Conical fermenter & yeast harvest

[jaybie]

If I do not plan to harvest yeast for reuse is there any advantage of a conical fermenter over a flat-bottomed one? Is there a disadvantage?

Cheers all,

JB

[adomant]

Flat one - easier to store and move around, works better where yeast circulation is less imporant (e.g. wheat beer) but have to use syphoning to remove dead yeast and trub or racking beer / wort (unless having a tap to transfer to another vessel).

Conical - No syphoning or seperate vessel needed, waste can be dumped out the bottom valve as well as yeast, beer can be racked off. Yeast circulation can make a difference in fermentation for many styles

[jaybie]

Thanks Adomant

I have both available, the flat-bottoms have a tap and these are what I normally use. I also have a 60L conical, but it has no racking arm fitted. Ideally I would prefer not to pierce the side of the tank to fit one. Do you or anyone else have experience of using a conical without a racking arm? Or is it just a non-starter?

JB

[adomant]

Racking arm just salvages more beer you can rack from the tap without it

[jaybie]

Cheers Adomant. However I should rephrase:

Do you or anyone else have experience of using a conical without a second tap in the side of the cone? Or is it just a non-starter?

Cheers,

JB

[darkonnis]

You need the tap in the side to really get the full benefits of a conical. As valves aren't too dear I'd definitely add one.
The benefits being:
You can leave the yeast where it is and rack off from above it
You can dry hop and let the hops sink and rack off from above them
Opening the bottom valve releases a plume of trub temporarily clouding your beer, this trub then has to settle back down again. (this was in a magazine debate, so how much of an issue it is I don't know) meaning that in theory you would have to pop the tap atleast twice to get trub free bottles/kegs as you have no way of getting the beer out without disturbing the bottom.

Thats what springs to mind at the minute, I dare say you could get away without it, but the cost of a tap compared to a conical not being used to its greatest extent is an easy decision for me.

[Aleman]

Do you or anyone else have experience of using a conical without a second tap in the side of the cone? Or is it just a non-starter?

Well it's not really a non starter . . . It does make things harder, and for me the big plus point of a conical is that it is simple to use.

With just a bottom valve you can pull off, Trub, yeast, Finings etc, if there is any disturbance then just let it settle. Then if you want clear beer, you have to syphon out of the conical, which for me would be a no no I'm a lazy beggar

With the side port on my conical, I simply pull off any debris 24 hours before racking, and then rack clear beer directly into the corny/cask . . . or even bottle using my Beer Gun . . . and I don't have to worry about breaking the syphon.