New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Brewing => Equipment => Topic started by: Waterlogged on August 06, 2014, 01:04:42 PM
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Found this on the American Home Brewers website and it looks really cool. Wall mounted conical fermentor with yest collector and tubing. My only concern would be temperature control. Anyway, they are 90 apeaice or if you order 4, $80. They also ship to canada but then it is $120 or 105 for 4. Would anyone be interested in ordering 1 of 4?
https://www.thefastrack.ca/main
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I too like the idea, but the temp control issue is too big to overlook for me. I've been looking at glycol systems to add to the wish list, but I think that's a bit ambitious at this point, haha.
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It's an interesting idea but i think it's overpriced for a plastic fermenter. You can get a "SS Brew Bucket" for twice that price and it'll last forever. Also you can get a kit to turn a sanke keg into a presure fermenter.
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I see these are now available at Noble Grape for $119. Wall mount included, but a floor stand is available for $40 and a carrying strap is $20.
The manufacturer says the height on the floor stand to the top of the airlock is 37". I think I can fit that in my keezer/ferm chamber.
I might just be buying one of these once the "Don't buy anything for yourself before Christmas" ban is over. I really like the idea of separating the yeast and then racking directly from the bottom of the conical without having to sanitize/use a siphon. Hot oxiclean should make cleaning simple too.
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I do like this setup but am concerned about temp control. I guess a heating belt would fit around this.
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I pulled the trigger on one of these a few weeks ago, and have just finished my first ferment cycle with one. The short story is that it works great and is a pretty good value.
I did a lot of reading on this thing before using it and there's a long thread on HBT that documents a lot of best practices and problems people ran into. One of the main concerns for people is that the lid doesn't seal, but mine didn't have a problem. I used teflon tape on the threaded connections, performed a leak test and cleaned and sanitized.
The common suggestion was to wait 12 hours for the kettle cold break to settle into the ball, dump that and then pitch. I decided to follow this advice, but I may not do this in the future due to the preference of having yeast working as quick as possible to defend against infection.
The unit on the stand fit perfectly into my keezer (with collar). I used a blowoff as the airlock was too high for the lid to close. This fermentation was done quite quickly, it was within two points after 3.5 days. At this point, I wanted to harvest the yeast but couldn't get at the ball when it was in the keezer as it was awkward. So I pulled the fermenter out at this point and left it out. I do this with most of fermentations anyway, as my Keezer does double duty serving and controlling fermentation temps. I usually do 4-5 days in the keezer, then 7-10 days at room temp.
I've got pictures below of the yeast just before my first harvest. I shut the valve off and let it settle for a couple hours and you can see where the yeast started to settle above the valve. You can also see where the yeast in the ball continued to ferment, so when I disconnected I had a bit of a mess. Overall, I got a mason jar about 3/4 full of slurry. I use a hop spider so this yeast looks pretty clean.
When I reconnected the ball and opened the valve, the yeast was very slow to go back into the collection ball, but it eventually all did after a couple hours. At one point I thought I could just open the valve and dump the trub into a bucket, but now I can see that it wouldn't work and I'd likely lose a lot of beer.
On keg day, I lifted this rig onto the counter top to get some height. Side note- this rig is awkward, the straps they sell make it manageable. To keg, all you have to do is remove the collection ball, and attach a hose attachment and let it rip. This thing drained into the keg in about 60 seconds. I'm slightly concerned with how fast that went and potential splashing that could lead to oxidation. I will slow it down on the next try.
Anyway, like I said I'm happy with this and think it's a great value. Let me know if you have any questions!
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Cool. Thanks for the update. The fellas a NG said they've sold many, many of these.
The design is interesting and I can see that'it can be a bit cumbersome in certain situations.
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I had read some reviews that mentioned it was difficult getting a seal on the ball/valve area. I assume you used teflon there as well?
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Yes I did, and no issues at all
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Not to bring alive an old topic, but have been reading up on these recently and I am interested in getting one.
My only question, as I don't keg, and put my beer in bottles, using this pretty much eliminates any batch priming to bottle, since you are using it for both primary and secondary, the ring of krausen on the top would get mixed back into the beer once you add the priming sugar and give it a stir so it is mixed thoroughly. I suppose one could dump into a bucket to batch prime, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
So then the only alternative is to bottle prime (which is a PITA), or the carbonation drops (pricey)?
