KK - 'Fermentasaurus' conical PET fermenter

[user 35653]

Collect twice first time dump 2nd time harvest

My plan is:
Day 1 - dump trub
Day 2 - dump trub again if required
Day FG - dump yeast
Dry hop
Day 4/5 of dry hop - dump hop matter

 

[meathead]

My plan is:
Day 1 - dump trub
Day 2 - dump trub again if required
Day FG - dump yeast
Dry hop
Day 4/5 of dry hop - dump hop matter

Yeah I reckon that's the way to go
No worries about oxygen in the wort early on?

 

[user 35653]

Yeah I reckon that's the way to go
No worries about oxygen in the wort early on?

I had this worry also - I'm going to hook-up the gas post to c02 so it'll be taking in c02 rather than oxygen to fill the head space.

 

[wobbly]

Just fill the bottle with the fermenting/fermented wort as it's going to fill with that anyway when you reattach it and open the valve

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Meddo]

My experience so far (one ferment finished, two currently underway) is that the butterfly valve is too narrow to dump trub or hop matter without CO2 pressure as it just binds up and forms a plug.

Using pressure may get it moving but I found out the hard way that it can release that plug pretty suddenly... (read: explosively)

 

[user 35653]

My experience so far (one ferment finished, two currently underway) is that the butterfly valve is too narrow to dump trub or hop matter without CO2 pressure as it just binds up and forms a plug.

Using pressure may get it moving but I found out the hard way that it can release that plug pretty suddenly... (read: explosively)

Wonder if it's worth trying a brew without using finings in the kettle? Maybe will flow a little easier as it won't be as clumped up.

 

[professional_drunk]

The trick might be to keep the valve open all the time. If you close it, a plug forms.
I'm only 2 batches in so not an expert.

 

[user 35653]

The trick might be to keep the valve open all the time. If you close it, a plug forms.
I'm only 2 batches in so not an expert.

I was just about to reply with this - good thinking!

 

[SBOB]

The trick might be to keep the valve open all the time. If you close it, a plug forms.
I'm only 2 batches in so not an expert.

If you look at the much loved WW brewing setup videos, thats how they utilise their butterfly valve on the bottom.
Makes sense to keep it open the whole time and it fill up with the crap that settles first, though I wonder if you'll run into issues closing it if its prone to 'plugging' up

 

[meathead]

Absolutely keep valve open.
Close valve after 24hrs
Take jar off and dispose of contents
Attach clean sanitised jar
open valve
oxygen shouldnt hurt brew at this stage
close valve after say 7 days
take off jar, seal, place in fridge ready for next brew

 

[professional_drunk]

I was thinking about taking the zero oxygen exposure one step further and using a magnet on the outside and inside to hold some container of gelatin/polyclar. For hops, maybe a little hop bag. Pull the magnet off and the contents drop into the beer.
Anyone got any ideas about this?

 

[Rod]

the fermenter looks good

but , I bulk prime and bottle and need to know if this fermenter will do this

any thoughts on this

 

[Lionman]

any thoughts on this

You should be able to bulk prime in a single vessel.

You can remove the yeast/trub out the bottom, add sugar to the top, dissolve, bottle.

 

[professional_drunk]

any thoughts on this

You'd need to drain from the bottom which I wouldn't be keen on due to dragging stuff out from the lowest point. You could punch a hole for a racking port but you wouldn't use it for pressure any more.
Depends which way you want to go.

 

[Lionman]

You'd need to drain from the bottom which I wouldn't be keen on due to dragging stuff out from the lowest point. You could punch a hole for a racking port but you wouldn't use it for pressure any more.
Depends which way you want to go.

There is an official rack arm butterfly valve accessory if you don't want to draw from the bottom. I can't see why this would affect pressurisation?

http://www.oxebar.com.au/fermentasaurus/

 

[professional_drunk]

There is an official rack arm butterfly valve accessory if you don't want to draw from the bottom. I can't see why this would affect pressurisation?

http://www.oxebar.com.au/fermentasaurus/

Once you punch a hole in the body, it says somewhere it's not to be used under pressure.

 

[Meddo]

Good thoughts re keeping the valve open, had the same thought myself for the second and third batches I've done, unfortunately it hasn't worked. I'll post a pic when I have a PC to reduce the photo file size but even with a fine hop filter (while filling the FV, for cube hops) and the valve open the trub still formed a plug. Only about 6-8mm of trub in the bottle with a litre or so remaining in the cone.

I'm not super concerned because I'm not planning on harvesting yeast from the bottle anyway, but a larger valve would certainly improve usability.

 

[Lionman]

Once you punch a hole in the body, it says somewhere it's not to be used under pressure.

Fair enough. Cant see it being a huge problem though unless we are talking fairly high pressures. What is a typical pressure someone would be putting this thing under?

