Conical Fermenter - Anyone use one?

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Having thought about this, I think a side by side lager might be a good little exbeeriment, as DBS duly noted, the yeast in a conical will be spread over a smaller area in the cone, where as in a kegmenter the area would conceptually be larger. Will these disparities have an affect on the fermentation and qualities of the beer? Quite obvious lagers have been successfully brewed in both, but is there a fermentation advantage of one over the other? (ie faster? cleaner?)

The othewr question is; can I get the purchase of a kegmenter past the minister of war and finance?
 
oxebar said:
The Fermentasaurus is a bit bulky and I prefer use it for fermenting rather than serving, but serving is still an option for those brewers toying with the idea of kegging and haven't made the plunge (yet).
Hi thanks for reply, this is the part I don't understand, do you put this in the fridge or drink warm beer :) Are you saying you can put in the fridge, then you would need 3 or 4 of them to make another batch and have batches at various stages... I have read about pressure fermenting as a good option, and there is one UK one - but I guess in the UK it is 5 degrees so need for a fridge :) cheers
 
Trustyrusty said:
Hi thanks for reply, this is the part I don't understand, do you put this in the fridge or drink warm beer :) Are you saying you can put in the fridge, then you would need 3 or 4 of them to make another batch and have batches at various stages... I have read about pressure fermenting as a good option, and there is one UK one - but I guess in the UK it is 5 degrees so need for a fridge :) cheers
Most brewers have slid far enough down the slope to already be using a fridge/s as a controlled fermentation chamber.
 
Trustyrusty said:
Hi thanks for reply, this is the part I don't understand, do you put this in the fridge or drink warm beer :) Are you saying you can put in the fridge, then you would need 3 or 4 of them to make another batch and have batches at various stages... I have read about pressure fermenting as a good option, and there is one UK one - but I guess in the UK it is 5 degrees so need for a fridge :) cheers
I ferment in a fridge and can set the temperature, I rarely have the desire to drink warm beer. These days I find that I can brew (ales) faster than I can drink them and I try to have a few full corny kegs before I put a lager on. I can get away with the one of them for the majority of my brewing needs, but I will be setting up another to play around with some sours and long term ageing.
 
Thanks - Do you transfer to they keg under pressure if moving to corny, otherwise you would lose a bit I guess??.... cheers
 
Trustyrusty said:
Thanks - Do you transfer to they keg under pressure if moving to corny, otherwise you would lose a bit I guess??.... cheers
That's the idea, attach co2 @ serving pressure during cold crash, by the time yeast has dropped clear the beer should be fully carbonated. Transfer under pressure or counter pressure bottle fill(CPBF).

My self I only ever bottle for swaps or comps, both of which I use PET's for, be nice not to have to force carb a keg, just to then fill bottles.
 
Trustyrusty said:
Thanks - Do you transfer to they keg under pressure if moving to corny, otherwise you would lose a bit I guess??.... cheers
Like Malt Junkie says, transfer under pressure is definitely preferable. But...
If you were fermenting under pressure with the PRV as blowoff; and the fermenter is sitting at about 2.4 bar; and you only did a 20 litre batch so that there was 15 litres of head space; and you have some super short, slippery, teflon coated transfer lines that you have painted red to make them go faster and also added some speed stripes to be sure; then you may very well be able to fill a 19litre corny without much beer left in the fermenter. It would probably get a bit slow toward the end of the transfer, and the beer would most likely be a bit over carbonated at this pressure unless it was sitting at about 23 deg C.
We actually have a batch on at the moment that meets most of these criteria, it has almost cleared up just fermenting at ambient temperature. I will do a test in a couple of days and let you know how it goes.
 
Great thanks - So I can't get my head around the pressurized fermenter option unless brewed in there, took out the trub, cleared the yeast in cold crashing, left in the fridge as a storage vessel and server which is great but then you would have own have about 4 or 5 . The normal ferment and transfer to a keg or bottle sounds the go.... What I have missed? thanks
 
The serve from, I would view as a final option when all your kegs are loaded and you CBF botting. Pressure fermenting is an entire topic to itself there are advantages to using this method.
 
Thanks I that is what I have missed :), I keg and bottle a few left over...so I was not even thinking of bottling... cheers
 
Has anyone tried kegking’s 60 litre conical? At $599 it looks good.
 
I sent mine back at it was shiny on the outside and ****** on the inside.
Some of the welds were beyond grinding with some looking like they were actual holes.
They may have opened a few boxes and looked at them after that.
 
I sent mine back at it was shiny on the outside and ****** on the inside.
Some of the welds were beyond grinding with some looking like they were actual holes.
They may have opened a few boxes and looked at them after that.

Wow that’s good to know, thanks for sharing. I guess that’s why they were cheap. May as well spend a few hundred bucks more and get better quality. Especially given it’s something that should last a long time.
 
They said they were some prototypes that they decided not to progress with.
They were unable to send images of the insides which I think was because it was wrapped on mini pallet rather than they knew they were not of merchantabie quality.
 
I have a Keg King conical and it is fine, well worth the money, looks like you got one that slipped through quality control.
 
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