brewtech ss conical

[spanspoon]

to any owners of a brewtech conical...do you or do you think it would be possible to prime then bottle direct from the fermenter? just thinking this could save some time racking to secondary and prevent some contamination and o2 issues.

[Bunglebrewsbeer]

I don't have one ( yet ) but I was wondering about doing this also as I'm going to be upping my volumes so this would be far easier than messing about moving liquid to other containers.


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[donchiquon]

I have the 14 gallon version and think your plan could work. You would need to be pretty rigorous about dumping all the yeast after crashing, possibly tapping the bottom of the cone to get as much out as possible.

There is however a certain amount of residue stuck on the cone, so you have to stir very gently so as to dislodge as little as possible.

You might find there was still too much residue making it into the bottles.

I keg and bottle direct, filling about half a dozen bottles from the end of the conical. I do this under 2psi as a closed system.

I don't bother to prime the bottles and have always found that they carbonate nicely after 6+ weeks.

[Kev888]

Although the OP is specifically about the SS conical, this is pretty much the same for all similar types, perhaps with subtle differences depending on how polished the inside is. The dump valve lets you remove the vast majority of yeast and sediment, but there is usually still a dusting/layer left clinging onto the cone. How compacted this layer is depends on the type of yeast and probably whether you crash cooled or waited long enough for lots to settle out.

If stirred in, there isn't enough to dramatically increase sediment in the bottle but it does add a little, plus makes the beer a tad cloudier at bottling time. It isn't uncommon in industry to use a bright tank after the conical stage prior to bottling. These are available in homebrew scales (at a price) or you could just use a keg. But if you don't want to bulk mature and clear outside the FV, then ignoring the slight extra sediment, using a bottling bucket, or priming bottles individually would be options. There would also be filtering but IMO thats a lot of effort and faff.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

You can get problems with unevenly mixed priming solution as you don't have an easy way of ensuring it mixes well, that doesn't involve agitation, which will disturb your sediment and introduce O2.

I would use a keg as a bright tank and prime in there instead

[Secla]

Why not force carb if your kegging ?

[spanspoon]

i don't keg anymore and back to bottling...i prefer bottles!
sediment and a slight cloudiness wouldn't concern me too much and i would add priming sugar in liquid form.
maybe a silly question but with the ss brewtech, can you tap off the yeast?

[Kev888]

You can harvest yeast from any (proper ~60 degree) conical FV that has a bottom dump valve (some FVs have shallow coned or dished bases, but they aren't the same). Generally you would dump and discard the initial sediment, as that will include a lot of rubbish and cells that died prematurely. Then somewhat later you can dump/collect clean healthy slurry. Finally you can dump and discard cells which were less flocculant and settled late (in some cases along with dry pellet hops that sank).

Though for some kinds of top-fermenting yeast scooping the krausen is another good option, and you can also extract some fermenting wort into a small bottle to finish and settle out free from any dry hopping etc. So conicals aren't the only way to harvest yeast early.

[Fil]

if you can chill to sub 0c temps then at the 5psi conicals can generally contain you should be able to condition with pressure over a week or so in the fv prior to bottling bright perhaps ?? Its late and im just thinking aloud 'again'..