Blichmann Conical

[barneey]

Yep thats right I have acquired another conical to try out, my conical adventure so far :-
1) Italian conical (with the machine turned pattern).
2) Morebeer conical
3) Willis conical
4) USA conical
& finally up to present day a Blichmann conical.

A few pictures, I have to adjust the legs somewhat for the brew fridge (note I only use the fridge as a container for the conical - temp control is via the maxi build)



a shiny blow off bucket



The coils



The adaption to the corny lid

[chris2012]

Nice

You should post a review of each of them, if you haven't already!

Have you seen the Chronical too, I quite fancy one of those if I had some money heh.

[barneey]

The reviews are all on here somewhere, all have there + & - points.

I have yet to see a chronical in the flesh so cant comment on those, maybe one day ...........

[AFewTooMany]

What would be the chance of a summary/comparison review of them all in one place

[barneey]

1) Italian conical (with the machine turned pattern).
Although usable the build quality of the thing left a lot to be desired & some of the welding was hit or miss - so wouldn't buy another.

2) Morebeer conical
The best conical I have ever owned both in terms of features & build quality.

3) Willis conical
Built like a tank, it really is a solid piece of kit, why they put a screw in thermometer rather than a triclover fitting always puzzled me, overall a good conical & I will miss it.

4) USA conical
Another good conical, albeit it did take them 4 attempts to send me a good example, some of the early one I was sent were rough around the edges, good solid conical though.

5) Blichmann conical.
Much the same as the morebeer conical build wise, my only complaint is that I DONT like the racking arm arrangement, being a weldless fitting it doesn't turn all that well to the point I replace the arrangement with something better.

After the morebeer conical I started to modify the conical with various bit to get better use out of them. The Blichmann has the most modifications to date & once I have the racking arm sorted it should be up there at the top.

Weldless v welded fittings, as long as you have a good cleaning technique I don't prefer one over the other.

[Hanglow]

Looks the dogs bollocks

I'm still happy with buckets but I wouldn't say no to a nice shiny conical

[Aaron]

Please give me some tips on how you bent that stainless tube without kinking.

[barneey]

I use the BES 3/8 stainless tubing (for compression NOT threading).

You will need some sort of former to bend the tube around, I use a pub style gas cylinder, a standard 8/10/12 pipebender (note the cheap ones are not meant to be used on stainless but they will work - however the tool life will be compromised).

Mark the stainless tube in the centre, for the next bit you need two of you, one to hold the tube against the former and one to bend the tube around the former. When you have the shape / number of coils required use the pipebender to bend the tails upwards, this is the most difficult bit to do. Make sure you have the coil stretched out to where you want it before doing the last tail otherwise the position of them will change.

[Aaron]

Thanks. What are the fittings you've got on the ends of the coils?

[barneey]

They are just a stainless bolt drill out to accept the tube + lock nut.