FastFerment conical

just found this thread, but here is an uboxing video I did regarding these fermenters. Ive had it a week now and I have a batch fermenting now. Id be interested in how this changed your processes since you can can now change out the collection balls to help clarification.

here is the video: http://goo.gl/zktKf4

I posted this in another thread but thought I'd try this one too to see if anyone else has the same problem.
I got mine late last week. While assembling it I noticed that the thermowell doesn't have ID threads. Anyone else have that problem? Makes it difficult to use it. I emailed them bit haven't heard back yet.

Mike

What are ID threads? I will check mine..

McRoth said:

I posted this in another thread but thought I'd try this one too to see if anyone else has the same problem.
I got mine late last week. While assembling it I noticed that the thermowell doesn't have ID threads. Anyone else have that problem? Makes it difficult to use it. I emailed them bit haven't heard back yet.

Mike

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redwing_al said:

What are ID threads? I will check mine..

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Threads on the inside so you can screw in a thermometer or thermocouple. You can get them with threaded fittings so they stay put and you don't have to use duct tape or something like that.

After receiving this thing, had a chance to do some fiddling with this thing. Wanted to share one thing I found. A seven gallon bottling bucket makes a great temporary stand that I think will work on brew day. I plan on brewing in a week and will let everyone know how it works.

Also, this thing is pretty easy to pick up with the sloped sides. I am going to try just picking it up out of the bottling bucket as is and move it to the wall rack. Again, will let everyone know how that works after actually trying it with wort in it.

Cheers,
Ben

McRoth said:

Threads on the inside so you can screw in a thermometer or thermocouple. You can get them with threaded fittings so they stay put and you don't have to use duct tape or something like that.

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Mine wasn't threaded either but I got their thermometer and it's friction fit into the thermowell. There is like a little spring type piece that holds the thermometer into the thermowell. I want to know what size threads are in the fermenter itself so I can try and find a new thermometer that actually screws into the plastic. I'd rather have stainless than brass.

I just unpacked mine, and tried to fit it in my igloo chest freezer. If I don't use the collection ball, and use a blowoff on the op instead of an airlock, it FITS!
My question to everyone is this: What impact will not using the collection ball have on the beer? If I just wait until bottling day to pull out the conical, hook up the ball and open the valve to drain the trub and yeast, that shouldn't make too much difference right? By wedging the unit between the shelf in the fridge and another carboy, it's a perfect fit.
Also, I picked up a thermometer from my LHBS which threads directly into the inset threads on the conical, rendering the brass thermoport useless (for now, anyway). Was a little disappointed upon unpacking that there were no camlock fittings supplied, as was shown in all the tutorial videos. Maybe I didn't read all the fine print, I was just under the impression for some reason that the kit came with the camlocks instead of having to unthread the union fittings. No big deal though. Overall, I like the whole setup. It was nice having the thread tape and sample bag of PBW included. I'll post again after breaking this baby in with a nice batch of Hef.

as for the collection ball, it will depend on how much trub you have. the advantage of the conical and the ball is that over-time, gravity will do it's job and help to clear your wort. if you have very little trub in your wort, then you could get a way with adding the collection ball when you want to remove some of the sediment.

the good news is, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

JAG107 said:

I just unpacked mine, and tried to fit it in my igloo chest freezer. If I don't use the collection ball, and use a blowoff on the op instead of an airlock, it FITS!
My question to everyone is this: What impact will not using the collection ball have on the beer? If I just wait until bottling day to pull out the conical, hook up the ball and open the valve to drain the trub and yeast, that shouldn't make too much difference right? By wedging the unit between the shelf in the fridge and another carboy, it's a perfect fit.
Also, I picked up a thermometer from my LHBS which threads directly into the inset threads on the conical, rendering the brass thermoport useless (for now, anyway). Was a little disappointed upon unpacking that there were no camlock fittings supplied, as was shown in all the tutorial videos. Maybe I didn't read all the fine print, I was just under the impression for some reason that the kit came with the camlocks instead of having to unthread the union fittings. No big deal though. Overall, I like the whole setup. It was nice having the thread tape and sample bag of PBW included. I'll post again after breaking this baby in with a nice batch of Hef.

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blaster_54738 said:

Mine wasn't threaded either but I got their thermometer and it's friction fit into the thermowell. There is like a little spring type piece that holds the thermometer into the thermowell. I want to know what size threads are in the fermenter itself so I can try and find a new thermometer that actually screws into the plastic. I'd rather have stainless than brass.

