Fermzilla

[Grmblz]

A narrower vessel like the FKJ is going to have a slight edge, as 1cm height of beer is less volume. So I would expect the FKJ to be very good for this. It does have its own volume limitations though, so up to the user what is best for them.

I use an all rounder, once I'm down to the last 5L or so, I rotate it about 20 degrees or so on the stand, and typically get 2-300ml beer left in there at a stab. How do you end up with 5L of beer still in there?

They are talking about the float jamming/sticking to the side of the vessel before it is empty, in that scenario a narrower vessel should be at a disadvantage, ^^ obviously this is not the case.
Why do you need to rotate the all rounder? I like to connect a keg and not faff around until it blows, and when that happens I want it to be empty.
Width is the other issue, I have a 4 keg serving fridge, and a 2 keg serving fridge, if I used all rounders as uni-tanks I would be left with 2 x 1 keg fridges, this applies to all the pressure PET fermenters of course except for the fkj which holds 18lt only 1lt less than a corny, horses for courses, and very much process dependant but if you are having to prat around with your vessel of choice give an fkj a go, for $60 it's cheap enough to trial, and they don't leak or blow up, well, not yet.

 

[mynameisrodney]

They are talking about the float jamming/sticking to the side of the vessel before it is empty, in that scenario a narrower vessel should be at a disadvantage, ^^ obviously this is not the case.

OK I missed that, I haven't had the float stick to the side so didn't know it was as issue. In any case, if it did happen, I think the solution is to say "whoops, the float stuck to the side of the fermenter. I'd better free it and get the last 5L." rather than wasting 5L of beer. I can't see how this is a major issue, or one that is dependent on the brand of fermenter.

Why do you need to rotate the all rounder? I like to connect a keg and not faff around until it blows, and when that happens I want it to be empty.
Width is the other issue, I have a 4 keg serving fridge, and a 2 keg serving fridge, if I used all rounders as uni-tanks I would be left with 2 x 1 keg fridges, this applies to all the pressure PET fermenters of course except for the fkj which holds 18lt only 1lt less than a corny, horses for courses, and very much process dependant but if you are having to prat around with your vessel of choice give an fkj a go, for $60 it's cheap enough to trial, and they don't leak or blow up, well, not yet.

I dont 'need' to rotate it, I choose to rotate it to get maybe an extra few 100 ml out. Some people choose to not bother with such things and accept/account for a slighter lower amount of beer, thats fine too. It takes maybe 10 seconds to do though, so not really something that concerns me. At 18L the fkj is out for me. This is probably 15L into the keg, which is a considerable difference.

EDIT: regarding leaks or blowing up, I havent had any issues with mine.

 

[onemorecell]

Yeh well, in the words of Dr "I've just taken my med's" I've got my Hanzs on it, and remembering that this is the Fermzilla thread, according to him it's obviously operator error, but take a look at my FKJ (fermenter king junior from KK) here only as a reference btw, may I suggest that if you have difficulty with a Fermzilla then try an alternative fermenter/keg.
fwiw this keg blew last night, it wasn't shaken, tapped on the side or stirred, and has less than 200ml beer in it.

Ah that's interesting... The dip tube I have is probably made for the fermzilla - so it'd be a lot longer than I need. maybe shortening it would help.
Right now when the levels go down, the tube gets on an angle (dips down then back up again like a willy) so the hole is outside the beer

 

[mynameisrodney]

Yes the float tube should be cut to length. I think its designed to be approx the right length for the 60L all rounder. I cut it down for my 30L all rounder.

 

[Grmblz]

OK I missed that, I haven't had the float stick to the side so didn't know it was as issue. In any case, if it did happen, I think the solution is to say "whoops, the float stuck to the side of the fermenter. I'd better free it and get the last 5L." rather than wasting 5L of beer. I can't see how this is a major issue, or one that is dependent on the brand of fermenter.
I view this as faffin around, I want to connect the keg and only see it again when it's empty, could be a result of me being an ex landlord.

I dont 'need' to rotate it, I choose to rotate it to get maybe an extra few 100 ml out. Some people choose to not bother with such things and accept/account for a slighter lower amount of beer, thats fine too. It takes maybe 10 seconds to do though, so not really something that concerns me. At 18L the fkj is out for me. This is probably 15L into the keg, which is a considerable difference.
We may be talking at cross purposes here, are you using your vessel as a fermenter, a uni-tank or a serving keg? I (sometimes) ferment in a saurus transfer to an fkj for secondary/conditioning, and use it to serve, hence the reference to how little is wasted, in this scenario the fkj holds 18lt, as do some of my racecourse cornies.

EDIT: regarding leaks or blowing up, I havent had any issues with mine.
As I said "yet" they'll all blow up given the right circumstances, and it's not necessarily operator error despite what Dr "I got my Hanz on it" claims.

