Conical Fermenters

[BrotherMalice]

Ello All,

Whats the benifit of using a conical fermenter over a bucket?

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[31bb3]

you can rack off the conical and not disturb the yeast cake more efficiently

 

[EskiBrew]

also some people drop the yeast out the bottom to pitch into another brew :thumb:

 

[Northern Brewer]

Once I've transferred the wort to the FV I leave it to settle a bit then drop any trub out of the bottom before pitching the yeast

 

[BrotherMalice]

A selection of good ideas there - will get one on the to buy list :)

 

[rivetcatcher]

But can you sacrifice a few litres of beer if you only have a small amount of yeast in the bottom i.e. you have 2 taps on the fermenter, one on the bottom for the yeast and one on the side to tap off the wort, the space between the wort tap and the trub is deadspace?? Is this right because I am considering a conical fermenter!

Are there any pros / cons?

Rivet

 

[Vossy1]

But can you sacrifice a few litres of beer if you only have a small amount of yeast in the bottom i.e. you have 2 taps on the fermenter, one on the bottom for the yeast and one on the side to tap off the wort, the space between the wort tap and the trub is deadspace?? Is this right because I am considering a conical fermenter!

I'm a bit confused R, I think you're referring to a standard bucket fv in the reply. There is a way to minimise loss in a traditional bucket and that's to put it on a stillage, ie, a sloped support to keep the bucket at a slight angle to minimise loss when racking. You can use just one tap doing this but it should be mounted slightly higher than you would normally to account for the angle of the settled yeast. This is an old favourite of winemakers when racking.

 

[rivetcatcher]

What I mean is the conical fermenters I have seen have 2 taps. 1 on the very bottom and 1 a little further up on the side. I think the idea is to drain off clearer wort from the tap that is on the side and use the bottom tap as a drain to get rid of the trub... my question is 'would I lose a few pints of beer with the deadspace between the trub and the side tap?'

or am I making absolutely no sense at all here lol :wha:

 

[EskiBrew]

my question is 'would I lose a few pints of beer with the deadspace between the trub and the side tap?'

or am I making absolutely no sense at all here lol :wha:

Ah got it now. I've not used a conical myself but I understand they have a racking cane in the side port which can be swivelled and set just above the trub (someone please correct me if I am wrong) - so no, you not necessarilly lose a lot more to dead space :thumb:

 

[rivetcatcher]

Ahhhh ok, that makes sense,

Cheers bob :

 

[Vossy1]

If you have a look at my conical conversion there's links to the rotating racking arm Aleman used on that :thumb:

 

[rivetcatcher]

Cheers Vossy,

I'll have a look