Conical fermenter why use

You can learn more about the FastFerment conical fermenter here. If you have a few hundred dollars, you can move up to a stainless conical such as those from Blichmann, SS Brewtech and others. These are easier to clean and will last longer, though obviously at a higher price point. Have some thoughts on conicals or fermenters in general? Leave a comment below. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter or my podcast also on itunes …and youtube …and streaming radio station for more great tips on homebrewing.

Also check out the How to Brew Video series I shot with John Palmer if you want to learn more about all grain brewing. Tagged as: Beer , Homebrewing , brewing , conical , fermentation , fermenters , homebrew , yeast , yeast washing. Could you explain which type of airlocks work two-ways?

Do I need to get a different type for this to work? I have been using Better Bottles as my fermenters for years, and it was not unusual for the airlocks in the primary fermenters to bubble for several days before settling down. I recently purchased a FastFerment after reading one of your articles. What I was surprised to see was that the airlock stopped bubbling after a single day! I initially thought I had damaged my yeast, but a gravity reading showed 1. Assuming I did nothing horribly wrong, what makes a conical ferment so rapidly?

I had one of the Fastferment conical fermenters. I traded it for an 8 gallon stainless kettle. I had some problems with the fermenter. The yeast clung to the cone and the beer had to be racked to a secondary to clear it. The threaded hole for the thermometer was difficult to clean an sterilize. The ball valve and threaded fitting are impossible to clean. Scale is a major reason why brewers switch to state-of-the-art vessels.

If they made gallon buckets maybe it would be a different story?!? The only real downsides of a conical fermenter is the steep price tag, increased learning curve, and more complicated cleaning process.

Conicals of course have more components that need to be cleaned, sanitized, and stored. Brewing is always going to come with extensive cleaning and sanitization. Luckily clean in place CIP practices do a really good job of making cleaning easy and even comes with their own benefits. Due to their size, most conicals require a very large fermentation chamber or glycol system to maintain fermentation temps. This is the other very pricey part of the equation as cooling solutions can be equally as expensive.

The good news is most glycol units can be used to cool multiple fermenters. Can a conical really produce better beer than a plastic bucket? When eliminating oxygen is the number one priority, a conical gives you the absolute most control.

Conicals are of course always going to be the more sophisticated piece of equipment for the job, but the truth is you may not always be able to taste the difference. A conical alone will not make an award-winning beer, a conical just enables you to make award-winning beer a little easier. Fermentation is arguably the most important stage of the brewing process, so it makes total sense to invest more in the cold side.

One on the bottom of the conical and one on the top of the conical. I know that the one at the top is a good place to pull clean beer for sampling. My question is for racking or transferring, which port do you use?

My gut says use the bottom port since the beer is clear and that will use all beer in the conical. If you use the top port you have dead space from the pickup arm to the bottom of the conical. But if that's the case what is the use for the top port besides sampling? Freddyj Well-Known Member. If you are going to get a 1.

And easier to find. You must log in or register to reply here. Similar threads. How to Ferment Lager in Conical? Replies 3 Views 3K. Oct 4, drunkenmonk. How to secondary with fast ferment conical? Jbrew Feb 12, Replies 4 Views 2K. Feb 14, Jbrew. Suggestion for how to aerate in plastic Conical Fermenter? Replies 3 Views Jan 2, ESBrewer. Anybody using a Glacier Tanks conical fermenter? MaxOut Oct 16, Replies 16 Views 8K. Oct 29, MaxOut. Replies 4 Views Dec 21, xrobevansx.

Latest posts. General Chit Chat. What are you drinking now? The valve sits above the point where all of the trub settles, so that none of it makes its way into the secondary. This means that your beer will not take nearly as long to clear. The conical also makes it easy to draw samples for hydrometer readings without opening the fermenter.