FastFerment conical

jbb3 · May 12, 2015

nut4wine said:
I'd recommend a strap wrench over channel locks to loosen the collection ball. Less risk of cracking the plastic. Strap wrenches are cheap and I just keep one with all the FF gear in a bin.

Not really sure what's causing some to tighten/loosen to the point that requires a wrench of any kind. Hand tightening/loosening should be all that's needed. They do require a little more force to loosen but still not require a wrench to do so.

If the excessive tightening is due to leaking I would check the o-ring for deform/defects and make sure it's seating in the grove. Also, a little keg lube will help with the removal.

tsull8 · Jun 5, 2015

This is a follow up to my April post on the FastFermnet I bought that had a leaky ball valve. Support shipped me a new one and I just put a batch together last week. It seems to be holding well. I will post a review after I complete kegging (and start drinking ) the batch.

giantgreenhead · Jun 8, 2015

pgbrewing said:
I removed the thermowell and added a Liquifit valve for sampling.
.

Do you have the part number for the valve?

pgbrewing · Jun 9, 2015

giantgreenhead said:
Do you have the part number for the valve?

The valve is US Plastics Part No.60952, about $5. I also added a hose barb stem, Part No. 60919, about $1, to make it easier to dispense.

jcaiola · Jul 1, 2015

Hey pgbrewing - thanks for this idea on the US Plastics part - can you confirm the part number? I order a few and it turns out they are too small to be inserted into the fast ferment. I'm not sure of the right size to get - can you advise?

Thanks

StevAmos · Jul 17, 2015

I'm on my second ferment with the Fastferment. I'm pleased to say I haven't had any issues so far and am enjoying the experience. This latest batch is the first time I've put beer in it so I'm I've been reading the great advice in this thread with interest.

I'd like to add a sample tap to my fastferment but I'd like to keep the thermowell. I'm thinking of drilling through the plastic near the thermowell and installing a tap. I'm a bit concerned that the surface I'd be attaching the tap is slightly curved. Has anyone had any experience doing this?

When/if I have a tap installed I'd have a convenient way to take hydrometer samples and I was also wondering if I could use the tap to fill up the empty ball with beer when returning it to the Fastferment after a trub dump, so as not to introduce O2 into the beer. What do you think?

bembel · Jul 17, 2015

Look to my solution from the link below for using the existing thermowell port for both a sample and a thermometer, its a pain in the ass though, personally, I think the best solution is to use the thermowell port for a sample tap, you just need to get a 1/2 to 1/4 nylon reducing bushing from us plastics and one of their mini ball valves with 1/4 male NPT thread, I drilled a second small hole on the LID and put a small thermowell down through that held in place by a grommet, and use a $5 aquarium thermometer to measure the temp. Much less work

I tried a lot of other methods, this is the least work!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6764250&highlight=bembel#post6764250
(link to the thread with the port/thermometer sharing the thermowell)

StevAmos · Jul 17, 2015

Thanks for pointing me towards that thread. It has answered all my questions.

As I has no way to control the temps at the moment I'll use the thermowell port, as you say, as a sample tap and us a stick on thermometer to give me a general idea of the temperature. When the ambient temperature lowers in the winter I'll drill a hole in the lid for an immersion heater, unless the Fastferment heater has been released.

I'm dying to start a second batch. I may have to buy another unit.

2Kegger · Jul 19, 2015

tsull8 said:
This is a follow up to my April post on the FastFermnet I bought that had a leaky ball valve. Support shipped me a new one and I just put a batch together last week. It seems to be holding well. I will post a review after I complete kegging (and start drinking ) the batch.

Did you just give them a call? I used mine for the first time last month. Worked great for the primary. Then I removed the collection ball, cleaned it and reattached. I opened it up. All went fine. When I went to keg it, I shut the valve, removed the ball and it was leaking pretty heavily. I quickly attached the hose and then filled the keg without incident. I cleaned up the FastFerment and even soaked the ball valve, but it's still leaking. It's odd that it worked once, and then failed.

--- EDIT

I found the answer in another thread about tightening up the bottom. It was REALLY loose! It must have unscrewed when I removed the collection ball.

bembel · Jul 19, 2015

OK so my last batch finally dropped below 1015 but it took 3 weeks which is insane for a hefeweizen, I used a elbow barb attached to a hose and coke bottle as an airlock so I could fit the entire FF, including stand and ball into my new keezer for precise temp control, in any case, I have a second FF lid that I attached a ball lock adaptor and ball lock post to through the air lock hole with a gommet and it makes a nice airtight seal

I used the silicone oring as well as 3 of the foam ones in the lid

I attached 3 short pieces of tubing, all with clamps and reducing couplers to get 1/2 ID tubing down to 1/4 inch ( this took a while and was leaky until I used the clamps and ran that into my filter then into my keg

IT WORKS

Ran about 3 - 4 PSI, no liquid leaks but the lid totally bulged outwards and that warped the seal enough to let a little bit of CO2 out, but enough pressure to push the beer through a 1 micron filter

all together, this was a fun experiment but a PITA and it took way longer than just transfering to a keg and doing it from keg to keg

Since I was trying to save time, and I did not, I won't do this in the future, besides, I think that letting it sit in the keg before filtering helps clear it, thats what I did with the Kristal weizen that took 1st in class, second place best of show in Boston.

