The Punt
Member
- Joined
- 6/5/16
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 23
I recently acquired a 35L Fermentasaurus and the pressure lid kit from the good folks at Beerco. Its an awesome piece of equipment. The ability to ferment from start to finish in one vessel, and then transfer under pressure to a keg, makes the process so much easier, and is sure to result in a better beer. I currently have a kolsch fermenting under pressure (5psi), so I can't wait to see what kind of difference that makes. However, after my first batch in it, I noticed a couple of features of the fermentasaurus that could use some tweaking to make it even more user friendly. And as many of us brewers are inclined to be constantly improving our gear, and are unable to just leave stuff alone, I thought I would have a go at improving the dump valve and dip tube.
The valve that comes with the fermentasaurus will do the job, but it is a bit fiddley, and impossible to reach at the bottom of the chest freezer. Also, the yeast collection bottle is too small and makes a mess everytime. The thread coming out of the valve (at the bottom) is unique to only sodastream bottles (so i'm told) and the yeast collection bottle. But thankfully, the top thread that connects to the seal is a standard 1" BSP thread, so I decided to do away with the standard valve altogether, and replace it with a shiny (and much easier to use) tri-clamp butterfly valve.
The bits I needed to do this, I found on Ebay (from a Chinese supplier) and cost me a total of about $90. And despite Ebay telling me they could take up to 3 months, I received everything about 2 weeks after I placed the order. The important part to get here was the Female Threaded Pipe Fitting, which must have a 1" female BSP thread to match the seal on the fermenter. With a bit of teflon tape and keg lube, I screwed the fitting on as tight as I could by hand, which formed a tight seal. You could probably use multigrips to get it tighter, but I was concerned about damaging the original plastic thread. Also, its easy to crossthread the plastic when screwing on a stainless fitting, so take care.
The opposite end of this fitting suits a 1.5" tri-clamp, to which I attached an elbow and the butterfly valve. You could do away with the elbow, but bringing the valve out to the side makes it much more accessible, and prevents a lot of mess when dumping trub and collecting yeast. I also attached a barbed hosetail to fit 12mm ID silicone hose which I can use for transferring the beer and taking samples. You could also attach a tri-clamp sight glass and end cap to catch the trub/yeast the same way the original yeast collection bottle would.
The other mod I did was to the dip tube/hose that comes with the pressure lid kit. The silicone hose attaches to the underside of the lid by fitting INSIDE a small length of tube (that is identical to a gas dip tube out of a corny keg) and floats on top of the wort/beer by attaching to a stainless float. This allows you to draw the beer from the top of the fermenter (which is clearer), but the ball has a habit of sticking to the sides of the fermenter, which sucks up a bit of crud, and the hose VERY easily detaches from the float and the tube under the lid. If this happens, you can still get the beer out via siphoning, or through the dump valve, but both of these are less than ideal.
So, I decommissioned an old corny keg that had a dodgy lid seal, took the long dip tube out and used it to replace the short dip tube attached to the beer out post on the fermentasaurus pressure lid. This dip tube works the same way as the dip tube in a corny keg, but ends about 10cm from the bottom of the fermenter, which, due to its conical shape, is only about 2L of dead space. Depending on how much trub has settled in the bottom of the fermenter, the last 2L in the conical is usually no good anyway. You could always buy a longer dip tube for a 25L corny keg, then its just a matter of dropping the trub to below where the dip tube ends. You could also attach a mesh screen to the end of the dip tube to filter out hop particles if dry hopping your beer.
After these mods, I filled the fermenter with some sanitizer, and slowly bumped up the pressure to check that it was air-tight and had no leaks. All I can say is so far, so good.
Cheers,
JW.
The valve that comes with the fermentasaurus will do the job, but it is a bit fiddley, and impossible to reach at the bottom of the chest freezer. Also, the yeast collection bottle is too small and makes a mess everytime. The thread coming out of the valve (at the bottom) is unique to only sodastream bottles (so i'm told) and the yeast collection bottle. But thankfully, the top thread that connects to the seal is a standard 1" BSP thread, so I decided to do away with the standard valve altogether, and replace it with a shiny (and much easier to use) tri-clamp butterfly valve.
The bits I needed to do this, I found on Ebay (from a Chinese supplier) and cost me a total of about $90. And despite Ebay telling me they could take up to 3 months, I received everything about 2 weeks after I placed the order. The important part to get here was the Female Threaded Pipe Fitting, which must have a 1" female BSP thread to match the seal on the fermenter. With a bit of teflon tape and keg lube, I screwed the fitting on as tight as I could by hand, which formed a tight seal. You could probably use multigrips to get it tighter, but I was concerned about damaging the original plastic thread. Also, its easy to crossthread the plastic when screwing on a stainless fitting, so take care.
The opposite end of this fitting suits a 1.5" tri-clamp, to which I attached an elbow and the butterfly valve. You could do away with the elbow, but bringing the valve out to the side makes it much more accessible, and prevents a lot of mess when dumping trub and collecting yeast. I also attached a barbed hosetail to fit 12mm ID silicone hose which I can use for transferring the beer and taking samples. You could also attach a tri-clamp sight glass and end cap to catch the trub/yeast the same way the original yeast collection bottle would.
The other mod I did was to the dip tube/hose that comes with the pressure lid kit. The silicone hose attaches to the underside of the lid by fitting INSIDE a small length of tube (that is identical to a gas dip tube out of a corny keg) and floats on top of the wort/beer by attaching to a stainless float. This allows you to draw the beer from the top of the fermenter (which is clearer), but the ball has a habit of sticking to the sides of the fermenter, which sucks up a bit of crud, and the hose VERY easily detaches from the float and the tube under the lid. If this happens, you can still get the beer out via siphoning, or through the dump valve, but both of these are less than ideal.
So, I decommissioned an old corny keg that had a dodgy lid seal, took the long dip tube out and used it to replace the short dip tube attached to the beer out post on the fermentasaurus pressure lid. This dip tube works the same way as the dip tube in a corny keg, but ends about 10cm from the bottom of the fermenter, which, due to its conical shape, is only about 2L of dead space. Depending on how much trub has settled in the bottom of the fermenter, the last 2L in the conical is usually no good anyway. You could always buy a longer dip tube for a 25L corny keg, then its just a matter of dropping the trub to below where the dip tube ends. You could also attach a mesh screen to the end of the dip tube to filter out hop particles if dry hopping your beer.
After these mods, I filled the fermenter with some sanitizer, and slowly bumped up the pressure to check that it was air-tight and had no leaks. All I can say is so far, so good.
Cheers,
JW.
Maybe Kegking will offer me a job
