NEW Conical Fermenter - The Catalyst: 3" Butterfly valve, Mason jar compatible...

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CraftaBrew

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After 2 years of hard work we are excited to announce our new conical fermenter! We are finally at the point where we can bring you this product for the first time.

Our goal was to make the most versatile and easy to use fermenter on the market through the use of high quality materials, a 3" butterfly valve compatible with any wide mouth mason jar and a kegging/bottling attachment that makes racking your beer easier then ever.


We currently have the product available on Kickstarter and are expecting to have the first units available for shipment in early September. We have gone through all of the prototyping, testing, tooling and retooling to ensure the product our customers receive will be the highest quality possible.

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The mason jar idea I'm loving. Good job guys, I may have to check one of these out.
 
Looks very good.
I am fermenting in a chest freezer and it would be nice to have some handles to lift it out with.

How do you suggest combining the catalyst with a chest freezer?

Espen

Edit: I see now that it has some small handles where the lid connects to the tank, but is this strong enough to be lifted by when the fermenter is full?
 
The base makes great handholds, we looked at molding handholds into the base yet after real world testing holding the base to carry it was not an issue. We also tried to keep it as compact as possible at 26" tall for chest freezers.
 
Can we expect to see any of these in the wild, or possibly out to testers for reviews?

We are reaching out to some websites and bloggers for review, we only have a small amount of preproduction units available to send out before the main shipment is ready in September so it will be limited until then.

It needs a racking arm

We include a bottling/kegging attachment with the system that screws into the bottom of the valve for racking. As for taking samples we made the lid hole large enough for any sampling device on the market. We are also looking into possibilities for a sampling port as a future accessory.

Excellentl may you prosper!

:mug:
 
We are reaching out to some websites and bloggers for review, we only have a small amount of preproduction units available to send out before the main shipment is ready in September so it will be limited until then.

Fantastic - I can't wait to see overall impressions I really like what I'm seeing so far. Thank you for being so responsive to all our questioning.
 
Only thing I am not sure of is all of the plastic. The butterfly valve and assembly as well as the stand. This thing is half the price of a complete stainless setup that has a lot of extra features.

This is a great idea though.
 
I WANT IT!

Impressions from watching the kickstarter videos.....
When bottling that first bottle gets hardcore oxidation as the funnel/line fill with beer.

After thinking about it, there are probably fixes for this (CO2 purges, etc)
AND normal racking/re-racking/bottling probably introduces more oxygen...
But i was interested in your thoughts.

but most of all

I WANT ONE!
Well done guys:rockin:
 
I WANT IT!

Impressions from watching the kickstarter videos.....
When bottling that first bottle gets hardcore oxidation as the funnel/line fill with beer.

After thinking about it, there are probably fixes for this (CO2 purges, etc)
AND normal racking/re-racking/bottling probably introduces more oxygen...
But i was interested in your thoughts.

but most of all

I WANT ONE!
Well done guys:rockin:

a simple fix is to pour a few ounces and discard it when you first open the valve. That's what I used to do with bottling wands too, as most of the first pour is starsan...
 
I also like it. But, as I posted in a thread that got removed, it is outside my budget by a long way. 6 good numbers on a small piece of paper could change that though.
 
Only thing I am not sure of is all of the plastic. The butterfly valve and assembly as well as the stand. This thing is half the price of a complete stainless setup that has a lot of extra features.

This is a great idea though.

We ensured every piece that will have contact with your beer is made from either food grade silicone or Tritan which is a medical grade inert material.

The stand is also super sturdy, to test it we stacked 5-gallon buckets of water totaling 170 pounds on top of the tank for a full week to see if there were any weak points and it performed flawlessly with no cracking, sagging etc.

Looks like a great idea. Having a way to lift it out of a chest freezer, straps or something would be nice. I don't see any dimensions on the unit as shown, can you share?

We are working on a cover for the tank which will have handles to make moving the fermenter very easy and will keep all of the light out.

Here are the dimensions:

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Nice, I really like the fact that you use Mason jars for the collection ball. Very cool feature there. But, you are priced too high compared to your direct competition, the FastFermentor. You need to figure how to price point this around $130.
 
Should include options for racking arms. The mason jar feature is nice but without the racking arm I'd have to pass.
 
Really well thought out device but I'm going to have a REAL hard time paying $200 for plastic.
 
Nice, I really like the fact that you use Mason jars for the collection ball. Very cool feature there. But, you are priced too high compared to your direct competition, the FastFermentor. You need to figure how to price point this around $130.

We did try to come in at a lower price point yet we had to sacrifice a lot of quality to get under $150 and since the goal of the project was to create a very high quality product we went with the best materials possible and ended up at a final MSRP of $199.

Should include options for racking arms. The mason jar feature is nice but without the racking arm I'd have to pass.

We do include a funnel like bottling attachment for racking and the port on the lid is large enough for a thief yet we are looking into options for a sampling port accessory.

Really well thought out device but I'm going to have a REAL hard time paying $200 for plastic.

Thank you, yes we did have that concern too yet after looking at our options it was either lower quality and more affordable or the higher quality Tritan material which we love working with. It has some great properties over other plastic fermenters: scratch resistant, clear as glass, durable, light weight, low oxygen permeability and dishwasher safe.
 
Can you do closed forced CO2 transfers to a keg with this?

I'd be tempted if it had the ability.
 