The thermowell in the top of the lid, however, works AWESOME, I use the temp controller to monitor the ambient in the keezer with some sticky foam isulation over it to balnance the swings, and a second thermometer right in the middle of the wort so I can adjust the ambient accordingly without causing huge swings in keezer temp

I have a video to show the pressure transfer, need to edit though b4 posting

tsull8 · Jul 20, 2015

2Kegger said:
Did you just give them a call?

I'm glad you figured out what was wrong on your fermenter. To answer the question asked though, I Emailed them through the support page on the Fast Ferment website. I got a pretty quick response.

GeeNotron · Aug 27, 2015

Just did my first batch using the fast ferment conical fermenter. Brewed an extract kit from Northern Brewer....their Smashing Pumpkin Ale. It's a 1.054 OG brew and I used a dry yeast to ferment. 48 hours after pitching at a safe temperature, I'm getting NO action on my airlock. Scared, I cracked the lid and almost passed out from the CO2 waft...so fermentation is indeed occurring, just not presenting itself in the airlock.

Anyone else have this issue or have any ideas what's going on? My initial thoughts are the CO2 is escaping from a leak in the plumbing somewhere...although my inspections haven't confirmed this (smell, sanitized water to look for bubbling). The foam cap on the fermentation was definitely there, although not ridiculously voluminous. Oddly, there was a lighter area of foam in the middle surrounded by a darker area of foam.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

apezz · Aug 27, 2015

GeeNotron said:
Just did my first batch using the fast ferment conical fermenter. Brewed an extract kit from Northern Brewer....their Smashing Pumpkin Ale. It's a 1.054 OG brew and I used a dry yeast to ferment. 48 hours after pitching at a safe temperature, I'm getting NO action on my airlock. Scared, I cracked the lid and almost passed out from the CO2 waft...so fermentation is indeed occurring, just not presenting itself in the airlock.

Anyone else have this issue or have any ideas what's going on? My initial thoughts are the CO2 is escaping from a leak in the plumbing somewhere...although my inspections haven't confirmed this (smell, sanitized water to look for bubbling). The foam cap on the fermentation was definitely there, although not ridiculously voluminous. Oddly, there was a lighter area of foam in the middle surrounded by a darker area of foam.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Are you using the new thicker silicone gasket on your lid? I'm using the new gasket and even with that I really have to crank down on the lid to get a good seal.

GeeNotron · Aug 27, 2015

apezz said:
Are you using the new thicker silicone gasket on your lid? I'm using the new gasket and even with that I really have to crank down on the lid to get a good seal.

Hey, thanks for your quick reply. I go have the new thicker gasket....just went back to give it a few more turns...that thing really needs to be cranked on. Maybe this will do the trick!

MrKelly · Aug 27, 2015

On the vessel itself. The very top. Is it super smooth or is there little bumps around the parting line?

bembel · Aug 31, 2015

GeeNotron said:
Just did my first batch using the fast ferment conical fermenter. Brewed an extract kit from Northern Brewer....their Smashing Pumpkin Ale. It's a 1.054 OG brew and I used a dry yeast to ferment. 48 hours after pitching at a safe temperature, I'm getting NO action on my airlock. Scared, I cracked the lid and almost passed out from the CO2 waft...so fermentation is indeed occurring, just not presenting itself in the airlock.

Anyone else have this issue or have any ideas what's going on? My initial thoughts are the CO2 is escaping from a leak in the plumbing somewhere...although my inspections haven't confirmed this (smell, sanitized water to look for bubbling). The foam cap on the fermentation was definitely there, although not ridiculously voluminous. Oddly, there was a lighter area of foam in the middle surrounded by a darker area of foam.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Gasket gasket gasket, I find that an extra 1/4 turn launches my airlock from dead to volcano instantly, if you can also make an additional gasket yourself, just trace over the foam one onto any rubber sheet material and add a few of these to the seal!

apezz · Aug 31, 2015

bembel said:
Gasket gasket gasket, I find that an extra 1/4 turn launches my airlock from dead to volcano instantly, if you can also make an additional gasket yourself, just trace over the foam one onto any rubber sheet material and add a few of these to the seal!

