Large 17 Gal Conical Fermenter, Small 5 Gal Batches

by **manplant** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 1:10 pm

A friend of mine built a 17 gal conical. He has been running 5 gal batches, and is not seeing any feremntation off gassing, but his beers are fermenting. It is possible that his lid seal is not good and the CO2 is escaping before it get through the airlock.

Does the significant head space present any theoretical problems that makes this a bad idea?

by **bfabre** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:05 pm

Manplant,
I am glad things have been working out for you so far. What I have read indicates that this would be an extreme amount of head space. You can have the possibility of oxidizing. What might be saving you at this point could be the conical shape reducing the exposure area of the beer to the oxygen. My sugestion: make bigger batches!!!!

Does any one else have other thoughts.