 

[mynameisrodney]

Spending 5 seconds to unstick a float instead of pouring beer down the sink is faffing around? Hahaha. You are complaining about a problem that is so minor it takes seconds to fix, and is unrelated to the product you are trashing.

I use it as a fermenter only. No interest in serving from it.

Last comment is misleading. Every pressure vessel will blow up given the right circumstances.

 

[Grmblz]

Spending 5 seconds to unstick a float instead of pouring beer down the sink is faffing around? Hahaha. You are complaining about a problem that is so minor it takes seconds to fix,
"I want to connect the keg and only see it again when it's empty" you have a strange definition of complaining I was making a comment, and if you read the thread you would realise it wasn't me talking about finding 5lt in the bottom, and no-one mentions chucking it down the sink.

and is unrelated to the product you are trashing.
Advising people to do their due diligence is not trashing a product, especially when there is well documented evidence of some problems.

I use it as a fermenter only. No interest in serving from it.
That's your prerogative, but we were talking about serving.

Last comment is misleading. Every pressure vessel will blow up given the right circumstances.
"they'll all blow up given the right circumstances " what part of this are you having difficulty with, how is it misleading?

 

[mynameisrodney]

We were not talking about serving. You were telling me to give the FKJ a go so that I don't have to do something which takes a few seconds with my fermzilla, which I use as a fermenter. Stop moving the goalposts. The FKJ may be a great product, but it is not a replacement for anything in the fermzilla range. To me it's like a spork, something that does an ok job at 2 things but not great at either of them. If it works for you, that's great, but it doesnt change anything to do with the fermzilla, which is the subject of this thread.

It is misleading similar to making a statement "Don't buy a Toyota, they all break down eventually". All cars will break down eventually. Trying to convince people to move away from a brand because of something which effects all the competitors too is misleading.

The bit that I have difficulty with is why there are so many people with their knickers in a twist over the whole KK/KL thing that it is impossible to read a thread without it being full of BS. From both sides.

 

[pauly]

I have purchased a second all-rounder with the intention of setting up the dry hop in it and using the co2 of the ferment to purge the secondary. I waited until the ferment had been going a little before adding the hops into the secondary to minimize the o2 contact as much as practical, but I thought it better to get them in as early as possible as this allows more co2 purge the secondary before I do the transfer.

The reason I am doing this over using the original FZ is that I think it will result in quicker and easier cleaning and generally less messing about, especially since I have a bucket blaster (which is awesome BTW).

I will report back in a few weeks as to how it tastes compared to the last one I did where I threw the hops in through the top of the all rounder (same wort and dry hop).

I'd like to give an update on this now it's in the keg.

I think in general it has worked very well, the beer has a good bright colour which to me indicates it has not had any significant oxygen exposure. The transfer to the secondary AR was pretty painless and I managed to do a closed transfer using gravity over 30-40 mins, I then used the excess gas left in the first FZ to purge a keg saving me an enormous 10c worth of gas.

After the dry hop and cold crash the first 17L transferred pretty painlessly to the keg. I hadn't moved the AR from the fridge at this point but it clogged the dip tube, as soon as I put some gas through to blow out the blockage I suddenly had a hop soup and I had to stop kegging for the day.

My dip tube is not cut to the right length, it's maybe 5cm too long. I hadn't had problems with this before as often I had a lot of yeast cake/break/hops mixed together and it was pretty firm. however just with just the 100g of hops it was like a slurry and it was very difficult to angle the AR in such a way that the tube wasn't getting clogged. Moving the AR even slightly also causes the hops to stir up significantly, in the end I got another litre out to a soda bottle but probably left another half litre in there.

I might try one of these.

The beer tastes great, to me it seems more hoppy than the one done in the FZ but I probably need another week or two before a proper taste.

I will definitely be doing this again and the FZ can stay in storage for now. I will spend some time making sure the dip tube it cut to the right length before doing the next batch of course!

 

[awfulknauful]

I wonder if KL have any concerns about what they produce. Those stress fractures won't get better they will get worse.

Beer Baron has been quiet I wonder if he is having problems?

 

[clickeral]

I wonder if KL have any concerns about what they produce. Those stress fractures won't get better they will get worse.
View attachment 118572
View attachment 118573
Beer Baron has been quiet I wonder if he is having problems?

Playing devils advocate here but my main challenge with both versions is you never know how they have been used

Normal fermentors are pretty idiot proof and can be abused, these fermenters need slightly more finesse. Howver due to the pricepoint and marketing/availability a large audience buy them. Normal plastic fermentors have issues too but they are not catastrophic or overly dangerous.

How do we know the ones failing havent had liquid over the temp spec, have they been exposed to chemicals or uv which weakens the plastic etc, have they been cooled quickly from to high a temp etc.

