Cleaning and reattaching collection ball on Fast Ferment

[trojan]

I using my Fast Ferment Conical for the first time and it is time to empty and clean my collection ball. What are the recommendations for filling the ball before reattaching? Also what is best way to check my gravity? Just drain some wort off of the collection ball?

 

[Pantherjon]

Yeah, draining some from the collection ball would be easiest..But, I am thinking it will give a false high number due to the 'stuff' in there..Unless you are real smooth and drain off JUST some wort and not any of the sediment..

 

[vrodbrad]

After you clean out your ball make sure you sanitize it then you can reattach. I have not had a problem with the oxygen going up and through the beer. If you keg you can put some co2 in the ball before you attach. For taking a sample I would go through the top. If you have a baster, such sanitize and pull out a sample and read with your hydrometer.

 

[nobadays]

+1 on vrodbrad. I have about 15 brews through my Fastferment and still like it a lot. I have not had trouble - oxidation - from letting the air bubble up through, when it is still fermenting, in fact it helps loosen any trub gathering in the neck. That said after the fermentation is complete, when I am dry hopping, I always rinse, sanitize then fill the ball with a like style beer before re-attaching it. The argument could be made that during the dry hop phase there is no need (if ever) to take the ball off, but when doing multiple dry hop additions - even when using hop bags - there can be a huge amount of hop debris settling out and could plug the neck of the fermenter. If there is not...don't empty the ball. I just did a Scottish ale, let the wort sit in the fermenter overnight, emptied the ball in the morning and never emptied it again. This is my common practice...just get rid of the first trub that comes from the kettle then let it go.

Sampling is made way easier by adding a sampling tap. I chose to use a stick-on temp gauge and put my sampling tap in the thermal well.

Cheers!!

 

[jrodmfish]

There's really no issue with oxidation. I rinse the ball out in the sink and then let it soak in a starsan solution for a bit before reattaching it. I dump the star san and immediately reattach it. I get a good whirlpool in the kettle so I don't do a dump before pitching yeast like some do.

I ferment with the ball closed and do an initial dump after primary has finished. Depending on the beer, there may be dry hops in that first dump since I dry hop during primary on some beers. I don't save yeast because I harvest from starters. I'll usually do 1-3 more dumps depending on the yeast/ beer/ dry hops, etc. I don't worry about oxidation. The collection balls are relatively small and air in there is only about 21% oxygen. There's just not that much going in. I usually add dry hops or finings right before I do a reattachment so the bubbles can help disperse whatever I just added into the fermenter.

 

[mbg]

I've used my FF half a dozen times now. I like to harvest yeast so thought the FF with collection ball would make this easier but I'm finding the yeast/trub mix to be impossible to remove without flushing with water and then I watch the yeast go down the drain.

Any suggestions?


Thanks

 

[cheapscotsman]

I have the FF keep the valve open and the trub fills the jar within the week. Close off the valve empty the jar and sanitize and reattach. Then after the fermentation is done open the valve and then the next jar will just have yeast and some beer, that I transfer to a swing top bottle and put in the fridge.

 

[broox]

I have a fast ferment and have been having issues with the trub clogging the bottle neck and not totally settling out.

I've tried

• swirling the fast ferment to break the trub loose
• removing the lid and stirring with long spoon
• removing the lid and pushing a rod through the bottleneck

None of these seem to work very well, and all feel super sketchy... In my most recent batch, my bottleneck was so plugged up (even after attempting all of the previous methods) that I wound up just siphoning my brew out through the lid... which totally defeats the purpose.

Here's a photo of my plugged up FastFerment before deciding to just siphon the beer off the top. You can see there is trub in the ball, followed by liquid at the top half of the ball, and then more trub in the conical fermenter.

Anyone else have these problems?

 

[Jag75]

I have a fast ferment and have been having issues with the trub clogging the bottle neck and not totally settling out.

I've tried

• swirling the fast ferment to break the trub loose
• removing the lid and stirring with long spoon
• removing the lid and pushing a rod through the bottleneck

None of these seem to work very well, and all feel super sketchy... In my most recent batch, my bottleneck was so plugged up (even after attempting all of the previous methods) that I wound up just siphoning my brew out through the lid... which totally defeats the purpose.

Here's a photo of my plugged up FastFerment before deciding to just siphon the beer off the top. You can see there is trub in the ball, followed by liquid at the top half of the ball, and then more trub in the conical fermenter.

Anyone else have these problems?

Whoa , that is a large amount. Are you using whirfloc? Are you dumping everything into the FF ?

 

[Zuljin]

I too have a FastFerment. Just yesterday I had to work the ball valve back and forth to clear it so the trub would flow to the bowl. I had not left it open during the initial ferment figuring I wanted to ferment on everything and with everything in the main vessel.

In previous brews, I've had what I think is too much trub left in the main vessel. I dump my hops right into the boil and don't strain them out, so that's part of it. This present brew was a two pack pitch of yeast, so there's more trub. We shall see what I get with a second bowl filling.

If I recall correctly the review I wrote here about it, I said something about it maybe being best for mead or other low trub brews. I certainly thought it.

 

[Jag75]

Once I transfer to the FF and pitch I open the valve. If you leave it closed then open it after primary that's probably why it clogs. That opening isnt very big . When you keep the valve open it allows the trub to drop into the collection ball without getting plugged up.

 

[WestMichiganSteelheader]

For my FF I take the ball off 4-6 days into the fermentation. I try to take the ball off when it’s about 3/4 full. I don’t worry about the air that goes into the fermenter as the beer is still fermenting. I also believe the air bubbles will break up any trub that maybe caught in the neck.

I once had the neck become plugged. To fix this I used a rubber covered screw driver handle and gave it a few raps in the morning and evening. Within a few days it unplugged itself. Just don’t strike the valve and don’t hit it to hard.