KK - 'Fermentasaurus' conical PET fermenter

[keedoery]

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.

How did you come to this conclusion? Legit question.

We find this a strange conclusion.

During the development of this product all brews that we did were with all grain beers. At Keg King all the staff involved in the development of this product are all grain brewers. At Keg King Springvale if you walk into our home brew store in Springvale we are one of the very few stores in Australia where you simply don't see a K&K beer kit on the shelf and we do not promote or endorse K&K ingredients or hardware in any way and the Fermentasaurus is no exception to this.

Certainly you can use the Fermentasaurus for K&K but it's by no means designed specifically for K&K.

 

[keedoery]

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

1. The Fermentasaurus has been designed for all grain brewing.
2. If you are using the yeast collection for hop additions we would recommend that you only use 30grams at a time. Then remove the yeast collection bottle then re-attach again a couple days later. If you really want to use bottles of larger capacity we should also let you know that 1L sodastream bottles have the same thread. We designed our dump valve so we use a compatible thread with sodastream bottles.
3. We have not tried this marbles and pin pong balls trick but will have to try this and see what it's like.

 

[keedoery]

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?

There is no issue using up to 5g/L but if you wanted to do this we can give you the following advice:

1. If you use the yeast collection bottle to add hops do not add more than 30grams for one yeast collection bottle.
2. If you dump all the hops into the top of the Fermentasaurus at once then please make sure you regularly change the collection bottle as soon as it fills up. Collect the fallen hops then change over with an empty one as soon as it's full.
3. Make sure to keep the dump valve in the open position. The only time the dump valve should be closed is when you are changing over the yeast collection bottles. During normal fermentation you should always have the valve open and a bottle in place. If you leave stuff collecting at the bottom of the cone with the valve closed you will risk clogging as the sediment and hops start to collect.

 

[keedoery]

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

Just to clarify this point.

If you are half decent at drilling holes and drill in the thick part of the cone as we have recommended in the video there is a good chance that it will easily hold pressure. The issues is its simply impossible for us to guarantee that it will hold pressure as we cannot be sure how well our customers have drilled the holes themselves.

In my opinion i simply do not like using the rotating rack arm as it's simply not as good as using the floating dip tube. I know it's a bit more expensive but without the pressure kit and a CO2 bottle i feel that you are not taking advantage of the Fermentasaurus to it's fullest potential. I personally only draw beer from the floating dip tube.

 

[keedoery]

There is no issue using up to 5g/L but if you wanted to do this we can give you the following advice:

1. If you use the yeast collection bottle to add hops do not add more than 30grams for one yeast collection bottle.
2. If you dump all the hops into the top of the Fermentasaurus at once then please make sure you regularly change the collection bottle as soon as it fills up. Collect the fallen hops then change over with an empty one as soon as it's full.
3. Make sure to keep the dump valve in the open position. The only time the dump valve should be closed is when you are changing over the yeast collection bottles. During normal fermentation you should always have the valve open and a bottle in place. If you leave stuff collecting at the bottom of the cone with the valve closed you will risk clogging as the sediment and hops start to collect.

There is no issue using up to 5g/L but if you wanted to do this we can give you the following advice:

1. If you use the yeast collection bottle to add hops do not add more than 30grams for one yeast collection bottle.
2. If you dump all the hops into the top of the Fermentasaurus at once then please make sure you regularly change the collection bottle as soon as it fills up. Collect the fallen hops then change over with an empty one as soon as it's full.
3. Make sure to keep the dump valve in the open position. The only time the dump valve should be closed is when you are changing over the yeast collection bottles. During normal fermentation you should always have the valve open and a bottle in place. If you leave stuff collecting at the bottom of the cone with the valve closed you will risk clogging as the sediment and hops start to collect.

4. Do not draw product from the floating dip tube until the hops have sunk out of suspension. If you use a high amount of hops they can block up the dip tube. You can clear out a dip tube with back pressure if you really stuff it up but really i recommend waiting for hops to settle before drawing product from the floating dip tube. I have heard of some customers using a dip tube filter but honestly i think it's best just to wait for the hops to sink. This normally happens after 2 days.

 

[wobbly]

1. The Fermentasaurus has been designed for all grain brewing.

No worries
My Experience and hence comment has been with my Williamwarn unit and their subsequent newer 10, 25, and 50lt units are basically targeted at their own kits but having said that they are equally suitable for fresh wort kits and wort produced in an individuals set up.