However it could also be a bad batch which happens but id expect the QC to be higher to prevent this

Even stainless can have issues if not properly used (vaccum buckling the vessal etc)

 

[onemorecell]

We were not talking about serving. You were telling me to give the FKJ a go so that I don't have to do something which takes a few seconds with my fermzilla, which I use as a fermenter. Stop moving the goalposts. The FKJ may be a great product, but it is not a replacement for anything in the fermzilla range. To me it's like a spork, something that does an ok job at 2 things but not great at either of them. If it works for you, that's great, but it doesnt change anything to do with the fermzilla, which is the subject of this thread.

why you gotta bring sporks into it?
king of all utensils

 

[clickeral]

why you gotta bring sporks into it?
king of all utensils

What about splades

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Playing devils advocate here but my main challenge with both versions is you never know how they have been used

Normal fermentors are pretty idiot proof and can be abused, these fermenters need slightly more finesse. Howver due to the pricepoint and marketing/availability a large audience buy them. Normal plastic fermentors have issues too but they are not catastrophic or overly dangerous.

How do we know the ones failing havent had liquid over the temp spec, have they been exposed to chemicals or uv which weakens the plastic etc, have they been cooled quickly from to high a temp etc.

However it could also be a bad batch which happens but id expect the QC to be higher to prevent this

Even stainless can have issues if not properly used (vaccum buckling the vessal etc)

I think we do know the ones failing haven't had been abused by hotter than spec water, chemicals, problems with UV or been to quickly cooled from a high temperature, just going by the law of averages there should be roughly the same listed complaints and photos about the
Fementasaurus/Fermenter king. On the other hand the idiots who should have been buying the idiot proof ones you mentioned could have all decided en masse to go out and by a FermZilla.

 

[clickeral]

I think we do know the ones failing haven't had been abused by hotter than spec water, chemicals, problems with UV or been to quickly cooled from a high temperature, just going by the law of averages there should be roughly the same listed complaints and photos about the
Fementasaurus/Fermenter king. On the other hand the idiots who should have been buying the idiot proof ones you mentioned could have all decided en masse to go out and by a FermZilla.

Just putting it out there is all, personally I looked at the all-rounder as an option as some of the features did appeal.
However based on the reviews and feedback I've seenI did go with the snub nose instead. That was also partly to do with the fact the g3 option (which ill be getting the upgrade kit for) looks pretty stout.

The ones with issues from some sources can be product faults, however I would say that there is potential for user error as well.

Its very easy for people to blame a product when things go wrong.

I actually still like my standard plastic Fermenters (and I'm not a fan of plastic in general) because putting boiling wort into them isn't an issue, making kit and kilo straight into them with boiled water is fine etc.

However im focusing more on consistency at the moment so need to remove oxygen exposure post ferment. Though I may see if a I can get one of my old Fermenters to take a few psi as an experiment.

Long term ill go to stainless but that's me

 

[Lorenzo99]

No wonder this forum gets a bad wrap.... It's full of the same pathetic people from both sides arguing over kegland and keg king. Like the majority of people, I am over it and wish we could just discuss brewing from an unbiased point of view.

 

[malt and barley blues]

No wonder this forum gets a bad wrap.... It's full of the same pathetic people from both sides arguing over kegland and keg king. Like the majority of people, I am over it and wish we could just discuss brewing from an unbiased point of view.

I would call them reviews, more honest apparently then the reviews Keg Land post about their own goods on their website.

 

[awfulknauful]

I would call them reviews, more honest apparently then the reviews Keg Land post about their own goods on their website.

As you say reviews, would it be Keg King I would post up the same pics, probably is upsetting for those who have bought the FermZilla, like Lorenzo99. I bought one too and was far from happy with the quality. Moving on another review.

Only been used twice!

 

[enoch]

I think I found my all rounder leak! The lid is molded and there was a little fillet at the mold join that runs through the o ring channel and creates a little void behind the o-ring that gas can get around.
Photo below is after I removed the worst of the fillet.

I then put some lube in the channel and put the o ring back on.
Has passed the leak test so far...

 

[TheBeerBaron]

I wonder if KL have any concerns about what they produce. Those stress fractures won't get better they will get worse.
View attachment 118572
View attachment 118573
Beer Baron has been quiet I wonder if he is having problems?

I commented on that thread.. My FermZilla has the same stress marks in it. Unfortunately, I ruined it by letting it soak in the wrong chemicals which ate the lower cone seal so I've replaced it with an All Rounder for now. Before that however it was still going strong however

Captain douche lord CEO chimed in as well as is his want to do accusing me of drinking the KegLand cool aid even though I was being critical of these marks in the FermZilla.

SO maybe you can send him a screen shot of this in your little Keg-King-Circle-Jerk chat you all likely have