Ahh. So in reality, though not pointless, a conical offers little over a standard bucket, except that I could avoid transferring to a bottling bucket because I could just bottle straight from my conical after draining all the solids from the fermenter on bottling day.
I donāt think yours has one but with a side port you can collect yeast and take a hydrometer sample. I would think you could dump trub,empty the ball and at some point after get a sample or collect yeast. Is there a way to remove the ball then connect tubing to bottle directly from it? It would mean adding the priming sugar to the bottles unless you were to stir the sugar in. Donāt give up on it yet. They can be a great fermenter.
You still need to mix in the priming sugar for bottling unless you prime each bottle. Pita for a large batch. Much more practical if you keg.
Any reason after dumping the trub from a conical you couldnāt boil up some priming sugar and mix it into the conical then bottle right from it @brew_cat I have always kegged from mine so I never tried it.
I use fizz drops in each bottle, it just works better for me.
Iām not giving up on it. I just donāt yet understand the best method to use this equipment and I donāt want to waste any beer trying to figure it out. So Iām trying to figure it all out before I go back to using it.
So in reality, I open butterfly valve immediately upon pouring the wort in, then take away trub onceā¦ then leave any trub that is left behind in the conical l in there all throughout primary AND secondary, then I would empty at bottling day one or two timesā¦ Then just bottle straight from the butterfly valve. Would that make sense?
Do I need to worry about oxidation on bottling day? Meaning could I empty solids 3-4 times before bottling, or would that lead to the same issues? I just feel like 4 or so times is what it takes to get the solids completely out
Seems like that thing is notorious for leaking.
Second, am I missing somethingā¦ I donāt see a side valve. Without a racking valve above the trub itās kind of pointless. Unless of course you drop another U. Grant for this racking attachment.
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There is no side valve. Itās on the bottom of the cone, comes with a Barb attachment for the valve to connect to tubing
You could also start with a bigger vessel to collect as much trub as possible with the valve OPEN. This would prevent you from having open a valve with a container full of O2.
I thought the same thing. Just open the valve as I siphon the beer into the fermenter with a larger collection bottle attached. Then, after primary fermentation is complete, I can close the valve and remove the solids.
Then I would only remove solids one final time on bottling day, and I would fill the collection ball with CO2 before doing so
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That sounds goodā¦ But still sucking in O2ā¦ I know HD has weighed in about thisā¦ And Loopie tooā¦ I have to go back to what causes those off flavorsā¦ Brewingās biggest culprits are, sanitation and O2ā¦ Blue59 youāve got the cleaning/santizing under your beltā¦ The O2 with the new gizmo would be my focal pointā¦ Where, How and whyā¦ Iāll stop beating this horseā¦ my brew cups worthā¦ 
Sneezles61
Lots of us use some kind of priming tablets. They are especially handy to bottle only a few. You can also try the @flars (R.I.P. Frank) method of using Domino Dots sugar cubes. They are cheap and work. If the fizz drops work for you, keep using them.
Back to your conical. I use not only the conical but also glass carboys and buckets. The buckets are starting to get more use than the glass though. After some use and probably some frustration you will find a place for your conical. It might be your primary fermenter or just for certain brews. Always nice to have options.
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