The point I was trying to make was the need 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. The fact that the unit will take a 1lt soda stream bottle as the sediment trap will be a plus for many

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

What thread are the PET sodastream bottle? I'm keen to see if I can employ this dump valve on my Chronical, as a downside of a SS FV is you can't see what you're dumping until it's out and making a mess with the force you need to dump it, so sitting this clear bottle at the bottom with the dump valve left open is a great idea. The SS/glass sight glasses are too long for my 7gal to sit on the bottom of the cone.
So are there adaptors that screw soda steam thread to 1.5" triclamp?
Also can someone please measure the overall height of the yeast collection bottle from the fermantasaurus?

 

[malt junkie]

Would drilling a hole be the easiest option for adding a thermowell, or are you planning/considering including a thermowell in the lid at some point in the future?

Ed: I just feel having the thermowell in the lid would make it simpler to clean as it is already a removable part.

 

[NealK]

Any idea when the pressure kit will be available again?

 

[meathead]

How about bulk priming in this.
Would you transfer some fermented wort to jar, top up jar with priming solution, put jar back on, open valve, wait a month?

 

[keedoery]

How about bulk priming in this.
Would you transfer some fermented wort to jar, top up jar with priming solution, put jar back on, open valve, wait a month?

Any idea when the pressure kit will be available again?

Approximately 10th May.

 

[keedoery]

What thread are the PET sodastream bottle? I'm keen to see if I can employ this dump valve on my Chronical, as a downside of a SS FV is you can't see what you're dumping until it's out and making a mess with the force you need to dump it, so sitting this clear bottle at the bottom with the dump valve left open is a great idea. The SS/glass sight glasses are too long for my 7gal to sit on the bottom of the cone.
So are there adaptors that screw soda steam thread to 1.5" triclamp?
Also can someone please measure the overall height of the yeast collection bottle from the fermantasaurus?

The sodastream bottles us a double helix thread which we have not found anywhere else other than in our yeast collection bottles and sodastream bottles.

I am sorry we have no plans to make an adaptor to Tri-clamp at this stage.

our yeast collection bottle is just under 14cm high.

 

[barls]

keg king read your pms please.

 

[mr_wibble]

So I'm about to do my 2nd batch - do I add the bulb to the bottom (and open) right from the start, or open the valve once when you want to dump ?
or something else?

EDIT: Just found the instructions. One opens the valve *after* fermentation. (doh!)

While I'm wasting everyone's time: the KK spunding valve - there's no scale on this, is there an OK initial setting?
Half a rotation off closed?
(I've *never* used this before).

 

[meathead]

I have the valve open from the get go with the jar in place

 

[wobbly]

do I add the bulb to the bottom (and open) right from the start, or open the valve once when you want to dump ?
or something else?

EDIT: Just found the instructions. One opens the valve *after* fermentation. (doh!)

Not wanting to counter what KK might be recommending but for what it's worth the instructions that come with my WW state to leave the bottom valve open all the time during the ferment and that's what I do with no ill effects on fermentation and the yeast is able to settle into the sediment bottle as and when it wants to after having done its job

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[mr_wibble]

My Munich Dunkel in the fermentasaurus is going well.
Since I'm new to using the spunding valve, I've been checking it twice a day.



I like the clear plastic, it's very interesting to see what's going on inside the fermenter.
The last few days the lager has been fermenting like crazy. The pressure was up to about 7kPa (the max pressure rating I read later is 35kPa), and I got a bit worried that it was too much and twiddled the spunding valve.
The next day the pressure had dropped to zero (doh!). For now I've lubed up the spunding valve so it's a bit less twitchy.

Anyway, all-up I'm quite happy with my fermentasaurus purchase.

PS> Since everyone asks when they see it - The silver ball is a s.steel float for the pickup tube. It keeps the tube floating about 5-10mm below the surface of the beer.

 

[sbowler]

Hey Mr wibble,

What's the elastic band thingy you're using to hold the thermometer on?

 

[blotto]

My Munich Dunkel in the fermentasaurus is going well.
Since I'm new to using the spunding valve, I've been checking it twice a day.

mit spunding.jpg

I like the clear plastic, it's very interesting to see what's going on inside the fermenter.
The last few days the lager has been fermenting like crazy. The pressure was up to about 7kPa (the max pressure rating I read later is 35kPa), and I got a bit worried that it was too much and twiddled the spunding valve.
The next day the pressure had dropped to zero (doh!). For now I've lubed up the spunding valve so it's a bit less twitchy.

Anyway, all-up I'm quite happy with my fermentasaurus purchase.

PS> Since everyone asks when they see it - The silver ball is a s.steel float for the pickup tube. It keeps the tube floating about 5-10mm below the surface of the beer.

Looks great, can't wait to get one to give it a go. Just trying to figure out what to do for a spunding valve.

 

[Digga]

Hey Mr wibble,

What's the elastic band thingy you're using to hold the thermometer on?

I would have to say looking at it, is one of them seals out of your standard fermenter lid.