Spike Conical- observations and best practices

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- sanitize, reattach, open site glass valve. After some time, will I have to dump another site glass full of yeast?
Since you have a 2" valve after the site glass, I would dump yeast with the site glass attached. As long as you are pushing CO2 through the top gas manifold you should have positive pressure reducing/eliminating O2 intake. If you take the site glass off you'll want to make sure to purge it thoroughly with Co2 before opening the value between it and your tank bottom. If you don't, all of the O2 will go straight into your brew.

I had to get leg extensions to make enough room for the site glass, value and connector that is hooked to 3" tubing to dump yeast / hops. Still a super tight fit.
 
Do you use a hose to drain the trub/yeast/hops? Any trouble with the dry hops clogging standard 1/2” silicone tubing?

I got the gas QD x 2” TC so it’s pretty easy to purge the empty space with CO2 while reattaching. I’ve done 2 trub dumps by taking off the site glass, it’s an art form. If the tubing doesn’t clog, that way appears to be simpler.
 
Do you use a hose to drain the trub/yeast/hops? Any trouble with the dry hops clogging standard 1/2” silicone tubing?

I got the gas QD x 2” TC so it’s pretty easy to purge the empty space with CO2 while reattaching. I’ve done 2 trub dumps by taking off the site glass, it’s an art form. If the tubing doesn’t clog, that way appears to be simpler.
I use a 3 inch piece of silicon tubing when I do my yeast and hop dumps and I haven't had a problem so far (and i brew with a LOT of hops). I keep positive pressure on the conical at about 5 psi and VERY slowly open by botton valve until I get things flowing. Be ready to shut the valve at a moments notice if things start flowing too fast.

I usually end up doing 2-3 smaller dumps for both yeast and hops over a day or 2 to allow things that go stirred up to settle back down. I've found this is effective in getting everything out without losing too much beer.
 
+1 to what @kingmatt said, with 5psi open the valve a very small amount and wait for it to do its thing, otherwise the liquid will just punch a hole through the trub/yeast rather then pushing it out. I use a length of 1/2 silicone and have not had an issue doing it this way. I dump some trub before I soft crash and again after a good 36 to 48 hour soft crash. Then I dry hop. I find it easier to dump yeast if I get some trub out before the soft crash.
 
Yeah, I'm one of them. I haven't had time to update here until now. I did hear back after 3 weeks, and like you I was getting frustrated. What I was told was this was a supplier/material issue with the gasket, which is somehow causing poor gasket fitment and thus leaks. They offered me a temporary replacement, which sounds like you may have received, while they are waiting on properly spec'd lid gaskets (1-2 month lead time).

The temp lid has the gasket permanently siliconed in place, and they claim it's able to achieve the 15PSI seal. I opted not to have them ship me a temp lid and gasket (waste of resources for the couple of beers I could ferment in 1-2 months). Instead I will have to carb the slow way in my kegs. Not the ideal experience when buying a shiny new toy, but I now better understand why it was taking them some time to get to an answer.

Looking forward to my first conical fermentation this weekend!
New replacement gaskets are in. Got mine in the mail today. They no longer have a flat side and a pointed side but now both sides have the same point. Will pressure test it tomorrow but went in just as easy as the old style. Tried my best to get a photo - new on left old on right.
 

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Question about the dry hop dump set up and operation. I developed a very similar hop dump rig as shown in the last 3-4 pages (all 1-1/2 inch hardware). I did some "dry run" tests with hops prior to an actual brew, and found that I could not get the hops to drop. I tapped, pounded, worked the valve, etc., and they just sat in the site glass. I have been thinking about going to a 2" site glass with a reducer attaching to the 1-1/2" lid fitting, but before going to that expense (given the uncertainty of whether that would even work), I thought I would ask you who are successfully dropping with 1-1/2" rigs what your experience and secret of success has been in doing so. Thx.

[I have NOT read ALL 77 pages of posts, so apologies if this has been covered previously.]
 
Question about the dry hop dump set up and operation. I developed a very similar hop dump rig as shown in the last 3-4 pages (all 1-1/2 inch hardware). I did some "dry run" tests with hops prior to an actual brew, and found that I could not get the hops to drop. I tapped, pounded, worked the valve, etc., and they just sat in the site glass. I have been thinking about going to a 2" site glass with a reducer attaching to the 1-1/2" lid fitting, but before going to that expense (given the uncertainty of whether that would even work), I thought I would ask you who are successfully dropping with 1-1/2" rigs what your experience and secret of success has been in doing so. Thx.

[I have NOT read ALL 77 pages of posts, so apologies if this has been covered previously.]
I open an close my valve repeatedly and that is usally enough to get them to drop. If not, I have a rubber mallet handy and tap the reducer (not too hard!) repeatedly while opening and closing the valve and then has always worked to get them all to drop.
 
Question about the dry hop dump set up and operation. I developed a very similar hop dump rig as shown in the last 3-4 pages (all 1-1/2 inch hardware). I did some "dry run" tests with hops prior to an actual brew, and found that I could not get the hops to drop. I tapped, pounded, worked the valve, etc., and they just sat in the site glass. I have been thinking about going to a 2" site glass with a reducer attaching to the 1-1/2" lid fitting, but before going to that expense (given the uncertainty of whether that would even work), I thought I would ask you who are successfully dropping with 1-1/2" rigs what your experience and secret of success has been in doing so. Thx.

[I have NOT read ALL 77 pages of posts, so apologies if this has been covered previously.]
I never had success with a 1.5" valve, so went to 2" as you are thinking. I posted a photo in #2661 (Spike Conical- observations and best practices) I still occasionally need to use a rubber mallet on the valve to get pellets dropping.
 
Anyone using their cooling coil setup to keep the fermenter temp warm in cooler months? E.g. An immersion water heater in a small cooler.
 
I don't see this prv having an issue with clogging, personally I have the 3 port lid and I fill my cf15 pretty high and get blow off a lot of the time. So that's why I use the the blow off tube. I also have my prv on a riser to keep any foam from climbing into it. View attachment 778619
I might go with this setup with the valve/blowoff. I noticed that even if you drain the sanitizer cup there is still some on top of the plunger that goes into the fermenter along with whatever else. This way you can use the blowoff to dump the pressure instead
 
So I have had my CF5 for a couple of years now but recently my fermentation fridge/kegerator died so rather than replace it I purchased an Icemaster max 2 and a chilling coil from spike. I modified my max 2 for heating using this video:



And I have been quite pleased with how it came out.

Unfortunately I leak tested the chiller but not the coils, I was so excited when they came in I just brewed a beer and threw it in there after cleaning. I swapped out my blow off this morning to start spunding with my fancy new PRV only to find the vessel wasn't holding pressure after a few hours. I goosed the pressure manually only to hear bubbles coming out of my glycol chiller. After disassembling the whole rig I found a pinhole leak at where the welds hold the coils to the lid. Since the batch got 1/4 gallon or so of glycol solution in it I very sadly dumped it this morning, my first ever dumper. Super disappointing.

Spike asked me to send them a video of the leak but then promptly setup a replacement order. Which of course is amazing, but dumping my first batch and losing my brew day was pretty demoralizing. Hopefully they ship out the replacement soon and I can actually play with my new toys.
 
I'm experiencing something similar. Spike CF15 with racking arm and PRV. Gas is leaking out somewhere, but I can't locate it. It seems to be on or near the PRV. Hopefully I don't get glycol leaking into the beer and ruin the batch like yours.
 
I had an issue when I first got my all in 1 prv and it was slowly leaking from the plunger that you push down to release pressure. I had to kinda mess with that plunger a little to get it to seal.
I had to take the ball lock post off the PRV a few times and retape it before i could get it to seal as well. Spraying with starsan always showed a very small leak until i got the thread tape just right.

On a side note i got my new chilling coil in and this one seems fine, I have a new batch fermenting and it's now holding pressure fine and not leaking.
 
Hey all, I'm transferring from a conical to kegs with ball locks and it's going SUPER slow. I put 15 psi pressure on the tank and the receiving keg has a spunding valve on it that releases under 5psi. I'm using the evabarrier 3/8" the biggest diameter they have and the line is short.
Are any other people experiencing the same?
How did you solve this?
I'd like to keep the ball locks as they make purging some much easier.
Cheers!
 
I use ball lock connections as well when racking to kegs. I use gravity and the conical is under 10-12 psi. I use a jumper line (gas post on top of the fermenter to the gas post on keg) to equalize the pressure between the two vessels. My racking tubing is similar to yours… never had a problem. I would check to see if there is a blockage in the ball lock poppet. If some hop debris gets in there, the flow will slow or stop.
 
I use ball lock connections as well when racking to kegs. I use gravity and the conical is under 10-12 psi. I use a jumper line (gas post on top of the fermenter to the gas post on keg) to equalize the pressure between the two vessels. My racking tubing is similar to yours… never had a problem. I would check to see if there is a blockage in the ball lock poppet. If some hop debris gets in there, the flow will slow or stop.
I did check that and when there is debris I clear it but it doesnt improve transfer much. I can barely see the level rise, never timed it but one keg takes at least 10-15 mins I think.

Is your conical higher then your keg?
I'm thinking cause my racking arm is low and it has to push the beer up it makes it slower.
 
My guess is that some fine particles have clogged up your liquid disconnect or the liquid post on your keg. Clean them out, re-sanitize, and start the transfer again. This happens to me when transferring IPA's with a large dry hop or fruited Sours.
 
Yeah, my conical is higher than my keg. 10-15 mins to fill a keg isn't bad. You want a gentle transfer with minimal splashing. I haven't timed my kegging process but 10-15 mins seems about right to me.
 
SUPER slow.
As @ShaLaH said, 10-15 minutes is fine -- high speed could involve foaming. In my experience, your "SUPER slow" speed is actually kinda fast and does not indicate a problem. With 5mm EVAbarrier and ball-locks, my transfer time (with keg and fermenter at the same level and only <5 psi added pressure) is more like 20 minutes.
 
I did check that and when there is debris I clear it but it doesnt improve transfer much. I can barely see the level rise, never timed it but one keg takes at least 10-15 mins I think.

Is your conical higher then your keg?
I'm thinking cause my racking arm is low and it has to push the beer up it makes it slower.
Yes, I use 2.5 gallon kegs and they are positioned lower than the racking arm. Maybe pull on the keg PRV to see if that helps. If it does, it might point to your spunding valve.
 
As @ShaLaH said, 10-15 minutes is fine -- high speed could involve foaming. In my experience, your "SUPER slow" speed is actually kinda fast and does not indicate a problem. With 5mm EVAbarrier and ball-locks, my transfer time (with keg and fermenter at the same level and only <5 psi added pressure) is more like 20 minutes.
ok so it sounds like those lines are just very slow, the thing is when I transfer from a keg to a keg it goes much faster, I do however have filters in the kegs so perhaps I should test more with a filter in between.
cheers everyone!
 
I use a filter between my cf15 and my kegs, I fill by weight and instead of a spunding valve I just have a ball lock with a hose on it going in a bucket of starsan. Fill in 5 to 10 minutes per keg with about 3 to 5psi on the fermenter if I don't carbonate in the fermenter. If I do carb first then the transfer takes much longer and I use a spunding valve.
 
takes me about 15-20 minutes to fill a keg, but I take it slow and use a spunding valve to make sure there is little to no foaming since I carb in the CF5. I have definitely had the poppets get clogged up with junk before and had to clean it all out and start over though.
 
Yeah same 20-25 minutes for me. 15 psi on fermenter, start with 10 psi on the spunding valve. As it fills and the hydrostatic pressure build I left the pressure in the spunding valve to keep it flowing.
 
I guess pressure fermentation also means there's going to be slower transfer times. Glad to know this now since I'm in mid fermentation with a batch.
 
Hey all,

So I have maybe screwed up a batch just now in my conical and hoping for some feedback here.
I have a butterfly valve directly on the bottom of my conical, normally I dump from there but have just not changed to a diaphragm valve to control the dump speed better.
Now at day 7 I hooked it up as following
Butterfly valve -> elbow -> sightglass -> diaphragm valve - tubing thread out.
I was concerned that I would get a bubble floating into my tank as I opened the butterfly valve, but since I have about 4psi of pressure on the head of the tank left (not connected to gas), I was assuming that the bubble would come out through the bottom as I opened the diaphragm valve.
Once I cracked the butterfly valve however and started turning the diaphragm valve, I could hear a bubble escape into the tank.

I did not purge the new connected setup as I did not think there would be a bubble going into the tank with head pressure.
Did I not have enough pressure in order to prevent the bubble from escaping?
Should I have the diaphragm valve open when I crack the butterfly?

I hope this one bubble didnt wreck my beer, anyone has a similar experience? I'm leaving the beer on 21c for now hoping the yeast will absorb any DO that got into the beer.

Cheers everyone!
 
I've unintentionally done the same thing, in fact wirh more than one bubble that went north after opening the dump valve. To my taste buds didn't impact anything.

If you think about a few large bubbles traveling up through the beer have so little surface area, they would not really oxygenate the beer. They would land in the conical headspace, which you could purge if you are worried about it.

What I've done more recently is to purge the setup below the dump valve with CO2 - even with 5-10 psi pressure on top I could not avoid some bubbles going up through the tank. So now it's just CO2 bubbles.
 
I've unintentionally done the same thing, in fact wirh more than one bubble that went north after opening the dump valve. To my taste buds didn't impact anything.

If you think about a few large bubbles traveling up through the beer have so little surface area, they would not really oxygenate the beer. They would land in the conical headspace, which you could purge if you are worried about it.

What I've done more recently is to purge the setup below the dump valve with CO2 - even with 5-10 psi pressure on top I could not avoid some bubbles going up through the tank. So now it's just CO2 bubbles.
Thanks for easing my paranoia, I thought the same thing, I'll be dryhopping later on so hopefully whatever minimal oxygen got in is not damaging the beer.
Problem being this time I had to connect this construction during fermentation as the parts came in, I'll keep it connected now from fermentation.
 
If you get a gas post to connect co2 to the bottom of your assembly you can put co2 pressure on it and loosen the clamp closest to your butterfly until it starts to let some pressure out, let it hiss fo a little while, that will purge as much oxygen as possible. That way you don't have all that good stuff sitting in the elbow and sight glass during fermentation.
 
If you get a gas post to connect co2 to the bottom of your assembly you can put co2 pressure on it and loosen the clamp closest to your butterfly until it starts to let some pressure out, let it hiss fo a little while, that will purge as much oxygen as possible. That way you don't have all that good stuff sitting in the elbow and sight glass during fermentation.
I have one but after dumping yeast there would be no point purging it as there is all beer in there.
My plan was to open the butterfly valve a little after dumping the yeast so that I can keep the elbow and valve on it but not have all the hops drop in it but still have the bottom piping filled with liquid so I can rouse and dump
 
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