I agree, that's what I've been doing for a while now. But the last time I gave it that extra 1/4 turn the lid actually cracked between the top and side of it. It was a bummer. I used some plastic epoxy to get it sealed up for this fermentation.

msbrewblog · Aug 31, 2015

bembel said:
Gasket gasket gasket, I find that an extra 1/4 turn launches my airlock from dead to volcano instantly, if you can also make an additional gasket yourself, just trace over the foam one onto any rubber sheet material and add a few of these to the seal!

In addition to the not-sealing-tight issue, my gasket fell out and into the beer the first time I used it (before it could be screwed on)

I started lubing the gasket top & bottom with keg lube. No problems with either issue since.

tsull8 · Aug 31, 2015

msbrewblog said:
In addition to the not-sealing-tight issue, my gasket fell out and into the beer the first time I used it (before it could be screwed on)

I started lubing the gasket top & bottom with keg lube. No problems with either issue since.

I used keg lube and turned it down extra tight two batches ago and it was then the the gasket popped out into the beer. Each batch I do I have activity in the airlock for the fist 3-4 days and then no more bubbles. My lid is on so tight I can barely remove it. I assumed this was normal, but maybe not.

bembel · Sep 8, 2015

msbrewblog said:
In addition to the not-sealing-tight issue, my gasket fell out and into the beer the first time I used it (before it could be screwed on)

I started lubing the gasket top & bottom with keg lube. No problems with either issue since.

Never ceases to amaze me that lube is usually the solution to so many of life's challenges :mug:

Baron ken · Sep 17, 2015

I'm thinking about getting a FastFerment.

For those that added a sampling port, when you draw a sample does it pull air through your airlock? If not, where does the air enter the vessel as the sample comes out? Same question applies when bottling or racking from the bottom valve, doesn't opening the valve to let liquid out draw air back through your airlock?

Along those lines, has anyone tried open fermentation with the FF using just the lid screwed on without the seal/gasket (and the airlock hole plugged)? I do open fermentation all the time with a 15 gallon plastic barrel fermenter with just the lid on (no airtight seal). Having no airlock would also reduce the overall height.

Thanks.

chezhed · Sep 17, 2015

I now have three of these! All in one big TRUE beverage box...the three door beverage refrigerator you see in stores...and I have room for more stuff!, like two carboys or 10 cases of beer for conditioning. I built wooden stands similar to many seen here. Two 2X4 for each stand...$5.50 each. I have to work on making them moveable and locking down (locking casters are expensive) somehow to make them easier to load but I love these things. Each batch of beer has been right on and cleanup is simple....next step is to modify thermowell for a sampling port.

And now I see the cooling jacket is coming soon! I really need those for customers in our store that don't have a large enough space to maintain temps....it is still close to 100F here

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qyfusafteipvato/20150912_102458.jpg?dl=0

chezhed · Sep 17, 2015

Baron ken said:
I'm thinking about getting a FastFerment.

For those that added a sampling port, when you draw a sample does it pull air through your airlock? If not, where does the air enter the vessel as the sample comes out? Same question applies when bottling or racking from the bottom valve, doesn't opening the valve to let liquid out draw air back through your airlock?

Along those lines, has anyone tried open fermentation with the FF using just the lid screwed on without the seal/gasket (and the airlock hole plugged)? I do open fermentation all the time with a 15 gallon plastic barrel fermenter with just the lid on (no airtight seal). Having no airlock would also reduce the overall height.

Thanks.

Interesting question about pulling the air but I think it's a moot point. For example, I have bottled from a bucket and left the lid secured accidentally. I was still able to fill 3-4 bottles before flow stopped because there was no air to force out the beer. A sample isn't going to be enough to cause an issue IMO.

As for reducing overall height, you can put a 90 degree elbow in the hole and attach a blowoff tube....that would save a couple inches

MrKelly · Sep 17, 2015

Baron ken said:
For those that added a sampling port, when you draw a sample does it pull air through your airlock?

I added a sampling port down low for bottling/ kegging. The airlock that it comes with doesn't let air through in reverse so the port slows to a trickle due to the vacuum until I pull the airlock out, then it comes out fast. That little air is nothing to worry about as the system is still a lot more air-less than the traditional carboy/ bucket method as a whole anyway.

Baron ken said:
Along those lines, has anyone tried open fermentation with the FF using just the lid screwed on without the seal/gasket (and the airlock hole plugged)?

Yes a few times without any side affects that I noticed anyway. Drinking a Caribou Slobber now that I did that way.

Baron ken · Sep 18, 2015

MrKelly said:
I added a sampling port down low for bottling/ kegging. The airlock that it comes with doesn't let air through in reverse so the port slows to a trickle due to the vacuum until I pull the airlock out, then it comes out fast. That little air is nothing to worry about as the system is still a lot more air-less than the traditional carboy/ bucket method as a whole anyway.

