KK - 'Fermentasaurus' conical PET fermenter

[NealK]

Just read the reviews and it might be better to wait for the next generation catalyst if that's the way you are leaning.

link - http://www.northernbrewer.com/catalyst-fermentor

edit - the dimension are on this link too.

 

[Meddo]

Got two fermentasaurs, first one has a batch of DIPA in it, first impressions were good enough that I went and grabbed a second.

A couple of learnings from the first fermentation. A whole shiteload of cube hops tipped into the fermenter settled straight away and clogged up the butterfly valve - the neck may be fine for decanting yeast slurry but it seems like hop matter will bind up too much. The other thing is that when trying to get a sample via the floating dip tube it also immediately clogged up with dry hop material in the beer-out post. I've remedied that by removing the poppets from the post and a disconnect and have left the disconnect with a picnic tap permanently attached.

Absolutely loving the show through the clear PET

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgMEn-ulCW8

 

[sbowler]

A whole shiteload of cube hops tipped into the fermenter settled straight away and clogged up the butterfly valve -

What do you mean by cube hops? Did they end up falling into the container after a while, or were they completely stuck?

EDIT: nice video too.

 

[DreWill]

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!

 

[Meddo]

What do you mean by cube hops? Did they end up falling into the container after a while, or were they completely stuck?

EDIT: nice video too.

Cube hops from no-chilling. Some of them eventually fell through but not all. Next time I'll pour into the fermenter through a hops sock to prevent them getting in in the first place. The remainder and the loose dry hops seem to have disappeared which means they're probably mixed in with the yeast slurry, I haven't bothered trying to harvest the yeast from this batch so I'm not too worried about that.

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!

Yeah I decided against using the bottle for adding dry-hops, aside from anything else (clogging issues) I have real doubts about the effectiveness of spraying CO2 into the bottle through the neck to purge it. I suspect it's just a great way of introducing oxygen to the beer when it bubbles up from the bottom. I added my dry hops just before the end of fermentation through the top, could see through the clear PET that the yeasties were still up and about and hence still producing CO2 to dilute and force out most of any oxygen introduced to the headspace.

My beer has cleared up nicely, everything settled out as it should in the cone.

Big fail on the KK spunding valve. I had it venting slowly at about 0.5 bar, came back in the morning and it was hard against the 1 bar stop - was probably much higher than that.

 

[mtb]

I'm with Hpal on the UV exposure. Surely that has a negative impact. It's the main reason I went for the iBrew kegmenter instead

 

[Meddo]

Fair enough, doesn't really bother me though - the brew/FV lives inside a fermenting fridge in a carport lacking much natural light so reckon it'll be fine. The upside of being able to see the amount of yeast activity (roiling beasties), beer clarity, stratification of beer/yeast/krausen/trub/hops and progress of crash chilling seems pretty handy to me - especially as a reasonably inexperienced brewer learning the specifics of how everything progresses.

Been a good learning experience for me seeing how loose dry-hop flowers behave throughout the fermentation process (I know it's not standard practice but was curious and thought I'd give it a crack). Not sure whether it's something I'll repeat - proof will be in the drinking - but it has been interesting watching them transition from half-submerged initially, to rafting high and dry on top of the krausen, to being mostly submerged when krausen falls, to settling out into the cone through CCing. Might not be efficient but it sure is pretty

 

[meathead]

Just fermented my first batch with this. Removed yeast collecting jar. There's a lot of trub in there. Which is ok, but if I just pitch the whole thing in the next batch and so on, isn't the whole jar gunna be trub eventually. What are others doing?

 

[mtb]

I imagine the jar is intended to collect trub & yeast for yeast rinsing, not direct pitch into a new batch.

 

[rude]

Collect twice first time dump 2nd time harvest

 

[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