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FastFerment conical fermenter??????

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I was looking into a sheet of 1/4" food grade gasket and just using the original gasket as a template

That material would certainly do the trick. 1/4" is pretty darn thick. 3/16" would be plenty thick. 1/8" might even work depending on how compressible the material is.
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1415491647.859091.jpg

Finally got mine full. Will see how airlock is in morning. I did sand threads and used a little Teflon tape for extra seal. Mine has step in top surface too.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
On my second batch. Air lock was bubbling away this time after cleaning up threads. No tape used on lid. BUT again you need to make sure you wrap all other threads with teflon tape.

Cheers.........
 
Finally got around to fabing up the stands. The short stand is good for filling and stuff. The tall stand is good for transferring to a keg. I can just lift the 6gal filled fermenter into the tall stand with no collection ball and no step stool. The carrier just transfers to whichever stand I move the fermenter to.
Nothing fancy, just some circles of 1/4" plate I cut at work and some rebar I had in the yard at home.
I painted them Krylon satin Hunter Green.
It's filled with water and no leaks. I'm brewing a pale next week. I'll give it a go then. What I don't like is the air that bubbles up when you install a collection ball and open the valve. I may skip the collection ball and just dump trub into a pitcher and then dump yeast into a mason jar.





 
Cleaned up the threads, taped the threads going to the union and it's bubbling away, no tape on the lid.
Chamber needs finishing but I needed to give it a whorl:rockin:
No complants so far,

IMG_5134.jpg
 
Finally got around to fabing up the stands. The short stand is good for filling and stuff. The tall stand is good for transferring to a keg. I can just lift the 6gal filled fermenter into the tall stand with no collection ball and no step stool. The carrier just transfers to whichever stand I move the fermenter to.
Nothing fancy, just some circles of 1/4" plate I cut at work and some rebar I had in the yard at home.
I painted them Krylon satin Hunter Green.
It's filled with water and no leaks. I'm brewing a pale next week. I'll give it a go then. What I don't like is the air that bubbles up when you install a collection ball and open the valve. I may skip the collection ball and just dump trub into a pitcher and then dump yeast into a mason jar.

Nice!
The tall one looks a little tippy but I'm sure when the fermenter is full the weight will make it much more stable.

I like the carry handles too.

You should start your own line...
 
After the wort is cooled I'll siphon about half of it through a strainer into my bucket; will turn on the pump after I get about a gallon in. After I have about half or so into the bucket will then just dump the rest through the strainer. Put the lid on loosely to keep anything from falling in, but not to pinch the air line, and then go clean up while the pump aerates the wort for me. After about 30 minutes pull the air line out and pitch the yeast.

Well I went too wally world and picked up an aeration pump with 2 outputs, 8' of tubing and two diffuser stones. I cut the tubing in half so now i have 2 4' pieces.

pump & stones.jpg

Dropped both stones into the wort and went off to clean up. After About 10 minutes I happen to turn around to see this...

Overflow.jpg

I think it's aerated. What do you think??
 
I filled up my fastfeent with a ~3.5 gallon batch and pitched a yeast starter about 50 hours ago.

My first issue was that, like many others, the screw top was not on tight enough. After a few hours I could smell the fermentation and figured I had a leak. I tightened the top as hard as I could and saw plenty of bubbles. Mystery solved.

My next issue was that yeast wasn't dropping into the collection ball. I just took off the ball and found what I think is mostly wort. I dumped it and reattached it. When I opened the valve, things dumped in and filled the collection ball and I'm hoping that broke the clog and it will all settle in nicely now.

Has anyone else had the clogging issue? Any tips to fix it? I tried shaking the whole thing but I couldn't get it loose. I think someone mentioned poking it with a clothes hanger. That sounds reasonable.

Attached is a picture of right before I disconnected the collection ball. The lighting makes it hard to see, but that's all beer/wort in the ball. In the V you can see three layers. Maybe someone who knows more than me can identify them. From top to bottom: beer, yeast, trub?

I'm seeing the potential in this thing though! Not giving up on it yet.

I do have had issues with the clogging of the opening the collection ball. Not sure how to solve for it. However, I have allowed a lot more trub in than I proably should. Next batch will strained before going into FastFermenter. to solve the little issuse I did have, I sanititised a butter knife, removed the ball and stuck it up in the hole to free up trub. Once it started to 'poop out' on it's own, I closed the valve, readded the ball and opened valve. the sediment then went to the ball... I'll do one more ball recycle and then let it sit for another week.

If the FF guys have any suggestions, I hope that they're reading this thread. The clogging of the ball opening will be a problem...
 
Well I went too wally world and picked up an aeration pump with 2 outputs, 8' of tubing and two diffuser stones. I cut the tubing in half so now i have 2 4' pieces.


Dropped both stones into the wort and went off to clean up. After About 10 minutes I happen to turn around to see this...



