Chronical Fermenter by SS Brewing Technologies

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single hop Nelson Sauvin DIPA ready to ferment away. SG of 1.074 and Wyeast 1968 so I added a little fermcap to the blow off vessel to mitigate any potential mess.

You can't see it in the pic, but i have a heating pad bungie corded to the rear of the conical. It is controlled by a Ranco ETC-211000 along with the freezer. The USB fan is in parallel with the freezer and it really helps the cooling efficiency of unit and helps prevent overshoot.
2mcas6u.jpg
 
Just a little update. I ended up getting a 7 gal Chronical and the box was just a little smaller than the maximum dimensions for a checked bag, so it got to Japan with free shipping! Already have a beer fermenting away in it.

Also, seems at some point SS changed their ball valves to having an integrated TC fitting instead of a threaded part sealed with nylon tape on the back. Pretty satisfied with the quality and feel of the whole unit.
 
I own two 14 gallon chronicals and have fermented 4 brews in them thus far. Two of the beers were aggressively hopped IPAs. Neither one of them popped with hops and were lacking in the aroma/nose. I'm suspecting oxidation. I'm suspicious of the pressure valve (apparently there for pressurized transfers, which I do) that sits atop the lid. This thing is very loose -a very loose spring holds it down from the inside - and I'm wondering if it's allowing O2 in.
This thread has been mostly about obtaining the product and little about experiences with it. I'd like to shift the discussion away from getting your hands on one, now that it appears enough folks have one - and yak about experience with it and the final product.
Has anyone experienced oxidation? Have your IPA or hoppy brews popped with hop aroma or have they been lacking.
Looking forward to comments.
 
i routinely add 12-14oz of dry hops in my 14g and great results. no oxidation issues at all.

i will say i have struggled with efficiently draining trub
 
strangr419 said:
I own two 14 gallon chronicals and have fermented 4 brews in them thus far. Two of the beers were aggressively hopped IPAs. Neither one of them popped with hops and were lacking in the aroma/nose. I'm suspecting oxidation. I'm suspicious of the pressure valve (apparently there for pressurized transfers, which I do) that sits atop the lid. This thing is very loose -a very loose spring holds it down from the inside - and I'm wondering if it's allowing O2 in.
This thread has been mostly about obtaining the product and little about experiences with it. I'd like to shift the discussion away from getting your hands on one, now that it appears enough folks have one - and yak about experience with it and the final product.
Has anyone experienced oxidation? Have your IPA or hoppy brews popped with hop aroma or have they been lacking.
Looking forward to comments.
Click to expand...

I also have two 14gal chronicals, one of which is the BME edition. I don't have problems with the pressure valve on either fermenter. I can confirm this as I run a silicon blow off tube down to a mason jar under the fermenter and observe bubbling. (I did purchase the leg extensions) When I take samples from the BME if I don't purge the pressure by lifting the pressure valve the sample comes out with some minor force and foaming. So far my beers have come out fantastic. I have brewed IPA's, Oktoberfests, wheat beers, etc and all are coming out fine. I dry hopped with whole hops for the IPA (Bell's 2HA clone) and will not do that again as I had a tough time transferring from the fermenter to keg. The racking arm got clogged with hops.
 
strangr419 said:
I own two 14 gallon chronicals and have fermented 4 brews in them thus far. Two of the beers were aggressively hopped IPAs. Neither one of them popped with hops and were lacking in the aroma/nose. I'm suspecting oxidation. I'm suspicious of the pressure valve (apparently there for pressurized transfers, which I do) that sits atop the lid. This thing is very loose -a very loose spring holds it down from the inside - and I'm wondering if it's allowing O2 in.
This thread has been mostly about obtaining the product and little about experiences with it. I'd like to shift the discussion away from getting your hands on one, now that it appears enough folks have one - and yak about experience with it and the final product.
Has anyone experienced oxidation? Have your IPA or hoppy brews popped with hop aroma or have they been lacking.
Looking forward to comments.
Click to expand...

No leakage from the pressure release valves on either of my 14 gallons fermenters. I built a pressurized transfer rig that I run up to about 1 psi and the pressure release valve doesn't budge, so it certainly isn't admitting air when the rig isn't pressurized.

Also to the gent who had issues with free range dry hopping with whole leaf, I recommend a pressurized transfer rig. It pushes beer right through the hops mass. I wrap the bottom end of the keg fill hose with a hops bag to filter out any small bits of hops that escape.

I have a demo video on YouTube - look for conical pressurized transfer. Details in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=520520#post6766376

I've made the most hops poppingest IPAs ever with that fermenter. During dry hopping I rouse the hops every day or two using a CO2 wand and a 2micron stone on the end. Advice directly from Vinny Chilurzo.
 
