all for the comments and video. I suspect these are easier to fabricate with a 2” opening and that is probably the primary driver there.

Going to get the leg extensions to get the fermenter higher up and create some room underneath.

And either a table or work stand to put a chiller on (want it off the floor between the two fermenters).

Cheers!

 

[sibelman]

10 and 20 barrel fermenters have 1.5" ports on the bottom

I've read that, in homebrew-sized conicals, clogging during yeast dumps can be a real problem that larger (2-inch) tubes/valves mitigate. Maybe the much higher pressure in bigger fermenters prevents those clogs?

 

[blainem]

I've read that, in homebrew-sized conicals, clogging during yeast dumps can be a real problem that larger (2-inch) tubes/valves mitigate. Maybe the much higher pressure in bigger fermenters prevents those clogs?

I think that makes sense.

 

[iandanielursino]

My CF10 always gets clogged really bad I haven't figured it out yet.

I got a filter bag to keep the hops in the kettle though so that might help.

 

[DavidWood2115]

I've read that, in homebrew-sized conicals, clogging during yeast dumps can be a real problem that larger (2-inch) tubes/valves mitigate. Maybe the much higher pressure in bigger fermenters prevents those clogs?

Most 10 barrel conical fermenters have 6'+ of beer above the dump valve, which translates to at least 2.5 PSI. A CF10 has about 24" of beer above the dump valve (depending on valve placement) so less than 1 PSI. I suspect that, plus market differentiation, explains the difference.

I personally close off the blowoff tube on my CF10 as fermentation is winding down and use a spunding valve to raise the pressure to 12 PSI. I place the 2" butterfly valve directly on the bottom of the cone; when dumping, I add an adapter and a 1/2" silicon hose to moderate the flow. I have never had a problem with it clogging (quite the contrary; I have sprayed yeast slurry on the wall more than once).

 

[iandanielursino]

Most 10 barrel conical fermenters have 6'+ of beer above the dump valve, which translates to at least 2.5 PSI. A CF10 has about 24" of beer above the dump valve (depending on valve placement) so less than 1 PSI. I suspect that, plus market differentiation, explains the difference.

I personally close off the blowoff tube on my CF10 as fermentation is winding down and use a spunding valve to raise the pressure to 12 PSI. I place the 2" butterfly valve directly on the bottom of the cone; when dumping, I add an adapter and a 1/2" silicon hose to moderate the flow. I have never had a problem with it clogging (quite the contrary; I have sprayed yeast slurry on the wall more than once).

I think I will do likewise.

 

[beervoid]

Most 10 barrel conical fermenters have 6'+ of beer above the dump valve, which translates to at least 2.5 PSI. A CF10 has about 24" of beer above the dump valve (depending on valve placement) so less than 1 PSI. I suspect that, plus market differentiation, explains the difference.

I personally close off the blowoff tube on my CF10 as fermentation is winding down and use a spunding valve to raise the pressure to 12 PSI. I place the 2" butterfly valve directly on the bottom of the cone; when dumping, I add an adapter and a 1/2" silicon hose to moderate the flow. I have never had a problem with it clogging (quite the contrary; I have sprayed yeast slurry on the wall more than once).

I think another issue is the bigger conicals have much more trub above the dump valve so they likely only run into punching a wall into the trub at the very end of the dump when 90% of the hops are out already.
I noticed that my dumping gets worse towards the end, its almost impossible getting that last bit without huge losses.

 

[iandanielursino]

I think another issue is the bigger conicals have much more trub above the dump valve so they likely only run into punching a wall into the trub at the very end of the dump when 90% of the hops are out already.
I noticed that my dumping gets worse towards the end, its almost impossible getting that last bit without huge losses.

Is the goal to get all the trub out, or just to get it below the racking arm? Isn't anything below the racking arm losses anyways?

 

[sibelman]

the goal

Keeping trub out of the serving vessel is surely the primary goal, but some folks also believe that beer could be improved by reducing the junk in the bottom as much as possible. I don't know whether that belief is important, especially if the beer will be moved off the trub in a reasonable amount of time (whatever that means).

 

[iandanielursino]

That's kind of what I thought, I've heard very different ideas about trub dump, hop isolation, etc. It seems like people have different goals in mind.

 

[sibelman]

I've read a number of posts minimizing the importance of the dreaded autolysis, thought to be more concerning in large commercial fermenters. And some posts regarding the "grassy" effect of (dry) hops over time. And some regarding how easy or hard it can be to dump trub.

All this led me to buy a Flex+ instead of a true conical. No dumping. The serving keg sometimes functions as a secondary. But, to each their own of course.

 

[iandanielursino]

I got a "true" conical vs a conical "bucket" simply to get that nice bottom dump for cleaning lol.

 

[blainem]

Is the goal to get all the trub out, or just to get it below the racking arm? Isn't anything below the racking arm losses anyways?

This. It's why I stopped dumping the trub as I'm able to transfer more beer into the keg. I start with the racking arm pointing up (or higher than level anyway) and as I'm transferring to the keg, I keep lowering it until I start sucking in trub. By completely dumping the trub, I'm leaving good beer in the fermenter. All of the beers I brew never stay in the fermenter more than about 10-12 days, so sitting on the trub doesn't impact the quality of the beer IMO. I've never once had a batch where the trub settled above my initial position of the racking arm after cold crashing, even on heavily dry hopped IPAs.

 

[TLaffey]

Is the goal to get all the trub out, or just to get it below the racking arm? Isn't anything below the racking arm losses anyways?

I agitate the tank with gas bursts from the bottom after dry hopping. If you don't dump trub before DH and the agitate, all that stuff has to settle out again--and it desnt help beer flavor one bit.

 

[We2smart]

I have a CF5 and I don't use the sight glass anymore (waste of time), I have a 2" TC to 1/2" hose barb and do just as blainenm said watch the hose to go from cloudy to clear and stop at that point (no muss, no fuss).

I have a CF5 with 2" bottom port and sight glass. I find the sight glass allows room for more trub and yeast to not affect the beer above. When racking, I have clear beer because the majority of the trub has dropped to lower sight glass and elbow. I also do lose beer when dumping the trub because the clear beer near the end of transfer, drops below the rack arm which becomes a waste unless I dump it from the bottom port. Not worth it.