Blichmann | CORNICAL™ UNITANK - Conical Fermenter Fermentation Kit and Keg

The Cornical™ Unitank is a unique fermentation and kegging system like nothing on the market. How does it all work? We offer the modular keg and the conical fermentation kit as separate products to add versatility and save you money! The first product is a keg system with a removable bottom that makes cleaning ridiculously fast and easy. The second product is a versatile conical bottom that clamps onto the keg and converts it into a pressure capable fermenter. This allows you to purchase multiple kegs and utilize the fermentation kit simply by switching the cone bottom to the keg bottom after fermentation.  Then you dispense in the keg, and can utilize the cone on another keg to ferment an additional batch. So revolutionary it is patent pending! Want to krausen your beer so it is carbonated and ready to drink when fermentation is complete? Cornical is your choice!! Looking for a great easy to clean keg? Looking for a full featured fermenter? Look no further - cornical is your choice!

Key features include:

• All-in-one vessel for fermenting, carbonating, and dispensing
• Rotating rack arm with aseptic sampling and racking valve
• Modular design allows use as both a fermenter and serving keg
• Removable bottom makes cleaning fast and simple
• Full 1.5" sanitary butterfly dump valve for yeast harvesting and trub dumping
• Sanitary fittings for contamination-free beer
• Pressure capability up to 50 PSI for carbonating, filtering, counter pressure transfers, and dispensing
• Ultra-low oxygen pickup during use
• Easy-to-use lid hatch for dry hopping and secondary additions
• Optional wall mounting bracket
• Keg and conical kit assembled in America

Facts:

The Cornical™ has several inherent features that makes it an extremely low oxygen pickup product compared to traditional fermenters.  The pressure capability and ability to eliminate a transfer to another vessel are clear advantages.

First a few facts about oxygen pickup and handling of beer post fermentation.

When fermentation is complete, the entire head space is filled with CO2 and dissolved oxygen in the beer is near zero. Assuming, of course, that you’ve not let air in while taking samples or dumping yeast. More on that in a bit. While CO2 is heavier than air, gasses do mix fairly quickly so when purging any vessel in preparation for transferring beer, it is important to cover it to keep air from mixing in with the CO2.

Gasses don’t dissolve quickly into liquids. Wort/beer oxygenation and carbonation take long periods of time or lots of surface area and pressure. That is why brewers use porous stones to accelerate the process. Where you ARE likely to generate long term exposure to oxygen is taking samples late in fermentation since air replaces the volume of the sample. Also while dumping yeast as the yeast volume is replaced by air. To prevent this, the head space must be purged after each sample with CO2.

This is where the Cornical™ really shines! It is simple to add a little pressure to the vessel that will keep any oxygen out of the vessel when taking samples or dumping yeast and the CO2 will simply expand to fill the additional head space! And with the Cornical you’ve got the option of using it as a traditional conical fermenter, or use the convenient “flip and switch” to convert it to a dispensing keg without transferring the beer!

After fermentation there is nearly zero oxygen in the beer or head space. So the flipping process is done completely in an oxygen free environment!  Of course it is important to exchange the conical bottom to the keg bottom as quickly as possible to minimize air mixing with the CO2. Even though CO2 is heavier than air, it will mix with air fairly quickly.  But fortunately the dissolution of gasses in liquids is very slow. So when you flip the keg back over, there will be some air/O2 contact with the beer in large bubbles. But you will purge all this air out as you do with any keg with 4-5 pressurizations and releases of the pressure relief valve. 

Dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements of Cornical were taken pre-flip, immediately post-flip, and 24 hours post-flip. All readings were under 0.6 PPM and there was no measurable increase in DO levels at all times of the test!

Another focus of the design was eliminating the transfer to a second keg if the user desired. As such, we tested long term exposure of the beer to the polyphenols in the krausen ring on the side of the keg body after fermentation. While we recommend that delicate lightly flavoured beers (Kolsch, Helles etc) be transferred to a second clean vessel, fuller bodied beers of moderate hopping levels were not affected by this. The Brulosophy folks did a similar study and confirm these findings. Note that the use of Fermcap does significantly reduce the krausen ring.

That said, the beauty of the Cornical is its modularity and multiple ways to utilize it. It isn’t a “one way or the highway” product. If time and convenience are important to you, then flip and dispense in the same vessel! Or if you're a purist and just want a full featured fermenter at a competitive price the Cornical™ is a great option!  It is also an amazingly simple keg to clean.

What are some new features that the pressure capability gives you? Counter-pressure filling of kegs, pushing beer through a filter, natural carbonation, and high pressure fermentation. Blichmann Engineering is currently doing a detailed test with Chris White of White Labs to quantify the ester suppression of fermenting at up to 30 PSI. There has been a lot of buzz about this lately and we developed the Cornical with this in mind. Results should be published in a couple months. White Labs and Purdue University will be measuring ester content and yeast health. Gordon Strong and other top-notch judges will do a blind sensory evaluation of the beers. It is looking promising to ferment lagers in a couple weeks at room temperature. Future research will test ales fermented at elevated temperatures.