Pondering conicals...

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Can that soil heater cable work around a plastic bucket fermenter do you think, or could that be a bad idea?

It will - I used the heat belt that way for a while when I used buckets.

I think you will want a thermowell for the temp probe, and you might want to go with an internal cooling coil - look into cask cooling coils, they are about the cheapest stock cooling option. Don't think an external coil will be as effective with plastic, and they are a faff to set up.

[chris2012]

Awesome, thanks a lot for the pointers.

I have an SS coil already actually that I bought from brewbuilder a while ago, it accepts JohnGuest fittings too so I can easily hook it up to the
maxi chiller and submerse inside the bucket.

I'll look into getting some soil warming cable now.

[Fil]

fwiw heat trace cable comes in a few formats, the mildest im aware of is sold for heating reptile enclosures and will dissipate something like 25-75w over a 5m+ lengths
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... e&_sacat=0

[Kev888]

The heat trace cable comes in two types; constant power and self regulating. The latter can be cut to any length and in theory will not overheat (say if covered with insulation), but it can be damaged by very hot temperatures - e.g. if you forget to remove the belt whilst hot cleaning the FV.

FWIW I now use a system similar to Orlando's suggestion, several people do (it doesn't destroy the maxi coolers). In my case the maxi thermostat still works but I replaced it with a variable (electronic) one for more efficient control of the cool bath.

[Kev888]

Going back to the OP, I just did a test with my current brew, by leaving 100g of dry EKG pellets in the FV for two weeks, including the crash cooling period, before attempting to dump them (I wouldn't normally leave them this long). They had formed a somewhat firm plug that no amount of patient waiting saw shift; sucking on a hose connected to the dump valve eventually did cause them to shift, though it wasn't easy.

Thats the first time I've experienced this happening with dry hops, so I assume the settled pellets became more compacted in the extra time allowed. I also suspect the reduced bore of my dump valve may have much to do with it. The bulkhead on the brewbuilder 14 gallon fermenter I have is a generous 1.35" ID, but the bore of the dump valve is only about 0.8" ID, or to put it another way adds a restriction thats around a third of the bulk-head's available cross-sectional area. This has so far been fine for yeast and un-compacted pellets, but clearly there is room for an upgrade of valve size, which 'may' help with more challenging circumstances.

[Skittlebrau]

The new Grainfather conical looks awesome but the downside to that one is the extra insulation means that temperature control in my brewfridge is going to be a bit compromised. Kev888's post has cheered me up a bit though. Part of the reason I am looking into this is because I want to avoid having to leave dry hops in until I am ready to rack the beer off.

Kev - can I ask what temperature you had that FV at for that two week period?

[Kev888]

For this test, existing sediment was dumped 7 days after pitching the yeast, and then the dry hops were added. The temperature remained at 20c for about 10 days days, then it was cooled to 0.3c over the course of about a day, and left there for a few days more before the (troubled) dumping of the hops and other sediment (and subsequent kegging).

IMO three or four days is usually enough for dry hopping. Though they can take a while to all settle out, I wouldn't normally leave it two entire weeks before trying to dump the majority so this test has been interesting. In the past I never got noticeable grassy flavours from dry hops within a few weeks, so it would be nice to have the option to dump later if wished; maybe a less restrictive dump valve would be needed though - it 'really' struggled after two weeks.

[Jocky]

On the commercial side one of the reasons for conicals is that the brewery can just dump everything from the kettle into the conical (via a heat exchanger). After a short while they can then dump trub and hop material out from the bottom, saving the difficulty of separating it all in the kettle.

[Kev888]

By coincidence, that is something I've been trying recently too. It is a very effective way of separating the wort from other stuff, but looses more wort than a good hop/trub filter does - as the sediment dumped early on tends to be fairly wet and soupy. So for me some compromise is probably best, leaving most of the crud in the boiler and then just dumping whatever small amount gets through (plus the cold break).

[ciderhead]

I bought my first conical from Mr Lard about 12 months ago and having it sitting in a tall fridge and controlled by a brewpi as I do a lot of lagers, I replaced the default dump valve with a bigger open bore and a 90 degree bend from the US and as previous posters said i found a really quick opening and closing works best, remembering as I didn't first time to disconnect blow off as otherwise you'll have a starsan adjunct.
Its well finished inside and nowhere for anything to hide.
I passivated with a high conc of starsan but a rinse cleans most.
I replaced the default translucent washers which stained from a lager with red silicone ones again from US. I'm sure they were fine!
I added a male camlock to the drain valve which is very handy for filling and draining into cornies. the first 3-500ml I tip always as always something small in the drain and to avoid oxidation from air in the silicone transfer pipe.
Its good value for money and higher capacity that some of the others that are around which is handy where you have very active fermentations.
Only down side i can see is that although its airtight with springclamps its not really suitable for pressurised fermentation so if thats your bag you'll need to spend a few more bob.

[donchiquon]

By coincidence, that is something I've been trying recently too. It is a very effective way of separating the wort from other stuff, but looses more wort than a good hop/trub filter does - as the sediment dumped early on tends to be fairly wet and soupy. So for me some compromise is probably best, leaving most of the crud in the boiler and then just dumping whatever small amount gets through (plus the cold break).

+1 - I pump from the boiler into the conical through the racking arm, using a large stainless hose braid to filter off most of the trub in the boiler. I dump the rest 48 hours later. I reckon I only lose 400ml doing this.

Back to the OP, one of the things I like with conicals is the ability to rouse the yeast with CO2 through the dump valve. I do this for 4-5 days when I dry hop and think (no evidence except my biased-taste ) it results in a better hop aroma than when I let it sit at the bottom.

Bottling under pressure is also a darn sight quicker! Sometimes I fill the keg one day and the rest of the bottles the next.