Do you all purge the chronical with CO2 when dry hopping? I recently purchased the newer lid with the dry hop lid and triclamp. It's a pretty sweet device. Curious as to how you all determine when the headspace, which is rather large in the 14 gal chronical when you've got 10 gallons in there, is fully purged of O2?
 
strangr419 said:
Do you all purge the chronical with CO2 when dry hopping? I recently purchased the newer lid with the dry hop lid and triclamp. It's a pretty sweet device. Curious as to how you all determine when the headspace, which is rather large in the 14 gal chronical when you've got 10 gallons in there, is fully purged of O2?
Click to expand...

Since the fermenter is still under pressure when I remove the triclamp I am assuming it is still full of CO2. I dump the hops in and close it back up. So far I haven't had any problems.
 
strangr419 said:
Do you all purge the chronical with CO2 when dry hopping? I recently purchased the newer lid with the dry hop lid and triclamp. It's a pretty sweet device. Curious as to how you all determine when the headspace, which is rather large in the 14 gal chronical when you've got 10 gallons in there, is fully purged of O2?
Click to expand...

After any dry hopping, I just run CO2 in for 30 seconds or so. I figure that flushes most O2 out the top. Not very scientific but I definitely get a constant flow of air coming out of the top while I'm doing that, so I figure it's a pretty good flush because the CO2 will sink to the bottom while the O2 will flush out the top.
 
The butterfly valve has to be above the sight glass so you can isolate it from the fermenter. How about trying it as follows: conical to elbow to butterfly valve to sight glass to ball valve? That way you could keep the butterfly valve open during fermentation to see what's going on. When you want to dump trub or harvest yeast, just close the butterfly valve and open the ball valve or remove the sight glass completely, drain it, clean it, sanitize it and reattach it.
 
Ok I swapped fittings around so my next question is right now the butterfly valve is closed when I open for trub dump. I leave it open correct and close the bottom ball valve to dump yeast and wait for yeast to fall into the sight glass? Trying to figure this out lol.

View attachment 1466469688540.jpg
 
Wow, now that I really stop and think about it, I'm reconsidering my prior post. If you close the butterfly valve in your current set up and then dump trub/yeast out of the sight glass via the ball valve, you will end up with a sight glass full of air. If and when you reopen the butterfly valve, that air will bubble up through your fermenting beer which could cause major oxidation problems depending on when during fermentation it happens. I was fixated on being able to isolate the sight glass and not thinking about air.

On second thought, I think you need to attach the sight glass directly to the bottom of the conical and then the butterfly valve either before or after the elbow. I don't think you need the ball valve at all. When the sight glass fills up with trub/yeast, open the butterfly and dump until you see beer flowing into the sight glass. Then wait until the sight glass fills up with trub/yeast again before dumpling.
 
philipCT said:
After any dry hopping, I just run CO2 in for 30 seconds or so. I figure that flushes most O2 out the top. Not very scientific but I definitely get a constant flow of air coming out of the top while I'm doing that, so I figure it's a pretty good flush because the CO2 will sink to the bottom while the O2 will flush out the top.
Click to expand...


Thank you PhilipCT. That's what I did this week. I just purged with a ton of CO2 after dropping in the dry hop. I'll report back after we keg it up and carbonate. Cheers!
 
Depending on how many dumps (of yeast/trub) you want to do, the best plan would be to go butterfly valve (open from the get go) -> Sight glass -> Elbow -> ball valve (closed). As the yeast and trub is more dense than the wort, it will settle out and displace the wort that might be in the glass/elbow. When its time to dump the yeast, close the butterfly valve and open the ball valve. If you need to do a second dump, remove the glass, elbow and ball valve, clean, sanitize and fill with boiled/distilled/sanitary water. Hook it all back up and open the butterfly valve. The yeast/trub will settle out again and the water will mix in with the wort, diluting it a tiny bit, but pretty much eliminating any possible oxidation risk you would have gotten from opening a valve to a sightglass full of air.
 
sabotenfighter said:
Depending on how many dumps (of yeast/trub) you want to do, the best plan would be to go butterfly valve (open from the get go) -> Sight glass -> Elbow -> ball valve (closed). As the yeast and trub is more dense than the wort, it will settle out and displace the wort that might be in the glass/elbow. When its time to dump the yeast, close the butterfly valve and open the ball valve. If you need to do a second dump, remove the glass, elbow and ball valve, clean, sanitize and fill with boiled/distilled/sanitary water. Hook it all back up and open the butterfly valve. The yeast/trub will settle out again and the water will mix in with the wort, diluting it a tiny bit, but pretty much eliminating any possible oxidation risk you would have gotten from opening a valve to a sightglass full of air.
Click to expand...

Got it
 
Just wanted to update a prior post that I made about IPAs. I just brewed a couple IPAs and fermented in the chronical and the first one came out fantastic...great hop aroma and bitterness. :rockin: second one is still in the chronical will be kegging this weekend. Fired up to try that one too!
Still got my other 14 gal chronical in the box since I only have room in the fermentation fridge for one chronical. I'm looking at hooking up with the new glycol chiller system SS Brewtech recently released. It's a pretty penny but I may dive in so I can have both 14 gallon chronical in use at the same time. Has anyone purchased the glycol system yet??? :mug:
 

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