Boil Kettle build question

[Frankenhop]

Ok, so this may seem out of left field but hear me out. I'm in the middle of designing a new electric HERMS boil kettle system and I'm wondering, is there a practical reason (other than safety concerns) why we never see conical boil kettles? We're always talking about the virtues of a yeast dump capability for fermentation, so I'm looking to replicate that feature earlier in the process.

I'm thinking that if you take a standard 60* angled conical such as Toledo Metal Spinnings conicals), weld on boiler fixtures (tri-clamp dump valve/sight glass assembly, sight level tube, HERMS inlet/outflow tri-clamp ports, temperature probe port, etc), and then rig an insulation jacket there's not any real practical reason I can see why this couldn't work. Being an all SS304 build the temperature of the wort wouldn't be a mechanical issue and, if using a Jamil-style recirculating/immersion cooler, the end result of the whirlpool stage would be (I think) a nice and tidy trub pile right over the dump port.

This could all be my overactive engineering imagination looking for a reason to weld some shit together, but really, is there any reason this wouldn't work that I've missed?

[andy77]

There's a guy on the brewboard called OldFart that actually boils in his conical. He boils, chills, pitches right there and then seals up his conical and ferments. Works for him, he cuts a step out of his process, and he knows his conical is sanitized.

[Mylo]

Seems way too far out of an idea for me. How are you going to heat that thing? I think that most, if not all of your hops would fall down into the cone prematurely and you would loose hop efficiency. It's really not conducive to convection currents that would keep things in suspension. I think you might be overthinking the importance of removing trub from the fermenting beer. You'd be better off using that cone for fermenting, and dropping any trub that you did manage to transfer out before fermentaion starts.


Mylo

[aleguy]

I can't see any reason it wouldn't work, but I agree with mylo. Having some cold break in the primary is supposed to be good for the yeast, and there might be an issue with hop utilization.
On the other hand, I'm all for experimentation. Especially when it's not my money on the line.