I think I done messed up my Catalyst fermenter

So I decided to try the shiny (new-ish) Catalyst fermentation system. I now as of yesterday have a 1 year old daughter so over the past year finding time to spend most of a day just brewing beer was difficult.
Solution: Better, more time efficient equipment. (Conical fermenter, propane burner, kettle with a valve and a kegging system)

Unfortunately, in my excitement of kickstarting this hobby... ehhem... returning to the homebrewing lifestyle I assembled the Catalyst fermenter incorrectly. I installed the ring with the butterfly valve upside down! I drained my wort from my kettle into it, aerated it, pitched the yeast and set it away to ferment. I was still able to open and close the valve, but it wasn't until I went to dump the trub that I realized it was upside down. The jar was harder to remove than it should've been, but oh well. It was working.

Fast forward to kegging day.. I put on the bottling funnel opened the valve to drain into the keg and it's mostly working... only beer is also leaking out the side of the funnel. Close the valve, crank it on as tight as I can... still leaking. Close it again, dry it off and apply duct tape. Great no more leaking!

The problem now is that I can't for the life of me get the funnel attachment back off of the valve housing. I've tried about everything I can thing of short of using an oil filter wrench or dremeling funnel off (that wouldn't do a whole lot of good if I can't find a replacement, though.)

Attempted:
Just cranking on it with my hands.
Trying to lubricate the threads with water/silicone based lubricants.
Using rubber gloves to get a better grip on it.
Disassembling the housing to screw it to the basement wall to get more leverage on it.
Sticking it in the freezer attempting to cause the materials to contract.
Sticking the housing part in hot water to get it to expand.
Contacting Craft-a-Brew explaining that I'm an idiot (apparently) and messed up. (Still waiting for a response on this one.)

So yeah; This is where I'm at. Any Suggestions?

 

try a strap wrench.
anything the squeezes it making it out of round, makes it tighter.
the strap wrench should keep it round while squeezing it.

try a belt as a make shift strap wrench if you're feeling lucky.
pull it through the buckle and back the way you need to loosen it.

 

Thanks for the tip! I did manage to break it free after wrenching on it some more. But man, let this be a warning to anyone else with this thing. Make sure it's assembled correctly!

 

Best suggestion...

Sell it for whatever you can get and buy a Brew Bucket.

 

Man... I am seriously about to do that. I added the racking arm to the fermentor but have yet to use it. With the catalyst I find too much yeast sticks to the side of the container. Blowoff happens with every brew. I primary only in the catalyst then rack to secondary carboy. Kinda defeats the purpose.

 

Well yeah!! It is made so that you dump the trub and/or yeast so that you DON'T do a secondary. Why do you secondary?

For blow off, don't over fill it, or don't worry about blow off. It is the same size as a glass carboy or bucket fermenter.

Yeast sticking to the side of the Catalyst should not be much of a concern.

 

Well I have tended to brew semi back to back so I started racking to secondary to free up the catalyst for another batch... Blowoff isn't a huge deal but more headspace is something appreciable. Changing the Mason jar worked great to remove trub, but I also had more beer Loss, also now that the heat of summer dictates fermenting in a chest freezer I lost easy access to the Mason jars. Yeast sticking to the side isn't a critical problem, but it bothers me that you get clean beer, until time to go in the bottling bucket... Taking all that yeast with it.

Going to a brew bucket seems easier. You just let it rip, rack to secondary or bottling bucket and call it a day.

Don't get me wrong, I like the catalyst... But my OCD particularly hates seing some sediment end up back in your bucket. I want to try a batch start to finish including cold crash now that I'm kegging and have installed the racking arm accessory.

 

What you have said here is why I don't want a conical of any kind. They cost too much to have a lot of them. I have 7 Better Bottles and 3 buckets. I sometimes have more than half of them filled. I have a chest freezer for fermenting lagers and a chamber for ales. They also are too large to fit in my chambers, at least easily.

Now, if money were no object a bunch of temperature controlled conicals in a fermentation room would be nice.

 

I probably should have went with that in the first place, but having been out of the loop for a bit I wasn't aware there was a better option available.

Aside from this mishap, I'm not unhappy with it though. To me it sure beats sanitizing extra equipment and spending time racking.