Separate Temp controller for FV cone?

[CharlosCarlies]

I know I've seen info about this before on here, but couldn't find the thread again.

Our FV's have a separate thermowell for the cone, and as we're piecing together our glycol system I'm trying to decide how useful having separate cooling zones would be. Does chilling the cone after fermentation is mostly complete actually help much in keeping the yeast viable and are there any potential negative effects on the finished beer?

The difference in cost (per tank) is ~$200 for an actuated ball valve and ~$100 for a controller. Would you guys say it's worth it?

[CraftBeerIndia]

Cone jacket

I strongly encourage you to be able to control/isolate each zone on the tank.
I wouldn't go as far as having a separate temp controller for the cone (expensive), but you can pipe in a manual ball valve that let's you turn flow to the cone jacket on and off. You would typically want the cone "off" during primary and then kick it "on" when you're ready to crash and collect yeast in the cone. One good reason is that during primary fermentation, the natural convection currents form during the process and you want the cooling jackets to encourage cool on top, warm on bottom to encourage that flow