I think it's aerated. What do you think??

Sorry should have warned you that it might foam up, but then I never had it get that bad since I only use 1 stone.
 
Sorry should have warned you that it might foam up, but then I never had it get that bad since I only use 1 stone.

LOL... NP. I was glad to see it work that well. I just HOPE the foam is a sign the oxygen is being absorbed.
 
Nice!

The tall one looks a little tippy but I'm sure when the fermenter is full the weight will make it much more stable.



I like the carry handles too.



You should start your own line...


Thanks! Two things: I wish I had made the carry ring a little bigger. It feels slightly top heavy with 6 gallons in it. Also, I could have made the tall stand about 5" shorter.

The tall one is more stable than it looks also, it will be in the ferm closet. No chance of anyone accidentally bumping it in there. I shook it a bit and it stands strong.


Sent from my magic box, using only my thumbs.
 
My ideal setup, 4 half height fridges each w a conical and temp controller... If only....



Primary: Maibock, Helles (first partigyle batch)
Secondary: Mojave Red, Irish Stout
On tap: Orange Belgian IPA, Turbo IIPA
Bottled: Dwarven Gold Ale, La Fin Du Mond clone, Hefeweizen
 
Yep that would work, and brew belts on both to manage individual temps.



Primary: Maibock, Helles (first partigyle batch)
Secondary: Mojave Red, Irish Stout
On tap: Orange Belgian IPA, Turbo IIPA
Bottled: Dwarven Gold Ale, La Fin Du Mond clone, Hefeweizen
 
Yep that would work, and brew belts on both to manage individual temps.

And that's what I'm struggling with right now. I have an IPA over a week into ferment (already at FG) and a new very active ferment. I have the chamber and the IPA @ 65. The new, very active stout is running 70-71. My target is 67. Not too bad but not what I want.

I think your dream 4 frig set-up might be better after all...
 
Set the fridge to like 60 and then use brew belts or mats on each fermenter. But that's a heater and controller for every fermenter so still more $$



Primary: Maibock, Helles (first partigyle batch)
Secondary: Mojave Red, Irish Stout
On tap: Orange Belgian IPA, Turbo IIPA
Bottled: Dwarven Gold Ale, La Fin Du Mond clone, Hefeweizen
 
Set the fridge to like 60 and then use brew belts or mats on each fermenter. But that's a heater and controller for every fermenter so still more $$

hmmm... You have me thinking now...

Guess I could pull my control/viewing panel back off and add another controller. I actually already have another controller but it's the un-hacked version that displays in Celsius.

Then I could set the main controller to the lowest temperature of the two and use the heating belt/pad to tweak the temp of the second fermenter.

That might just work!!

I pulled out the controller in the photo and replaced it with a 1000+. Which is why I have an extra now.

Don't you love it when a well thought out plan comes together!! ;)

Thanks bd2xu!! Can I call you bd for short?? :mug:

8 - Control panel - painted.jpg
 
Sounds good and great chamber you've built. I'd use brew mats I hear they work better. I would use them but in a chest freezer there's always water in the floor.

BD2XU by the way is my initials. BDW. So B D and 2 x U is double U (w). Made sense when I created it but too hard to remember



Primary: Maibock, Helles (first partigyle batch)
Secondary: Mojave Red, Irish Stout
On tap: Orange Belgian IPA, Turbo IIPA
Bottled: Dwarven Gold Ale, La Fin Du Mond clone, Hefeweizen
 
to solve the little issuse I did have, I sanititised a butter knife, removed the ball and stuck it up in the hole to free up trub. Once it started to 'poop out' on it's own, I closed the valve, readded the ball and opened valve. the sediment then went to the ball.

That sounds like a good idea. I'm still curious to find out what percent of people have had to deal with this so far and what clever solutions they have used.
 
My first batch came off a charm thus far. It was a commercially produced Festa Czech Pils wort however. I don't expect mine to clean up as well but I'll give it a go soon. Some drippage even after I water tested both. I didn't secondary in the vessel as I wanted to cold crash it and now realize that they won't fit in my lager fridge - somehow miscalculated that. I racked the Pils to a carbon and will clear it that way. Racking was a pleasure I must say. There's nothing better than a great rack!


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Nice ferm chamber jbb3. I guess I will have to go this route or use my bucket/ carboy for lagering. I can see the FF making some decent ales however.


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Very nice. What kind of fridge is that?

Brand is Americana (GE on inside label) from HD. I upgraded the basement beer fridge and use this as a ferm chamber. Can fit a couple of carboys but would need to build an add on chamber for more than one fastferment. I usually have only one batch going at a time so this is fine. I trimmed the base to fit the hump in the fridge bottom. Going to make a right angle blow using an elbow and spare bulkhead fitting. No clearance problems at all for that.
 

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