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Primary Fermenter

noreaster

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For years now I've been using a plastic fermentation bucket. I've been thinking about trying a plastic conical mainly because I'm sick of trying not to siphon off the cold break into my primary. Many times I end up with less than the 5 gallons I'm trying to get because I leave it behind. I only have so much room in my boil kettle so it's not like I can have a bigger volume boil.

Anyway, I was thinking that it'd be easier to get rid of the cold break by drawing it off from the bottom. I can't really afford a stainless steel conical, especially for 5 gallon batches. So I was thinking of the plastic ones. Then the more I read the more it sounds like I shouldn't get one because of the sanitation issues. So now I'm thinking of buying and using a 6 gallon glass carboy for my primary. But then I'm back to the reason I wanted a conical in the first place, trying to leave behind the cold break/trub. But at least with glass it'd be easier to sanitize.

So, I guess I'm opening this up to thoughts and/or opinions. Anyone regularly use plastic conical fermenters? If so, how long have you been using them and any problems? Or how do others deal with leaving behind the cold break/trub when siphoning into the fermenter?

Thanks.
 
noreaster said:
For years now I've been using a plastic fermentation bucket. I've been thinking about trying a plastic conical mainly because I'm sick of trying not to siphon off the cold break into my primary. Many times I end up with less than the 5 gallons I'm trying to get because I leave it behind. I only have so much room in my boil kettle so it's not like I can have a bigger volume boil.

Anyway, I was thinking that it'd be easier to get rid of the cold break by drawing it off from the bottom. I can't really afford a stainless steel conical, especially for 5 gallon batches. So I was thinking of the plastic ones. Then the more I read the more it sounds like I shouldn't get one because of the sanitation issues. So now I'm thinking of buying and using a 6 gallon glass carboy for my primary. But then I'm back to the reason I wanted a conical in the first place, trying to leave behind the cold break/trub. But at least with glass it'd be easier to sanitize.

So, I guess I'm opening this up to thoughts and/or opinions. Anyone regularly use plastic conical fermenters? If so, how long have you been using them and any problems? Or how do others deal with leaving behind the cold break/trub when siphoning into the fermenter?

Thanks.

Yeah, plastic fermenters definetly have a shelf life.  But how long they actually last depends on how well you take care of it.  My advise would be to brew for a 5.5 gallon batch if you really want to leave the cold break behind and still get 5 gallons in the carboy.
 
Not sure how you do the buckets but I installed spigots on the bottom of mine so I don't need to use a racking cane.  The primary has the port about 1 inch from the bottom, the secondary is half an inch and the bottling bucket is as close to the bottom as I could get.  This allows me to easily drain from the primary to the secondary leaving the trub behind.  As the primary gets near the bottom, I look inside and tip the bucket to slide the trub so it fills the space below the port maximizing the amount of beer that goes to the secondary. Similar from secondary to bottling bucket.

Been working for me for over 7 years.
 
Can you add a s/s scrubby and/or nylon mesh to end of siphon to filter out the crap and keep it out of the fermenter?  As the hops collect around my scrubby it makes a great filter.
 
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