Bottling with a conical

[Eightball]

Hi

I have just put my first brew in my new ss conical fermentor. I am trying to figure out how I will bottle from it when I do, it obviously has a nice racking valve built in that can connect onto easily and I could directly fill the bottle from it which would be great and minimise contact with air. However, do I really want to put the priming sugar into the primary fermentor, and dare I say stir it? I will be able to dump trub, but guessing its never perfect and stiring it seems wrong. Or do I add it and wait a a few hours until its mixed itself?

Is anyone already doing a similar process and what do you recommend? Should I just use my bottleing bucket again?

 

[TartanSpecial]

I've got a ss chronicle and still use a brew bucket. Difference is that I fit a decent sized silicone hose and lift the chronicle onto the worktop so it fills the bottling bucket (25ltr wine fermenter) a lot quicker than when I used to syphon from a FV bucket using the normal smallish bore tubing. Given the trub and yeast end up at the bottom of the conical you could probably get away will bottling directly stirring the piriming sugar in, but I use a bottling wand that doesn't fit on the racking arm barb.

 

[soggydog]

I've been thinking about the same question. Since I've been using my Ss conical, I've just dropped in the sugar and stirred really gently. I think the sugar just fell to the bottom as the last two batches are pretty flat but not sweet.
I'll probably use a secondary next time, although I am reluctant to use plastic after getting obsessed with stainless. It will only be in for s short time so might go for it anyway.
I might even go back to half a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle.

 

[soggydog]

Re. The racking arm, I've added a bit of 7mm bore tube to some 9mm bore to get my bottle stick to work.

 

[bilhound]

How do you approach dry hopping in a conical?

The trub 'dumper' is an excellent idea, but how would you filter the leafy hops out when transferring to a secondary/bottling fermenter?

I'm about to try a batch for the first time with a conical, but a bit worried as it's quite a hoppy recipe!

 

[soggydog]

I put the hops in a muslim bag, tie it up and drop them in. The hop bag floats though so is limited.
What were you planning to rack into?
Are you using just a normal bucket?
I'm ready to go tomorrow with racking my latest into the plastic fermenter.

 

[bilhound]

Both corny kegs and bottles are on my list of dispensing methods! I don't think I'll be using a bucket anytime soon.

I too have a bottle wand and am not sure if it'll fit on the large tube that came with the fermenter.

 

[soggydog]

I bought an attachment from the malt Miller
http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=969

and some 9mm silicon tube from Brew uk with a 7mm short tube to make it fit.

Getting ready to rack into the old fermenter to prime and then bottle.
How are you going to prime your bottles?

 

[bilhound]

That's a good plan, I may have to borrow it!

So far I've been using coopers priming drops - like boiled sweets, 1 to each bottle (500ml) seems to work quite well.