The anticipation to brew a beer and ferment it in the conical fermenter built day-by-day once it arrived in mid-December. I decided to brew a hoppy brown ale because I needed to get something hoppy on tap at the house. It would also let me take full advantage of the conical and using the 3″ port on the lid for the dry hop (which was really nice for the dry hop and adding the yeast). Here is a rundown of the major points for the conical.
Sanitizing
I bought a cheap 1-gallon weed sprayer to use to sanitize the conical. It would be easy to spray down everything inside. If it worked. I got it pieced together on brew day and it refused to hold pressure and actually spray. So to sanitize the conical I ended up just pouring it in the top with a measuring cup and using my hands to spread it around on the walls. I ended up with a clean beer so no harm, no foul this time. I did get the sprayer working later and it was helpful in spraying out the ports to keep things clean. Moving forward it will be a really easy method.
Transferring the Wort
It is recommended for the wort to be pumped into the conical from the bottom to fill. I didn’t have the fittings for that on brew day so I just pumped it in through the top. At least until my pump got air into it and I couldn’t get it going again. I ended up dumping the last 3 gallons into the fermenter from the kettle. There were a lot of hops that went with it, but I figured that wouldn’t be a problem since I can dump out the hops and trub (more on that later). I want to get the fittings worked out for pumping in through the bottom. I think that will be a nice clean way to deal with it.
Temperature Control
In my water tests with the heating wraps, I was able to maintain 67 degrees F in the fermenter. Having an actively fermenting beer in the conical was no different. The wrap kept the brown ale where I wanted it. The temperature was cold enough in the winter that I had no need for cooling. A cooling setup is next on my list. I’ll need it soon with spring arriving. Overall, this was a pain free part of the brew.
Dumping the Trub
This was one spot that was disappointing. I could not get the trub and yeast to drop out of the fermenter. Each time I tried I could only get a little bit of hops to come out. In hindsight, I think it may have been an issue with having the blowoff tube still in the liquid. It didn’t allow for a transfer and the pressure was keeping everything static. When I finally got it to dump at the end of fermentation, the hose was no longer in the blowoff sanitizer. When it happened, there was a ton of material (hops, yeast and proteins) that came out. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a robot could poop, dump thick trub out of a conical.
Transfer to the Keg
One of the reasons I got the conical was to be able to do pressurized transfers. I did purchase a second regulator to use away from the keezer, but I did not get the right fittings and hose combination put together before I had to transfer to the keg. I ended up doing a gravity transfer after getting the conical up on a low table. The transfer was fine, but I forgot to clear the racking arm before I started so I ended up with some sediment in each keg (some of the dry hop was still floating on top and kept the second keg from being clear).
When it came time to clean the conical I just sprayed it out with the hose. I was given the clean in place valve for the conical, but I am waiting on the delivery of the last few fittings for that setup so look for a post on that soon.
Overall it was a successful first beer in the conical. On my next brew I am going to be focusing on getting a good process in place for dumping the trub and yeast. That is one of the big benefits of having a conical so I need to get it figured out. I am happy with the conical so far and look forward to many more batches.