Conical Fermenter

Go stainless if you're going conical.
Do it right the first time.

 

Indeed! You're most likely going to upgrade to a bigger SS unit in the future anyway, once you realize this didn't meet all your expectations - bigger batches being prominent among them. No sense upgrading twice. I bought a 14 gal SS conical a few years ago and never looked back. (the ooohs and aaahs you'll get from your friends will be mere icing on that cake!)

 

Can't make bigger batches if I'm investing in a grainfather

 

Man, I love it! Having the some extra bits like the blow-off kit & the pressurized transfer fitting just makes stuff easier. I really like transferring straight from the fermenter straight into the keg (beer goes in through the liquid 'out' tube, gas escapes either through the PRV or a gas fitting on the 'in').

 

I have one of those too, have made my first two AG batches with it, both under gravity so I have some homework to do to figure that one out. Now that the holidays are over and almost two kicked kegs it's time to get back into it.

 

what fermenter is this that you're speaking of?

 

One of the big advantages us home brewers have is not having to ferment in conical fermenters. Having the yeast spread out over the bottome of the fermentor like in a bucket or carboy are a good thing. It helps us avoid off flavors given off by the yeast. Also top cropping is an effective way of reusing yeast. In fact more effective from harvesting from the cone.

 

How does this work? It's my understanding that the only time you have to worry about off flavors from yeast is temp control, and autolysis from yeast that have flocculated and fallen out with extended times in the primary fermenter >6 weeks. And if one was in this situation, I would think that in a conical, the surface area exposure of the trub layer to beer is less than that in a bucket / carboy. Thereby, you should get less off flavors in a conical. But the real benefit to the conical is that you can empty the trub from the bottom, leaving the beer behind in the fermenter. Allowing for extended time in the fermented without off flavors from autolysis. Am I missing something, I thought that was the point of conicals.

 

Yes as long as you remove the trub/yeast when fermentation at the right time, then it's all good. However, as a homebrewer, I like the fact that I can leave my beer for a few weeks without worrying about it. It's hard to know exactly when a beer is done. Also top cropping is a far healthier way of reusing yeast then harvesting from the bottom. You get an extremely healthy yeast by top cropping.

In a conical fermentor, as far as I know, you need to remove the yeast when fermentation is done, which can be hard to determine. Even after the FG is reached some work is still yet to be done Leaving the yeast. Leaving the yeast even for a short period of time, in the cone can create negative flavors/environment for the yeast and beer. The conical is not good for the yeast. In the middle of the cake can create negative enviroment for the yeast.

 

You don't have to for the same reason you don't have to with buckets carboys.

Don't you do that just as you normally would? By comparing the gravity over a period of a few days to see if there is a change or not?

It's my understanding the work is done by yeast in suspension, not floculated yeast in the trub. The exception to this might be lager yeast.

Why would it be different in a cone as opposed to the bottom of a bucket / carboy?

Please explain. Not a challenge, I've never heard this before and am curious how this works.

 

So, not trying to beat a dead horse here.....but I've been looking into purchasing a plastic 15 gallon conical fermenter from www.spraysmarter.com and I have a question or an idea, I suppose. Clearly people are concerned with achieving steps 8-9 of the original post; the fact that oxygen would be forced into the beer after re-opening the ball valve. However, I was thinking about making a yeast collection container and drilling a hole in order to allow for a basic 2 piece ball valve. If you wanted to or felt obligated to, you could perform a secondary fermentation in the same conical fermenter by doing everything as normal except flushing the yeast collection container with some Co2 and then re-attaching the collection container back to the fermenter. After attaching the container, you could open the ball valve on the collection container and then open up the main valve to the yeast collection container. Thus displacing the oxygen out of the 2 piece ball valve. After some beer starts to drain out of the ball valve, you could close the valve and *most* if not *all* oxygen would be displaced out of the bottom. You could also force a small amount of Co2 from the top if that would even help?? I know this is an old thread but I'd like to hear what you guys think of this. @CurtFromHershey @VikeMan @GreenKrusty101 @GetMeAnIPA @Brew_Betty @Soneast @boothbeer
Thank you guys.

 

Another option is to cut a whole towards the bottom of the conical and attach a ball valve with a small dip tube and drain from there after discarding or closing the valve from the yeast. If you wanted to drain this way, wouldn't oxygen be an *issue* as well since it would be needed to allow the beer to flow out from the spigot. I thought about hooking up some Co2 to the lid of the fermenter and force a small amount of gas into the fermenter to push the beer out.

 

Pressure,

 

Although maybe the pressure build up only applies to large conical fermenters in breweries

 

E

Even if gravity does not change does not mean the yeast are done. A lot of metabolic byproducts still getting broken down. In the bottom of a bucket or carboy the yeast are spread out in a thin layer but in conical it's not the case

 

But the added pressure actually limits the production of "off flavors" compared to the homebrew scale. The large conicals are why you will see larger commercial breweries fermenting at temperatures that would make homebrewers cringe.

 

I thought the higher pressure increased the chances of autoalysis which is the reason why removing yeast is so critical in those large conical fermenters. This may not be true on the Homebrew scale though. Also the center of the yeast mass can get incredibly hot in those conicals. The main benefit of conical for a brewery is they take up very little floor space. There are some breweries that still utile low profile wide fermenters for fermentation. An example is SN Bigfoot. It's also important to note: getting yeast from the bottom is not ideal. Capturing the yeast actively fermenting during early stages of fermentation through top cropping is a healthy option.