Okay,
Conical fermenters, either plastic or stainless.
Why the racking port? Wouldn’t you just flush all the yeast out the bottom and rack from there?
Why is the racking port so high above the cake? Seems to me you leave a lot of good wort behind.
Thanks!
Gonzo
The racking port in a conical is usually located at a place where it is above the main body of yeast and debris at all times, and in most cases a racking arm/tube is used that allows the brewer to reach above the debris to start racking clear beer and then rotate until it goes down far enough to hit the lowest usable point in the conical. You will never get the last few ounces from the bottom of the cone, so you need to calculate that into your brewing volumes and expect it.
All that said, draining the yeast and debris through the bottom port still leaves residuals on the sides that would find its way into your beer if the bottom port was used for racking. Using a conical for your process will always result in some additional loss of wort when you drop the yeast and debris anyway.
While conicals are industry-standard for a lot of commercial operations, they may not be the best choice for your process in this hobby for a number of reasons, especially at 5 gallon batch sizes.
ya cant go wrong with buckets and carboys and better bottles, they are so much cheaper than conicals.
Oh, I have no intention of buying one, I was just curious.
Thanks for the answers though!
I bought a V-Vessel (plastic) conical without a racking port a few years ago. After a few uses it was scratched from cleaning. I also learned that the settled yeast sticks to the sides - until near the end of the transfer into a keg. It was an expensive mistake.
I’ve gone back to a plastic bucket with a bottling port. I clean it with a soft cloth and lots of hot water, then soak in star-san. After a year I’ll toss the bucket and blow $12 on a new one. Glass carboys are great, but they’re hard to clean and I’ve broken my quota of them.
Racking port: good
Conicals: not worth the cost
Carboys: not for me
Bottling bucket: great compromise
