Conical Fermentors

[av8rbrad]

Never have seen a conical up close or how they work. So correct me if I am wrong. At the bottom there are two valves. One is at the side and allows you to rack you beer right above the level of the yeast bed and the second is directly underneath and allows you to pull your yeast? Is this correct? Are they worth the expense?

[beerking]

You have the idea right for a conical.

You don't really need them for homebrew. It makes it harder to find a place to do lager (gotta fit the whole thing into a fridge unless you spend huge $ and buy a jacketed one).

Probably the main thing a conical would buy you is a better ability to harvest yeast.But, how many vials of yeast do you have to not buy to pay for a conical?

It would also help you dump the trub before pitching yeast, for cleaner lager fermentation. Then again, how are you going to lift it into your chest freezer?

[Bruno_78]

I think beerking has hit it right on the nose. It is not very logical for the home brewer to purchase a conical fermenter. The costs just do not outweigh the benefits. However......

There are a few other things we need to take into consideration here.

Credibility
Coolness
Insomnia

Credibility - Your friends, brewers and non brewers, will think that you're beer turns out better (regardless of actual quality).

Coolness - You will probably gain MORE friends by displaying this decorative piece in your living room.

Insomnia - I know for a fact that I would sleep better if I had a conical fermenter bubbling away next to my bed at night.

[corkybstewart]

Welcome back Bruno, it's been a while since I've seen you on here.
My wife bought me my conical a few years ago and I do love brewing with it, but it doesn't make better beer. I had to build a cooling cabinet big enough to hold it, which gave me a good excuse to spend a whole weekend working in the garage.
The "cool" factor is impressive though when I open the cabinet with its foil coated bubble wrap insulation and there is my big shiny conical with the wire for the temp controller going in one tube in the lid and the 1/2" blowoff hose.
I do like being able to dump the trub the day after I brew, and it's easy to get hydrometer samples.

[Bruno_78]

....but it doesn't make better beer.

That's why I added the THINK qualifier. :D

[ssgross]

Dido's on the difficulty in cooling. But this can be easily circumvented.

1) buy the used freezer and convert it. this is the only option for year round, any climate lagering. takes up a lot of space the apartment brewer doesn't have.

2) Buy one of the B3's with peltier heating/cooling elements (wasted money in my opinion). these are way over priced. peltier technology is very cheap with elements costing <$10 (2 of average size will work for 10 gallon batches). the biggest cost is in the temp controller ($50-$200). everything else can be done for under $100 using some items that are common in most homes. I designed such a system, but never went through with it because as I was driving to the store to pick up parts, I thought of (3) below. I can post more on my design for peltiers if anyone is interested.

3) build a closet air conditioner with things you already probably have in your brewing setup, and a few other things, most of which you probably already have in your house, and here is how to do it:

Put your fermenter in a closet (the smaller the better).
Parts:
1. socket adapter for power in the closet (~$1 at lowes).
2. your immersion chiller (if you saved it like I did before upgrading)
3. the cooler you converted to a mash tun.
4. box fan (~$15 at lowes)
5. ice packs that came with your cooler before you converted it (and the ones you are going to steal from your kids' lunch box - they don't really need them.)
6. Extension cord with 2 outlets.
7. simple pond pump (~$25 at lowes for one that is 150GPM)

Instructions:
1. after brewing and cleaning your equipment, fill the bottom of your cooler-tun with cold water, enough to cover your pump by a couple inches.
2. hook up the pump out to your immersion chillers in.
3. dump ice and/or cold packs around and on top of the pump.
4. tape the immersion chiller out onto the cooler-tun so that it will drain over the ice/cold packs.
5. close lid as much as possible, and wrap any gaps in cellophane (so as not to increase the humidity of the closet too much - you may have coats in there), but don't try to make it air tight. then cover the whole thing with blankets.
6. place the chiller directly in front of the fan, facing the fermenter. and plug the fan and pump into the extension cord, then into the light socket.
7. monitor fermentation temp, flip light switch when it gets too high. (or use a temp controller).

Performance:
1) i cooled a coat closet (maybe 2'X2') from room temp (75F) to 60F. the light switch was on the outside, and I finally opened a wireless rain gauge that someone got me for Christmas yearsss ago to monitor temp. I had to flip the switch about every 3 hours, and run it for 15-30 minutes. i think i was so successful because i practically never opened the door check temp or turn it on. i will get a temp controller for my next batch. to make it hassle free.
2) I had to change the ice by scooping out some water and adding ice, about every 2-3 days. once was enough for me to get fed up with this. large blue ice cold packs are ~$2 at lowes. I bought a dozen, keep 6 in the cooler, and rotate every 2-3 days and re-freeze.
3) i used about 2-3 gallons to cover the pump and put the water in the fridge over night as my tap water is almost 80 degrees this time of year. this made it begin lowering temp immediately - while I was boiling.

[piratedrunk]

My friend recently inherited a bunch of sweet equipment from his father-in-law and doesn't know too much about brewing. I think I'm the local "expert" which is kinda sad, but I get to break in the equipment with him.

Anyway, the fermenter he got is conical, so I'm like "sweet, I get to play with a new toy!" But my question is - do we need to worry about a secondary fermenter? My thought was that we can drain the trub once the gravity stabilizes. If the conical saves the hassle of transferring to a secondary, add that to the list of pros.

[The Alchemist]

I have a conical fermenter and love it. To make it fit in the refridgerator we simply added a wooden leg shorter than the metal ones to fit on the back "step" where the compressor is housed.
I like it because it eliminates the need of racking your beer to a secondary fermenter. Emptying trub is simple. Harvesting yeast is simple. Is it necessary, no. Is it worthwhile? For me the answer is yes, but each person would have to evaluate that for themselves. The only downside I can see for a conical (price aside) vs. a glass carboy is that you can't actually see the process taking place.

[ssgross]

don't worry about the secondary. dump the trub and other sediment out the bottom after things have settled. let age, dry hop, whatever. then add primings, stir gently with a sanitized spoon, and bottle right from the fermenter.
Or using corny's as secondary, you are ready to primary another batch. the cuts down the turn-around between batches. i was doing this before I got a co2 tank to keg my beer.