@beskone
This isn't going to hold pressure, by design. you can find 10-gallon cornies for $200.
 
We did try to come in at a lower price point yet we had to sacrifice a lot of quality to get under $150 and since the goal of the project was to create a very high quality product we went with the best materials possible and ended up at a final MSRP of $199.

I think that is great you want a "high quality" product, but in the end, you are in the business of selling that product and you have to look at what your competition is doing. We, the consumer, have a lot of places we can spend our money. You are saying with your price, that your fermenter is twice the product as the FastFermenter. In the end, they are both plastic conical fermenters. Why is your "twice" as good? Yes, the mason jar feature is great, but with the FastFermenter, I can mount it on the wall and put my keg right underneath it, that is also a fantastic feature.

I am not trying to be a dick, but trying to help. I am your target market. I own a FastFermenter and I am looking at getting a second. Your product looks interesting, but I am trying to figure out why it is worth twice as much.
 
I do forced CO2 transfers with my PET carboys now. You're saying these can't withstand 1-2lbs of pressure to to the forced transfer?

@beskone
This isn't going to hold pressure, by design. you can find 10-gallon cornies for $200.
 
Don't know. Maybe. Why not just rely on gravity with these? The dump valve lets you keep the beer clear. Heck, you could bottle directly from this. Forced transfer makes sense on glass carboys and kegs where the beer is sitting on trub, but not here.
 
looks really cool! thanks for putting the time and effort in to move our hobby forward. Cheers!
 
I think that is great you want a "high quality" product, but in the end, you are in the business of selling that product and you have to look at what your competition is doing. We, the consumer, have a lot of places we can spend our money. You are saying with your price, that your fermenter is twice the product as the FastFermenter. In the end, they are both plastic conical fermenters. Why is your "twice" as good? Yes, the mason jar feature is great, but with the FastFermenter, I can mount it on the wall and put my keg right underneath it, that is also a fantastic feature.

I am not trying to be a dick, but trying to help. I am your target market. I own a FastFermenter and I am looking at getting a second. Your product looks interesting, but I am trying to figure out why it is worth twice as much.

Those are definitely things we consider and we are offering a high quality product that does come with a higher price tag and it does limit our market. We want to give people unique features that are not available on other products and let them decide what works best for their budget and situation. I can say that we spent a lot of time on development and fixed a lot of the issues seen on other plastic vessels.

I do forced CO2 transfers with my PET carboys now. You're saying these can't withstand 1-2lbs of pressure to to the forced transfer?

In our testing our seal did not begin to leak any CO2 until a consistent internal pressure of 3 PSI was achieved. While we have not yet tested pressure transfers on this I would say that our tank and seal could definitely withstand these pressures, you may just get very slight pinpoint leaks if using over 3 PSI with shouldn't be necessary if going from The Catalyst to a keg.
 
I was curious about this tritan material and how it is so much higher quality so I did some research...I have to say it is legit and I am impressed with the specs however, for the price I would pay a little more and get stainless with tons of extra features, valves, racking ports, etc.
 
Somewhat a n00b at HBT
but my understanding is that light is really bad for beer

So since this is clear have you noticed that to be a factor?

Looks great and the price is definitely higher than FF, but I think this is a much better looking product
I think the FF is kinda of ugly and would want to hide it away
 
Somewhat a n00b at HBT
but my understanding is that light is really bad for beer

So since this is clear have you noticed that to be a factor?

Looks great and the price is definitely higher than FF, but I think this is a much better looking product
I think the FF is kinda of ugly and would want to hide it away

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder..... You should buy your gear based on functionality.
 
Somewhat a n00b at HBT
but my understanding is that light is really bad for beer

So since this is clear have you noticed that to be a factor?

Looks great and the price is definitely higher than FF, but I think this is a much better looking product
I think the FF is kinda of ugly and would want to hide it away

We took this into consideration and are coming out with a cover for the unit which will have integrated handles for easier moving. These should be available within the next few month.

In the mean time this can be treated just like any other clear vessel, obviously you will not want exposure to any direct sunlight for any period of time and it is best kept in a dark closet or covered with a towel if it is somewhere that has exposure to a constant light source.
 
All my carboys are clear, They go into a closed and dark fermentation chamber. I don't see how this would be any different. Just make sure it's either covered, or in a dark environment.

Somewhat a n00b at HBT
but my understanding is that light is really bad for beer

So since this is clear have you noticed that to be a factor?

Looks great and the price is definitely higher than FF, but I think this is a much better looking product
I think the FF is kinda of ugly and would want to hide it away
 
This is a waste of time 5 gallon brewers in general don't spend much on equipment. Most do stove top and hand bottle. You should have focused on larger sizes. There's room for an economical alternative to full on SS Conicals for 10 gallon brewers and larger.
 
We took this into consideration and are coming out with a cover for the unit which will have integrated handles for easier moving. These should be available within the next few month.

In the mean time this can be treated just like any other clear vessel, obviously you will not want exposure to any direct sunlight for any period of time and it is best kept in a dark closet or covered with a towel if it is somewhere that has exposure to a constant light source.

First, I really am impressed with this fermentor. The butterfly valve and ability to use a mason jar, rather than a $20 plastic trub trap as in the other popular conical is really a big plus for this design. But speaking of light, what was your thought process about not adding Amber color to the high grade plastic? Just wondering.
 

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