I'm not worried about the small amount of air that enters while drawing a sample.

It sounds like having just the lid on (without seal and airlock hole plugged) will help with drawing samples too as it will prevent a vacuum and cutting off sample flow.

MrKelly said:
Yes a few times without any side affects that I noticed anyway. Drinking a Caribou Slobber now that I did that way.

It seems that a lot of people that are/were having lid sealing problems actually did the open fermentation (lid not airtight) too.

Fast_Rack · Sep 18, 2015

Hey HomeBrew Talk Members,

Its Brittney with the FastBrewing & WineMaking team! The much anticipated release of our Temperature Control Jacket is here! We are launching a pre-sale for this product today for $55.00 USD shipped to your home (in contiguous USA, while quantities last).

We wanted to specifically notify you since you showed interest for this new accessory & want to ensure that you dont miss out on this amazing deal.

Order your jacket here: http://www.fastbrewing.com/content/tjacket

To sweeten the pot even more, we are holding a contest to win a FastFerment. If you refer a friend to purchase a Temperature Control Jacket & they successfully make the purchase, your name will be entered each time you refer someone and they purchase. The more friends that buy, the more chances you have to win a FastFerment! Just send me an email with your referrals & well confirm the purchase.

We hope you enjoy our newest FastFerment accessory. Stay tuned for the next accessory, a sampling port & send us any suggestions of what else youd like to see from us at FastBrewing & WineMaking.

Thanks for getting involved!

Cheers,

Brittney

Fast_Rack · Sep 22, 2015

Hey HomeBrew Talk Members!

Its Brittney with the FastBrewing & WineMaking team! The much anticipated release of our Temperature Control Jacket is here! We are launching a pre-sale for this product today for $55.00 USD shipped to your home (in contiguous USA, while quantities last).

We wanted to specifically notify you since you showed interest for this new accessory & want to ensure that you dont miss out on this amazing deal.

Order your jacket here: http://www.fastbrewing.com/content/tjacket

To sweeten the pot even more, we are holding a contest to win a FastFerment. If you refer a friend to purchase a Temperature Control Jacket & they successfully make the purchase, your name will be entered each time you refer someone and they purchase. The more friends that buy, the more chances you have to win a FastFerment! Just send me an email with your referrals & well confirm the purchase.

We hope you enjoy our newest FastFerment accessory. Stay tuned for the next accessory, a sampling port & send us any suggestions of what else youd like to see from us at FastBrewing & WineMaking.

Thanks for getting involved!

Cheers,

Brittney

VulgarCelt · Sep 23, 2015

I just wanted to add my two cents to previous comments about customer service.

I don't think I have ever had a better customer experience with a company than I have with this one. On multiple occasions I pinged them about cooling jackets and temperature control. Each and every time they responded with the current state of their project and when I could expect to see it on the market. When I bought this I didn't realize the box had been opened and some of the parts were missing. It took precisely one email and another entire bag of hardware, including a new lid gasket, were on my doorstep within days. no hassle of any kind.

These folks have a great product and awesome customer service. If you are on the fence about this product and either of those concerns are important to your decision then pull the trigger now. This is a great company to do business with.

augiedoggy · Sep 23, 2015

I have the older version of these, a V vessel and dont use it because there is no easy way to control temps with the glycol chiller I use with my other stainless conicals... Honestly if they had a jacket like the "cool zone" jacket I use for my other conicals of a stainless coil to small enough to mount it it I would be golden and buy another... I use double bubble foil based insulation to wrap the outside of my conicals and it insulates well.
I hope they havent abandon a cooling jacket with liquid cooling capability.

VulgarCelt · Sep 23, 2015

augiedoggy said:
I have the older version of these, a V vessel and dont use it because there is no easy way to control temps with the glycol chiller I use with my other stainless conicals... Honestly if they had a jacket like the "cool zone" jacket I use for my other conicals of a stainless coil to small enough to mount it it I would be golden and buy another... I use double bubble foil based insulation to wrap the outside of my conicals and it insulates well.
I hope they havent abandon a cooling jacket with liquid cooling capability.

I ended up buying a SS coil and bulkhead qc fittings for an internal chiller. Basically a wort chiller with ice water / glycol. I will wrap the outside in heat tape of the equiv just like my carboys. Then use the same two stage controller to run the pond pump / heat. Not a jacket like the carboys I know. But I really do expect this to be a more efficient means of cooling.

Now if I only had time to put the pile of parts together...

Bottom of this link has images of where I stole the idea from...

http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?22617-temp-controlled-plastic-conical/page3

FastFerment conical

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