FastFerment. A First Brew Review.
My wife bought a FastFerment for me this Christmas. Yeah. She’s cool like that. I just bottled my first brew fermented in it.
Pros:
1. It’s the least expensive way to buy a new conical. Mine came with the main vessel, two collection bowls, one valve, one thermometer, one metal stand, one strap, the wall mounts, a bottling hose, nipple, clamp, and a few other misc. pieces. I think she paid around $160 with shipping.
2. The food grade plastic seems durable.
3. Light weight.
4. Large top opening for easy pouring, addition of ingredients, inspection, and cleaning.
5. It cleaned up easy-peasy.
6. The thermometer inserts around the five-gallon mark. It’s nice to have a thermometer monitoring the temperature of the wort. It appears accurate.
7. The collection bowl did collect some trub.
8. I go to secondary. I felt good using the bowl instead of racking to a secondary vessel.
9. Holds seven gallons with some headspace left over.
10. I did wind up having to transfer to a bottling bucket, but I didn’t have to use a syphon to do it.
11. No leaks.
Cons:
1. It’s too tall to fit in my fermentation fridge. I’ll need to get the jacket or build a fermentation box for this if I want to use it in the summer or for temperature picky beers. It’s much easier to use buckets and carboys with my present setup.
2. The collection bowl left a lot of trub behind. Even after a total of three collections, I had to transfer to a bottling bucket. This is kind of a big deal since this is a conical and advertises itself as a one vessel fermentation system. I had to use two vessels.
3. I’m not a fan of large diameter bottling hoses and clamps. Bottling wands are better.
4. They recommend using Teflon tape (included) on all the connections. I did, and it did not leak one drop, but to clean it, I had to scrub the tape out of the threads.
Indifferences:
1. I’ve no use for the wall mounts. It’s cool it can do that, just I don’t have a need for it.
2. Opening the collecting bowl valve lets in a little air from the bottom.
Ideas:
1. If I can make the collection bowl work to remove enough trub, I can fit my existing bottling hose and wand to the FastFerment and bottle from it. We shall see.
2. The FastFerment would be great for mead or other low trub producing fermentations.
Conclusion:
I am glad to have received this as a gift. It’s a good piece of gear. It’s worth using again. Some folks may not like that opening the collection bowl valve lets in a little air, but I think minor aeration worries are overstated. My sample did not taste like cardboard. My next brew in this will likely be a mead, and I think that will go very well. FastFerment touts the collection bowl as a good way to collect yeast. It probably is, and I’ve been meaning to try that.
I'll update upon next use. Any questions, ask away.
http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment
My wife bought a FastFerment for me this Christmas. Yeah. She’s cool like that. I just bottled my first brew fermented in it.
Pros:
1. It’s the least expensive way to buy a new conical. Mine came with the main vessel, two collection bowls, one valve, one thermometer, one metal stand, one strap, the wall mounts, a bottling hose, nipple, clamp, and a few other misc. pieces. I think she paid around $160 with shipping.
2. The food grade plastic seems durable.
3. Light weight.
4. Large top opening for easy pouring, addition of ingredients, inspection, and cleaning.
5. It cleaned up easy-peasy.
6. The thermometer inserts around the five-gallon mark. It’s nice to have a thermometer monitoring the temperature of the wort. It appears accurate.
7. The collection bowl did collect some trub.
8. I go to secondary. I felt good using the bowl instead of racking to a secondary vessel.
9. Holds seven gallons with some headspace left over.
10. I did wind up having to transfer to a bottling bucket, but I didn’t have to use a syphon to do it.
11. No leaks.
Cons:
1. It’s too tall to fit in my fermentation fridge. I’ll need to get the jacket or build a fermentation box for this if I want to use it in the summer or for temperature picky beers. It’s much easier to use buckets and carboys with my present setup.
2. The collection bowl left a lot of trub behind. Even after a total of three collections, I had to transfer to a bottling bucket. This is kind of a big deal since this is a conical and advertises itself as a one vessel fermentation system. I had to use two vessels.
3. I’m not a fan of large diameter bottling hoses and clamps. Bottling wands are better.
4. They recommend using Teflon tape (included) on all the connections. I did, and it did not leak one drop, but to clean it, I had to scrub the tape out of the threads.
Indifferences:
1. I’ve no use for the wall mounts. It’s cool it can do that, just I don’t have a need for it.
2. Opening the collecting bowl valve lets in a little air from the bottom.
Ideas:
1. If I can make the collection bowl work to remove enough trub, I can fit my existing bottling hose and wand to the FastFerment and bottle from it. We shall see.
2. The FastFerment would be great for mead or other low trub producing fermentations.
Conclusion:
I am glad to have received this as a gift. It’s a good piece of gear. It’s worth using again. Some folks may not like that opening the collection bowl valve lets in a little air, but I think minor aeration worries are overstated. My sample did not taste like cardboard. My next brew in this will likely be a mead, and I think that will go very well. FastFerment touts the collection bowl as a good way to collect yeast. It probably is, and I’ve been meaning to try that.
I'll update upon next use. Any questions, ask away.
http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment
