ssbrewtech 7g conical

[scallopking]

hey everyone, i picked up their 7g conical fermenter and have a few questions for those that have one. first time brewing with it with an citrus ipa in there now. so here goes..thanks for your help!

it's been fermenting for 3 days so after reading up decided to drain the trub out the bottom but it was liquid-ey but nasty. is that normal, i was expecting it to be thicker? i closed it quick to not lose to much but i forgot to pull the airlock off so I think it sucked some vodka down, will that hurt it?

what is the process for draining trub and do you do it? how do you know if it is all drained out?

do you secondary and dry-hop in the concical too?

when racking to a keg do you just leave the top open?

do most use a airlock or blow-off tube?

why are the ball valves unsanitary? are the other ones really worth it?

 

[TCollins]

I don't own a conical but I can answer a couple of your questions.....3 days seems soon to drain the trub, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Seems like you'd want to keep it on the yeast a minimum of a week or two to allow it to fully ferment, etc. Vodka won't hurt, just slightly increase you abv. I think the point of the conical is it's an all in one meaning dropping the trub is essentially like racking to secondary, so no need to secondary. Dry hopping seems like it would be fine to do. Hope that helps some.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[scallopking]

thanks Tim. surprising there's a little bit a learning curve coming from buckets and carboys. hopefully i didn't hurt it by draining to soon, the airlock started bubbling right away. it's been one thing after another with this batch. yeah, makes total sense to use it that way.

 

[TCollins]

Always learning and that's what I love about this hobby. Have you taken a gravity reading? You may end up having to pitch some more yeast if it stalls after dropping the trub, but I've heard of some batches fully fermenting in 24-48 hours depending on style and yeast strain. Best to check gravity and see where you are at. What have you got fermenting? Good luck!

 

[augiedoggy]

Yes the conical eleminates the secondary.... I usually dump my dead yeast about a week into fermatation and then every few days after that but it depends on the yeast flocculation. actual trub if you have it should settle to the bottom in a matter of hrs from brewing. I only drain the chunky white yeast and slop when its cloudy beer while fermentation is occuring.
you have many options when it comes to draining... just remove the blowoff hose or airlock, or attach co2 with low pressure (like 4psi) to push the beer into kegs. if your bottling just remove the top and carefully add you sugar or dme to carbonate and drain directly to bottles if youd like.

I'm sure theres other ways/ preferences but thats the way I do it.

 

[scallopking]

Always learning and that's what I love about this hobby. Have you taken a gravity reading? You may end up having to pitch some more yeast if it stalls after dropping the trub, but I've heard of some batches fully fermenting in 24-48 hours depending on style and yeast strain. Best to check gravity and see where you are at. What have you got fermenting? Good luck!

true, true about learning! Not yet, but I'm going do a gravity read today. it's still bubbling like it was. it's a multi-hop citrus IPA and now evidently heavy on the IBUs @ 99. I was a dumb-head and didn't check it out first. thanks for your help.

 

[scallopking]

Yes the conical eleminates the secondary.... I usually dump my dead yeast about a week into fermatation and then every few days after that but it depends on the yeast flocculation. actual trub if you have it should settle to the bottom in a matter of hrs from brewing. I only drain the chunky white yeast and slop when its cloudy beer while fermentation is occuring.
you have many options when it comes to draining... just remove the blowoff hose or airlock, or attach co2 with low pressure (like 4psi) to push the beer into kegs. if your bottling just remove the top and carefully add you sugar or dme to carbonate and drain directly to bottles if youd like.

I'm sure theres other ways/ preferences but thats the way I do it.

just awesome! thank you for your help.