Conical fermenter

Im new to home brewing but I researched it for 4 or 5 months. I will admit that I’m a little more interested in drinking it than making it at this point. That being said, I wanted something as easy as possible. I already had a turkey fryer with a huge stainless steel pot so that was easy. I had settled on a kit from Midwest brewing that had the buckets and an extract kit include. I then saw a conical fermenter that claimed to eliminate some of the transferring to different buckets so I ended up getting a conical from Fast Fermenter. It had good reviews on Amazon so I took a chance. I’m also a decent woodworker so a stand was no problem to engineer out of some scrap wood. Everything on it went together well with no leaks. The hole on top is a little small but I managed to pour in 5 gals without spilling any. The lid seals well and it is just about done with primary fermentation. Since I mostly like ales this thing should be great for me at least. My stand is adjustable so when I go to bottling I will raise it to a higher level on my stand. I noticed a lot of negative remarks about this and other plastic conicals and other than not being able to easily put it in a fridge for lagers, I haven’t seen a down side to mine yet. I am using the Midwest simply ipa kit with an additional hop added. I’m on day seven of fermentation and it smell great, I haven’t seen any activity in my airlock for about 24 hrs so I’ll take a hydrometer reading tomorrow and then three days later. Hopefully it all goes well. I just wanted to give my perspective on this conical based on my limited use up to now. I’ll post my results in about a month. Hopefully

 

Thanks for the positive reply. I’m gonna let it sit a while. Took a look inside and the foam is still on top. I’ll probably wait a full two weeks. It still smells good.

 

Yeah I paid just over a $100 after shipping. I could have saved with the buckets, I do like the convenience of not having to transfer though. Temps in the low 60’s? Everything I’ve read says 65-72. But I am new at this. I’ve been using the “joy of home brewing” 3rd edition for most of my reference. I do appreciate the input, if don’t workout I’ll switch to buckets like you said.

 

Bought a $15 furniture mover from Harbor Freight and built the rest from scrap wood. I can move the fermenter to the top bracket for bottling. I plan on closing it in with a door in front. It's a little rough right now. It's normally pretty dim in this room and it gives me an excuse to keep the thermostat low. The piece it's sitting on is removable, see the handles, this made it very easy to shake it up for aeration. Overall a very stable platform. I have a couple of solid pieces to fill in as shelves when it's in the higher position. The stand and strap handle offered by the company as accessories look like total garbage to me so I didn't get them.

 

Thanks for the encouragement and positive input......Sigh

 

I don't have to transfer to another bucket to bottle, it's just less stuff to clean and less chance of contamination.

 

The instructions say to keep it open during primary fermentation then close it to detach and dump. Re-attach for second fermentation if you want to collect yeast. There's a bottling attachment that fits in place of the ball that catches the trub. There's some concern with the air in the bulb going into the wort when the ball is re-attached but it is said to be minimal, manual says you can fill it with distilled water if you want to prevent the air bubble.

 

Yeah some of the reviews on it said they had trouble with it leaking from the threaded areas like the thermoweld and ball valve. I have a feeling it was user error. I used plenty of teflon tape and had no issues. The only hassle was building the frame, I'd like to make it a little nicer but it serves it's purpose and only took about an hr to put together.

 

So far so good, I took a reading this morning and got 1.010 my OG was 1.060, so I'm right where I was aiming. Tasted the sample and am pleased, the brewtoad calculator estimated I'll be about 61 IBU, I'd say I'm there for sure. Right now it's a harsh bitter with some slight citrus and a lot of pine notes. I'm dry hopping an oz ea of cascade and centennial for 5 days so hopefully that and 10 days of conditioning will smooth it out. I don't mind the bitter so even if it don't it's fine with me.

 

It's supposed to, I'll find out this afternoon. I closed the valve this morning and will start dry hopping when I get off work. My OG was 1.060 and I checked this morning and it was 1.010.

 

This is my first batch but I plan to just prepare it as directed and then pour it in.