I suppose you could gently stir it, trying not to disturb the left over krausen on the sides, but wouldn't really want to get it into the beer it self. Filter it maybe?
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It should be pretty straight forward. Gently siphon or attach a tube to the drain end and let it fill your bottling bucket with your pre measured amount of priming sugar and water. You never want to stir your beer because you'll likely oxidize it. Just the action of it filling the bucket will sufficiently mix your sugar solution throughout the beer for batch priming. I don't personally have one but this how I'd do it if I was bottling. Maybe @Two Wheeler (http://nbcba.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2007) has some advice for ya.
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I have not personally bottled from the FF, but I have read some people have online. There's a mega thread on HBT that people have discussed this. But what Roger is saying would work just fine too... as long as you gently rack into the bottling bucket you shouldn't have a problem.
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Yeah, basically what I do now, rack from secondary carboy into a bottling bucket, I never stir it, put the boiled water/priming sugar in the bucket, hose reaches the bottom of the bucket so it is just the force of the auto siphon that mixes it...never had an issue. Just figured it was an extra step with the FF, but didn't see a way around it with out disturbing the caked krausen at the top.
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If you rigged something up to connect the bottle filler wand (http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Plastic_Bottle_Filler_Home_Brew_Beer_Bottling_p/plastic-bottle-filler.htm) to the bottom of your FF you could always bottle directly and use carbonation tablets (http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/Brewer_s_Best_Conditioning_Tablets_p/bb-conditioning-tablets.htm).
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saw this yesterday
http://www.northernbrewer.com/the-last-straw-bottle-filler
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What about dry hopping with a Fast Ferment?
Don't want to put hops in while it is fermenting (or would you?), and don't really want to take the top off, to throw a bag of hops in to dry hop, as you would loose that CO2 cap protecting the beer.
Do you suppose that just adding hops to the collection ball once primary fermentation is done would do it? Or would that be a waste? Is it really that detrimental to take the top off and loose the CO2 barrier in the top of the fermenter?
Pretty much doing the same when transferring from a primary fermentation carboy to a secondary one and then dry hopping.
Thoughts?
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There are some guys that insist on using half their dry hop addition within a week of pitching yeast. They claim that they get more punch when the hops and yeast interact while the yeast is very active. I think the brulosophy guy is one of them.
Of course it would be ideal to be able to add dry hops without exposing the beer to any oxygen. But for most home brewers that's not an option. Unfortunately.
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I'm just thinking we already do it using buckets and carboys, and usually to no ill effect. Just everything I read about the FF, you don't want to take that top cover off.
Gotta think you gotta crack it a bit when you go to empty it, otherwise it is going to create a) either a vapor lock, or b) suck the fluid in the air lock into your beer, and thus pulling O2 in with it, (or both)
Just trying to decide if Santa should bring me one of these this year.
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I've dry hopped in the FF. I don't see it as being much different than throwing hops into the top of a carboy. Like @robcoombs (http://nbcba.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2012) said, not much you can do about it really.
This product isn't for everyone.
Pros- Easily remove/harvest trub and yeast. No racking.
Cons- Awkward shape, Must use thread tape, different than what you're used to (need to think on your feet)
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The only issue I have with mine is when there is a large amount of trub it will block up the bottom of the cone. I waited too long to change out the ball so now it's just a ball of air :facepalm: I'll have to get better at leaving kettle trub or use the FF for beers with fewer hops.
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The only issue I have with mine is when there is a large amount of trub it will block up the bottom of the cone. I waited too long to change out the ball so now it's just a ball of air :facepalm: I'll have to get better at leaving kettle trub or use the FF for beers with fewer hops.
If you can get a dremel or drill or something that vibrates, and hold it against the side of the FF you can sometimes loosen up the clog.
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Good idea. I have a multimax that will do the trick. Gotta work better than slapping it around.
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On sale right now at OBK: http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/FastFerment_Kit_p/bfcm-fast-ferment-kit.htm (http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/FastFerment_Kit_p/bfcm-fast-ferment-kit.htm)