 

[Meddo]

Only rated for 2.4 bar from memory

 

[rude]

34.8 psi not bad could do a good brew at that or under to help push everything down

 

[meathead]

Absolutely keep valve open.
Close valve after 24hrs
Take jar off and dispose of contents
Attach clean sanitised jar
open valve
oxygen shouldnt hurt brew at this stage
close valve after say 7 days
take off jar, seal, place in fridge ready for next brew

Followed this yesterday except I took jar with trub off after 6 hours.
This morning trub layer in jar less than 1cm and definite seperate yeast layer.
Good bit of kit

 

[Dan Pratt]

I'm a bit worried the 1 inch butterfly valve and the 500ml bottle for large dry hop beers like IPAs.

Anyone dry hopped with 5g/L?

 

[slcmorro]

I'm a bit worried the 1 inch butterfly valve and the 500ml bottle for large dry hop beers like IPAs.

Anyone dry hopped with 5g/L?

Dry hop in the collection bottle with the valve open?

I don't have one but is this viable?

 

[wobbly]

Couple of points FYI
1. This fermenter has most likely been designed with K&K brews in mind that have been centrifuged as part of the production process much the same as the WW unit I have was. Not saying you cant ferment your own produced fresh wort, which many do, just that you will have to be a lot more pedantic about process in particular keeping as much trub both hot and cold break out of the unit due to the very small sediment bottle.
2. Using the sediment bottle to add hops for dry hopping isn't very successful due to the small size. The sediment bottle on the WW is almost twice the capacity and you can't really add more than 50g of hop pellets. One trick is to add your hop pellets and then top up with boiling water allow to stand for 5 mins and then reattach. The "hot" pellet mix will float up through the wort but will resettle again pretty quickly.
3. What a number of WW brewers do is place the hops into a hop bag along with a couple of marbles and a couple of ping pong balls (trial and error to get the right balance) such that the hops float under the surface but don't sink. This is generally done towards the end of the ferment by removing the top adding the hops and pressurising again with Co2. The hop bag can be fished out after your chosen number of days

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[XaxisYcross]

I have one of these and am quite impressed. I love that you can open the ferm fridge and get a great view of what stage your ferment is up to. Also, using the pressure kit I am convinced the ferment is quicker and cleaner tasting. I had a blonde ale in with 1272 american ale 2 and I swear it was done and dusted at 1.008 in 4 days from a 1.042 OG.

My primary concerns are introducing oxygen when switching out the collection bottle/dry hopping and also what pressure to set my spunding valve to. I set mine to around dispensing pressure ~12psi. Tastes great. I'm just not sure what it should be set to! This is my first foray into pressure fermenting.

Either way. If you have the space and the means, I would recommend one. Keg King have done well in my opinion.

 

[slcmorro]

This fermenter has most likely been designed with K&K brews in mind

How did you come to this conclusion? Legit question.

 

[sbowler]

iKegger video review is up:

https://youtu.be/bOPzH78I-7Q

Good to see it in action

 

[Jack of all biers]

How did you come to this conclusion? Legit question.

What he's saying is that because of the small bottle one needs to keep additional sediment down, which is easier with K&K. This is due his experience with twice the size sediment bottle which he struggles to do the same with his WW. Interesting take with his experience in a similar unit.

 

[keedoery]

I have also brewed and am drinking an IPA i put down a couple of weeks ago. First pressure brew and first yeast harvest! Reached FG in 4 days, crash chilled and carbed in 7, transferred to keg under pressure, Awesome!
All went well until dry hopping, I added 100g of pellets straight to the collection bottle as demonstrated in the KK you tube demo only to have them expand in the bottle and clog everthing up.
I purchased additional collection bottles so next time I'll tip smaller amounts in through the top and change the bottles and see how that goes!
Also, didn't clear much while crash chilling but I put that down to the hop matter clogging the butterfly valve!

We would not recommend adding 100grams of hops at one time in the collection bottle. They swell up too much and can clog the valve.

If you want to add 100 grams then simply use the collection bottle to add 30grams, then change over the bottle then repeat this step. Definitely 100grams in the one collection bottle will swell up too much and this will be an issue. Please use maximum 30 grams at a time.

 

[keedoery]

I have one of these and am quite impressed. I love that you can open the ferm fridge and get a great view of what stage your ferment is up to. Also, using the pressure kit I am convinced the ferment is quicker and cleaner tasting. I had a blonde ale in with 1272 american ale 2 and I swear it was done and dusted at 1.008 in 4 days from a 1.042 OG.

My primary concerns are introducing oxygen when switching out the collection bottle/dry hopping and also what pressure to set my spunding valve to. I set mine to around dispensing pressure ~12psi. Tastes great. I'm just not sure what it should be set to! This is my first foray into pressure fermenting.

Either way. If you have the space and the means, I would recommend one. Keg King have done well in my opinion.

There are ways to reduce the oxygen exposure during bottle change overs. Some solutions include:

1. purge the bottle with CO2 prior to attaching to the fermenter.
2. Fill with boiled water before connection but this will dilute your beer down slightly so your recipe should be adjusted to account for this.
3. Dispense some beer into the collection bottle using the pressure kit. The pressure kit will extract clear beer from the top of the fermenter then you can fill the yeast collection bottle with this then re-attach to the dump valve.

Any one of these methods will significantly reduce the oxygen exposure during bottle change overs.