Sabco fermenter

Does anyone have experience with one of these?

I just bought one, and would like some advise about pulling samples, transfering, the racking mechanism,saving yeast,ect.

Here she is.

First brew into the fermenter last night.
The fermenter does not fit in my mini fridge, and have not found a larger one that I like yet. SO, I made a door


This was this morning.The temp controller on the fridge is set at 67 degrees.The door works!

Workin!

How much does this bling cost? Looks awesome...

Nice one... I saw that on their site the other day... Going to be looking into it when I'm ready to brew 10 gallon batches.

Keep us posted on how it works out using the beastie...

heferly- not cheap, but at $569.00, its in line with most conicals,and I like this option better.

Golddiggie- will post updates.

I have one similar to that but made by synergybrew.com. It has a bottom dump, corny posts, and my thermowell is on the top cap. Other than that, samsies.

If you're not into closed-system pressure fermenting, well it's the bomb. Especially for your fermenter. That's what makes our 'conicals' better than any conical on the market, with the exception of the brewhemoth. You'll have to make an adjustable pressure relief valve to go with it, but..

I use a one to capture CO2 naturally in the primary, like many a brew pub does. For my method, I gang a corny keg off of my fermenter for a blow-off/yeast cropping vessel. It also being a pressure vessel, I can do my pressure ferments with this in line, and my spunding valve on it. Works like a charm. I put two short dip tubes in the corny (take the bev dip tube out) so that for racking, I can just push w/ CO2 from the corny, thru the blow-off tube, into the primary and then out the racking tube for racking to serving vessels. Then I depressurize the chain (slowly w/ the spunding valve) and collect the yeast cake right into the same vessel. All closed system. Also, because of the closed blow-off vessel, I can push the limits of final volumn in this thing. I'm doing 14.5 gals in it with maybe a quart or two of beer in the blow-off vessel after I'm done. The pressure fermenting keeps the krauesen lower than usual.

My ferm chambers are chest freezers on casters, so I don't have to lift anything with full volume. I'd think that with yours not having everything on the top, an upright is probably better. Without a thermowell, you're going to just have to tape a probe to the side for controlling ferm temp, which is fine. That's what I do for my other ferm vessel (a 15 gal corny keg). Unless you replace your pretty thermometer with a thermowell or get one welded to the top cap like I have. Probably what I would do. Then at that point, you could go with chest freezers. I didn't fancy putting an upright on casters. Not that I would off-road with them, but they roll around pretty good with big casters. And it helps to rouse yeast to shake the whole chamber a bit at the end of primary.


You'll enjoy it. Party on Wayne. (err Layne) :rockin:

I have a Sabco and have probably done 20 beers in it so far... hasn't seen much action since the brewhemoth came in, but I can still give you some pointers none the less.

Pulling samples is super easy, just spray a bit of sanitizer into your bottom valve, attach sanitized hose (if needed), close your blowoff valve so it doesn't suck back and open the bottom valve and take your sample.

My favorite feature of the Sabco is the ability to rack/transfer under pressure. Simply attach C02 on the top valve, set your reg for 2-5psi, attach your sanitized hose to the bottom, connect to your target vessel, and let her rip. I really liked being able to perform fully closed transfers and it set the standard for what I look for in fermenters now.

Yeast harvesting is fairly easy as well... once you rack off all the clear beer you want, swirl the fermenter around a bit, turn the racking arm down to the bottom and push out the slurry into your yeast harvesting vessel and wash or simply re-pitch.

You might also be interested in pressure fermentation... look up Wortmonger's thread on it as it is super easy to do in the sabco as well.

I'd like to put a thermowell in the place of the thermometer, so I can control the internal temp.
My johnson controler works fine on the fridge, but the internal temp is always higher, especiallly during early fermentation.

Does antbody know where I can get a 1/2" triclamp with a thermowell? I emailed sabco, but have not heard back yet.

Brewershardware.com
or
Bargainfittings.com

Brewershardware is hard to pin down anymore for anything that is 'custom' but this isn't that custom. You might have to mail him a 1/2" tri-clamp.

your thermometer looks like it's 1 or 1.5" triclamp. the racking port is definitely 1/2". i had sabco custom weld a fermenter very similiar to this, and just finished up my first batch in it. like sankepankey, i use a chest freezer on wheels. i use a thermowell from breweryparts.com:

1.5" TC Thermowell

p.d.

I just read on the Sabco website. The thermometer is 1" triclamp. Guess I confused it with the racking arm.
Thanks guys.

Easy transfer.

Clear racking, under co2

How do you clean & sanitize the fermenter? Can u reach your arm through the manhole? One of my favorite things about fermenting in my converted kettles is I can clean it easily with a sponge and a little scrubbing, and sanitize by boiling a little water for 15 mins.

Being able to keg under pressure without a siphon would be sweet. Wouldn't have to have anyone help me lift a keg again...

Yes, I use a carboy brush (cuz I had one) I put some hot water and Oxiclean, and swished a while, let soak a while, brushed a while, then rinsed.
Then I put about a gallon of starsan in it, and rolled it around making sure it got everywhere. Done.

Sabco says you can boil some water in it like you said, but I didn't want to take a chance and get my new fermenter all brown and sutty. Maybe after a while.

If boiling water makes your fermenter sooty, then there is something wrong with your burner. Might want to check that out... I boiled water in mine to sanitize for many batches and never had any problems.

Now that you mention it, my burners never discolored my blichmann kettles before I switched to electric. I guess I was picturing in my mind the pics I've seen of discolored keggles, and that new fermemter was so nice, I did'nt want to take a chance.

I use one of those clothes steamers that you see in Sky Mall to heat sanitize my fermenter. I do that only about every 5 brews or if I did a sour beer. The outlet where the wand extension goes is 3/4" npt. I hook her up to my fermenter and my thermowell probe registers 212 in maybe 10 minutes or so. Its takes no time and the whole vessel hot and filled with steam.

Check on craigslist for one for a while, you never know. I was 'this' close to craigslisting mine when the light bulb went off. They don't really work that good for clothing (in lieu of ironing like a real man!).

Oh, and I can reach my arm down to the bottom thru the 4" tri-clamp to scrub with a green scrubby, but it is close. I'm no weight lifter but I'm not a small guy. If your a thicky you might have a problem. I have no issues with scrubbing the bottom without needing a brush or anything.

That sure is nice looking!! I ferment in an old keg, which obviously doesn't have all the features of yours but....it was only 30 bucks. I steam sterilize it after every fermentation for 15 minutes. I really think old kegs are the way to go for fermentation. You just have to do a super thorough first cleaning....after that they seem to clean up really easy with PBW or OxyClean.

I used a carboy brush at first but they are so wimpy and can leave marks from the twisted metal wire. I made my own from a toilet brush head (new!) and it works much better.


I rinse out the kegs with hot water then use a sump pump bucket washer and 2.5% w/v caustic for 15 minutes. Scrub if necessary and then rinse with water and finally saniclean.