Conical first impressions part II

[Gymrat]

Yesterday I bottled from my conical. I bought the thing to eliminate lifting a bucket with 5 gallons of liquid up onto a stool. The conical delivered on that. I used my 20 oz paintball gun CO2 bottle to pressurize the conical. This was where I ran into my first hitch. I had used a pinch on clamp to secure the hose to my gas quick connect. It took some time to work that dang thing off. I am going to replace that with a regular hose clamp. Then I proceeded to push the beer from the conical into the bucket which was already sitting on the stool. CO2 pushes the beer out much slower than a auto siphon. When I tried giving it just a tad more pressure it growled at me. So that part took a while but it was worth it not to have to lift that bucket. Bottling went as usual from there.

Then came clean up. Cleaning the vessel itself was easier and faster than cleaning a bucket. For some odd reason there was some black stuff in the krauson ring left in the conical. The beer tasted fine. I have no idea what that was. I didn't take a picture of it. I took the conical and it's stand outside separately. Removed the valves and sprayed it down with the garden hose. When I was done, just for the heck of it, I sprinkled it with barkeepers friend and scrubbed it down with a blue scrubby. This whole process took less time than cleaning my bucket. And it was nice having an absolutely clean fermenter with no stains or hoppy or beery smell to it.

Now came the second hitch. The instructions say to take the ball valves apart after every use. I didn't have any wrenches to fit them so I had to make a run to harbor freight and pick up a couple of cheap crappy Chinese adjustable wrenches. I tossed all of my parts into a bucket of one step and off I went. I got back and sat down to the table and disassembled the ball valves. I am really glad I did. I found chunks of trub in each of them. I was unable to get the gaskets out of them. When I have some time I may sit down and take them apart again and see if I can pry the gaskets out with a small screw driver.

All in all cleaning was not the nightmare I had anticipated. The triclamps really make the job a snap. I can see why so many people on the various forums swear by them. Knowing what I know now I would not even consider buying a conical that uses threaded connections instead of these.

Now that I have done a test run here are my nits and picks
nits
Made in China
I wasn't able to dump the trub out like I thought I would. Although I think this would work with a different yeast that doesn't compact as much. And I think it would work if I dumped it right after primary fermentation finishes instead of waiting until just before bottling.
It does take a bit longer to rack to my bucket. But it is worth it.

picks
I don't have to lift anymore bottling buckets
The stainless steel is nice. I like being able to clean absolutely everything, including odors, out of it
Tri clamps make disassembly and reassembly a piece of cake
I do like having a thermometer that probes into the liquid as opposed to just measuring the surface
I love the 10 gallon capacity. The beer I just made had one of the most active fermentations I have ever seen. It would have been coming out the blow off tube in my bucket. But with all the head space this thing affords the stuff never reached the top of it.
This thing looks extremely cool in my pub.

Overall impression. When I was shopping I was only aware of Blichmann, then learned about Stout. I never heard of Brewhamoth until after I had purchased this thing. A brewhometh is only $200 more, it holds 22 gallons, and you can pressurize it. Pressurizing makes it possible to ferment in very warm conditions without getting any off flavors from the yeast at all. That is how the big breweries do it. And the Brewhamoth comes with triclamp connections for only $10 more than the standard model. Beyond that, this is just a fermentation vessel with bells and whistles. I can be totally cleaned but you can buy a totally clean bucket for $14. At that price it would take a long time to add up to the $500 I spent. If it is any kind of struggle at all for you to afford one of these I suggest you don't buy one. However I am very happy with mine and I don't regret buying it.

[russki]

Thanks for sharing, Roger. I'm a bit puzzled as to why you had trouble dumping the trub - did you try pressuring the conical to get it to move? As for the valves - you may want to look into butterfly valves as a future upgrade, since you are using tri-clamp anyway; should be easier to clean.

[Gymrat]

Thanks for sharing, Roger. I'm a bit puzzled as to why you had trouble dumping the trub - did you try pressuring the conical to get it to move? As for the valves - you may want to look into butterfly valves as a future upgrade, since you are using tri-clamp anyway; should be easier to clean.

I didn't try dumping the trub under pressure. But the valve was clogged with hard compacted yeast. My garden hose did knock that right out though. And I already have looked at butterfly valves. They are $54 each with who knows how much shipping on top of that. So it will be a while before I buy them. They absolutely would make cleanup a lot easier.

[Beer-lord]

Very interesting info. I'd love one but besides keeping it cool, there's a space problem for me. I've read many good things about a few but I guess there's something about buckets and carboys that are just comfy and old school (and cheap).
Anytime you want to throw up some pictures, I'm game.

[Gymrat]

With the Brewhamoth you don't have to concern yourself with keeping it cool. Because you can ferment under pressure. When you do that the yeast does not give off flavors even when fermenting way warm. Read the features on this http://brewhemoth.com/tri-clover-brewhemoth
If I would have known about these before I ordered I would have bought one of these instead hands down.

[Kealia]

Hey Roger, I have a question: If you dumped the trub, couldn't you mix your priming sugar in the conical and bottle directly from it? I'm asking this out of pure ignorance, mind you.

With the Brewhamoth you don't have to concern yourself with keeping it cool. Because you can ferment under pressure. When you do that the yeast does not give off flavors even when fermenting way warm. Read the features on this http://brewhemoth.com/tri-clover-brewhemoth

WHAT?!?!?!
I've read that fermenting under pressure can reduce esters but nothing at all about fusel alcohol or other side effects. And I've never read anything about the temp as it relates to pressure. Clearly I need to do some research/reading.

BTW, I can't find anything about this at that link. Am I just blind?

[Gymrat]

I dont think you can dump teub and stir sugar in. I dont think you can get all of the trun out. But that is something I will cbeck into.

The link was just to a better conical. You do have to buy fittings for it seperately. So that will and another hundred bucks or so. But the shipping is free.

[Kealia]

Roger that (he he he) on the trub. I was just thinking, in my own feeble brain, that you could dump the trub, prime and then bottle without having to transfer. But that would assume that the valve was on the very bottom and that you COULD dump it all. If it's above the very bottom then it makes sense that you couldn't mix without stirring up whatever was left over. Just thinking out loud here....

I'll do some reading on the pressurized fermenting to educate myself.

[Gymrat]

The valve is on the very bottom.

[Gymrat]

Roger that (he he he) on the trub. I was just thinking, in my own feeble brain, that you could dump the trub, prime and then bottle without having to transfer. But that would assume that the valve was on the very bottom and that you COULD dump it all. If it's above the very bottom then it makes sense that you couldn't mix without stirring up whatever was left over. Just thinking out loud here....

I'll do some reading on the pressurized fermenting to educate myself.

Kelia this is on the Stout website


For bottling, you have a couple of options, depending on your preferences and practices. Even after dropping the yeast out of the bottom outlet, there is some clinging to the sides of the cone. So stirring in a sugar solution could stir more yeast into the beer than you like.

1 Rack beer from side outlet into a bottling bucket, then add your sugar, then bottle.
2 Add priming sugar or sugar solution to each bottle, and rack into bottles using the side outlet.
3 Add priming sugar to the fermenter, and rack into bottles using the side outlet. You might get more yeast than you care for in the bottles this way.

One person on HBT forum suggested dropping the yeast out after primary fermentation is over. Then a day before bottling stir the beer gently to clean the yeast off the sides of the cone, drop the yeast out again on bottling day, then bottle. I think rather than risking ruining a batch I will just use the bottling bucket.