I am doing the maiden run of my new conical with a Wheat beer.
Recipe as follows
BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout -
http://www.beersmith.comRecipe: White Wheat Hoppimania II
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph the Wonderdog
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 3.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 44.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 66.7 %
3 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 33.3 %
0.50 oz Amarillo [9.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 3 20.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 4 17.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 6.6 IBUs
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 12.25 qt of water at 164.7 F 150.0 F 75 min
I used Nottingham yeast.
I found the conical to be extremely easy to sanitize. I put 2.5 gallons of star san in it, made sure it contacted entire interior with a paper towel. I drained all I could through the "spigot" ball valve, then let the rest out the bottom. No need to lift the conical at all. I checked for any leaks while I was at it. I must say I really do like the tri clamps.
Once I had my beer in the thing I sealed it up. Instead of using a #7 stopper with an air lock I put the 90 degree barb in the top that I bought for pressurizing the thing to push the beer out instead of siphoning.
I then put a hose on that leading to the bucket of star san, I ran that through and air lock grommet, and left the lid loose and slightly off for pressure to escape.
The next morning bubbles were being blown into the star san at about the speed of an automatic weapon you hear on the movies. Ambient temperature in that room is 67 degrees. My beer was at 68. Before work that day I checked on it and it was blowing like an aquarium pump and the temperature of the wort was 74. When I got home from work last night it was still blowing and wort was 75. That's 8 degrees over ambient temperature of the room. I am not fond of Hefs but it looks like I am making one.
My overall impression with this thing is it is a bit less work than my buckets when making beer. But I haven't had to clean it yet. I suspect that is going to be a trade off. I will be able to dump the yeast cake out the bottom so I won't have to clean much of that out, but I will have ball valves to disassemble and clean. Also I never watched the fermenting temperatures in my buckets. So I don't know if this is holding more heat or not. I might need to look into a way to control it. I will wait and see what happens next time I use it. I have rarely had fermentations this active so this might be a unique situation.