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I received basically the same response from them last night. Guess I'll drill a hole in a stopper for my probe, should work pretty well.

This thought came across my mind the other day about the fermenter. After initially emptying out the ball and reattaching it to the fermenter, when you open the valve back up to let it drain into the ball wont it pull the liquid from inside your airlock into the beer seeing as it is all airtight it needs to pull from somewhere. I suppose you could take the airlock off and do it but then that would just pull oxygen in. Thoughts?

Here is a best-practice for your FastFerment conical.., When racking to keg or bottles, be sure to remove the hop-sack. It will drain faster that way. DOH!

Last night I was wondering why the heck it would only trickle out of the drain tube... Oh yea, I was dry hopping!

My thinking about sucking back through the air lock when opening the valve is just pull the airlock. Yeah it will be O2 but I dryhop everything so I will be adding air when I take the lid off to add the hops. Basically no different then opening your fermenting buckets or carboys.

When fermenting have the valve open, then when the trub settles into the collection ball, you will not have to worry about sucking in o2 or anything. As the trub settles it will displace the liquid that is in it. Yes, you will lose what ever is in the valve but probably alot less then when we rack to a secondary.

I think golbock is talking about after you empty the ball the first time. When attaching a new ball you will have to open the valve which deff would create a suck back on the airlock. Definitely starting the ferment with the ball open though.

When I purged and replaced the collection ball, I didnt' have any suck-back to speak off.

...and the collection ball certainly did it's job. I kegged yesterday and force carbed. I'm pleased with this batch of my "Dont' Wheaty, Be Hoppy" brew that is a cross between Breckenridge Brewery's Ophelia and 3F Floyds Gumballhead. turned out as I had hoped, that's for sure.

oh, and by the way. The pictures below are the inside of my FastFerment conical after I kegged. I was amazed how clean it was! Other than a krausen ring, it was pretty easy to clean if you ask me!

Golbock said:

This thought came across my mind the other day about the fermenter. After initially emptying out the ball and reattaching it to the fermenter, when you open the valve back up to let it drain into the ball wont it pull the liquid from inside your airlock into the beer seeing as it is all airtight it needs to pull from somewhere. I suppose you could take the airlock off and do it but then that would just pull oxygen in. Thoughts?

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I thought of that as well and tested it with water and for some reason nothing got sucked out of the airlock

Doesn't the air in the collection ball go back into the conical?

Well I racked off the first ball of sediment today. The collection ball was deceivingly heavy and dense (which is a good thing) After cleaning the collection ball, sanitizing and reattaching I reopened the valve. The beer chugs back down to refill the ball and the air that is in the ball is dispersed up through the beer and then through the airlock. The airlock bubbles away vigorously for about 10 seconds and then all is back to normal. I figured I will let it sit for another week or so and then rack into the keg.

So far though I must say the Fastferment is super convenient and works exactly as it says.

Is there any way to fill the ball with co2 to keep air from bubbling through your beer?

I dont see any way to get it 100% co2, you could just shoot some into the ball like you would purging a bottle and just seal it on the conical quick.

I thought I'd try a different tactic. After filling the fermenter, what if you wait for the initial trube to settle in the ball. Change out to a clean ball then pitch the yeast? Wouldn't the yeast collected during fermentation be cleaner, and less chance of introducing oxygen after fermentation?

Sounds like a good idea to me. How long can wort sit without yeast and still be good though?

It sits at least overnight, for most "no chill" methods, with proper precautions taken to ensure sanitation.

So I would think, 24 hours no problem, if the proper precautions met.
And if you are "chilling" it, all the gunk would probably fall out quicker, ( with a form of " cold crash"), seems you could pitch, and let it come back to yeast friendly temps on it's own, and let your temp limiting controls take over.

very frustrated you can't order individual accessories, they are forcing you to order the accessory kit for $90... All i want is the stand, but wasn't sure if i needed it or not depending how was going to mount this in my fermentation chamber, so now i decided i want the stand and they won't sell just the stand, i have to buy the entire kit...

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the notes. Apologies on the confusion regarding the accessories pack we just opened up. We are trying to accommodate everyone the best we can - we'll keep working on that.

We are mainly set up for product development and manufacturing and rely on our great wholesale and retailer partners (You know who you are!) to help get our products out there. Our recent direct sales and pre sales have been set up to help raise $$ to make the FastFerment project all possible. Unfortunately it is financially not feasible for us to ship 1 or 2 items at a time. Perhaps if we spent time setting this up it could be, but that takes aways from us working on cool new products we want to bring out soon.

In the next few weeks the products will be available through homebrew wholesalers in NA. Homebrew retail stores have access to buy from us directly as well as these large wholesalers. We suggest you contact your local homebrew retailer or online retailer and request for FastFerment or the FastFerment Accessories you are looking for.

I hope that helps clear things up and you continue to bare with us as we work on getting everything available as quickly as possible.

Hope its working well for you, and please keep feedback coming. Its a learning curve for us!

Best - Cheers,

Casey

Leukass
I saw a stand made from pvc that wouldn't take to much to make. You could do that for your chamber petty easily.

Any pics? Would it hold 6-7 gallons?

It's a 7.5 gal. Volume l

Brewski_59 said:

It's a 7.5 gal. Volume l

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I meant the pic stand not the conical.

Brewski_59 said:

It's a 7.5 gal. Volume l

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I meant the pvc stand not the conical.

Brewski_59 said:

It's a 7.5 gal. Volume l

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I was asking in the pvc stand would hold 6-7 gallons of wort

If you used 3/4 inch pvc. It would. Sorry I don't have a picture. I saw it on a Facebook post.

These really look like they will pay for themselves!The customer service with this company is unbelievable.... I called them and had to hang up to receive another call and I got a callback from them saying they missed my call and how could they help. I hung two of these on my door right next to my brew kettle and I can't wait to fill them both up.

Monkey-BB said:

These really look like they will pay for themselves!The customer service with this company is unbelievable.... I called them and had to hang up to receive another call and I got a callback from them saying they missed my call and how could they help. I hung two of these on my door right next to my brew kettle and I can't wait to fill them both up.

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Hope that is a solid core door and has heavy duty hinges. When the fermenters are full, you will be hanging nearly a 100 pounds on there.

brewbuster said:

Hope that is a solid core door and has heavy duty hinges. When the fermenters are full, you will be hanging nearly a 100 pounds on there.

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Thanks for lookin out buddy-
It's a solid door with bolts and washers on both sides.
I've have one full of 6.5 gallons fermenting for about a week while the other has 5 gallons of water in it.
Thanks again buddy

You may consider replacing the screws in your hinges with longer screws. Especially the top hinge.

I posted this in another thread but thought people here might be interested. I modified my fermentation fridge to take these things by cutting the shelves off the door. Otherwise they fit without modification. I made a pair of racks out of some old buckets set bottom to bottom and screwed together with sheet metal screws. I also had to cut a hole the size of the collection ball in the bottoms of the buckets and I cut a hole in the side of the bottom bucket for access to the collection ball. Warning: use very strong buckets.

Brewitt said:

I posted this in another thread but thought people here might be interested. I modified my fermentation fridge to take these things by cutting the shelves off the door. Otherwise they fit without modification. I made a pair of racks out of some old buckets set bottom to bottom and screwed together with sheet metal screws. I also had to cut a hole the size of the collection ball in the bottoms of the buckets and I cut a hole in the side of the bottom bucket for access to the collection ball. Warning: use very strong buckets.

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Certainly an inventive economical stand for these things! The buckets with the access window cut in them should be fine but would definitely keep an eye out for any signs of buckling.

Was wondering why you don't have the valves open so the trub & yeast will drop into the collection ball?

jbb3 said:

Certainly an inventive economical stand for these things! The buckets with the access window cut in them should be fine but would definitely keep an eye out for any signs of buckling.

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That is why I said to make sure and use strong buckets. These are very rigid and have very strong top rings. The bottoms are screwed together in multiple places to ensure rigidity. They have been several weeks with the fermenter on them and show no signs of wear but I definitely am concerned about it.

jbb3 said:

Was wondering why you don't have the valves open so the trub & yeast will drop into the collection ball?

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I just happened to take the picture when I was manipulating the yeast and wort so they were closed. I fermented with them open and then closed again when I removed trub and yeast. I didn't save the yeast on this run.

Brewitt said:

That is why I said to make sure and use strong buckets. These are very rigid and have very strong top rings. The bottoms are screwed together in multiple places to ensure rigidity. They have been several weeks with the fermenter on them and show no signs of wear but I definitely am concerned about it.

I just happened to take the picture when I was manipulating the yeast and wort so they were closed. I fermented with them open and then closed again when I removed trub and yeast. I didn't save the yeast on this run.

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Sounds good!