Fermentasaurus Review

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

Hi all,

Last week I posted my review video of the Fermentasaurus conical fermenter as well as a short companion video on a DIY spunding valve to use with it.

The Fermentasaurus: A Hands-On Review
My opinion of the Fermentasaurus conical fermenter by Oxebar in context of brewing a beer; an English brown ale. Also featured is the pressure lid kit accessory. Topics include sanitizing, racking, fermenting, purging trub, naturally carbonating, pressure transferring to a keg in a closed system, and cleaning up.

Thanks to the folks at www.morebeer.com for sending me one to review, and thank you Oxebar for designing and manufacturing such an interesting product!

How to Make a Spunding Valve: A DIY Project
Learn how to make your own home brew spunding valve to assist with closed system pressure transfers from vessel to vessel (e.g. fermenter to keg) and setting a maximum pressure value for a vessel. This is a very simply build and is a companion video to my Fermentasaurus review video made by fan request.

Parts List:
1/4" Pressure Relief Valve: http://amzn.to/2wKqV7r
1/4" Pressure Gauge: http://amzn.to/2wJZSJu
1/4" NPT Brass Tee
1/4" Male NPT x 3/8"Hose Barb
Gas Ball Lock Disconnect (fits the Fermentasaurus)
Gas Nut & Stem Assy
2 Small Hose Clamps
Teflon Tape
3/8" ID Clear Vinyl Hose

 

[OpenSights]

I just watched and posted your video in one of my threads here before seeing this thread. (Researching) Very interesting and educational! Thank you.

I think this might be my next purchase. Going to check with my local store, but on eBay I found someone local selling them too.

 

[universalfrost]

ive got 8 brews under my belt with the fermentasaurus and its my go to for smaller brews under 8 gallons.

@BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY

Larry, great to see you on the forums.. I've followed several of your youtube videos especially the baked bean recipe!

another option for the spunding valve is the one that @Bobby_M sells https://www.brewhardware.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=spundingvalve

on another note.. how do you prefer to clean your fermenter?

I do a total tear down of mine and let the small parts and valve etc soak in pbw, but use my homemade cip rotary ball setup to clean the main body (built for kegs then modified to clean fermenters and other brew kettles)..

getting the valve assembly off without loosening the nut on the threaded bulkhead is a pain in the rear...

 

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

on another note.. how do you prefer to clean your fermenter?

The only way I can get mine clean is simply by using the "Carboy Cleaner" drill attachment. Works easy and fast.
I've tried soaking (a waste of 9 gallons of water), hand washing (can't get my hand inside the opening) and using a Mark II Keg washer (major fail).
The Carboy Cleaner was the only thing that works for me.

 

[Sadu]

I wouldn't ever use a drill attachment to clean a plastic fermentor. Its going to leave micro scratches in the plastic for bugs to hide in.
I have a fermentasaurus and it is easy to clean. Give it a rinse out first, remove the dip tube, then add a gallon of warm (not hot) water and some napisan (sodium percarbonate cleaner). Put the lid on and give a good shake.
Remove the lid and let it sit for 5 mins. Give it another good shake every couple of mins until the crud falls off the sides.
Then give it a good rinse, then sanitise before refilling.
The sodium percarbonate removes the need to do any scrubbing. I'm sure PBW would work just as well.
I use the same method to clean kegs, it takes 20 mins all up and you can do other brewing jobs in between shakes.

 

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

Thanks, but have already gone down that route without success. After a couple weeks, that crud is so hardened that soaking in PBW on its own hasn't worked. I've let soak for several days while changing the water/cleaner every day. I even bought a Mark II carboy washer hoping it would get the grim off. Still not enough.
This is why I don't like plastic fermenters and have since returned to using my easy to clean glass carboys.

 

[universalfrost]

I'll try to post a video of my keg cleaner setup (with cip rotary spray ball) in action on the fermentasuarus. its a 1/4hp sump pump setup that many people use for keg cleaning and works great for fermenters and kettles. with some warm pbw solution (only takes about 2 gallons of liquid) you can get the inside sparkling clean in under 30 minutes and with zero effort...

 

[ABI Brewery]

I really like the big mouth bubblers and the Catalyst fermenter that I use, they are very easy to clean and wont break and have shards of glass everywhere (been down that road). I know that they are plastic but they produce good beer and work great

 

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

I really like the big mouth bubblers and the Catalyst fermenter that I use, they are very easy to clean and wont break and have shards of glass everywhere (been down that road). I know that they are plastic but they produce good beer and work great

I did a couple of videos on the Catalyst too. A decent device for harvesting yeast indeed, but due to it's lack of head space I haven't used it since.

 

[ABI Brewery]

I did a couple of videos on the Catalyst too. A decent device for harvesting yeast indeed, but due to it's lack of head space I haven't used it since.

I have had the same issue, I really think that when the lid was formed for it should have been convex to allow for more head space, I have had issues with krausen blowing off just because the center is too concave and touches the krausen and since the pressure build up is coming in from the outer edge it gets pushed through the only hole there, but I have drilled 3 bungs for air locks around the highest edge and usually plug the center one and it has worked good, modifications are like getting new equipment, always fun to do and test out.................cheers

 

[thirstypanda]

I bought a Fermentasaurus after watching your video Larry, and other videos, and, after its first batch I'm quite frankly extremely disappointed with the narrow channel to the bottle. Since I do a BIAB AND use a strainer when transferring there is very little "stuff" making its way in. I brewed up a Black IPA, and after about 3 days in the Fermentasaurus I emptied the bottle, put it back on and there's still 4" or so of trub that is stuck to the sides at the bottom. Even after leaving it for a few more days it hasn't moved. Day 7ish I removed the bottle, cleaned it, filled it with hops and cocoa nubs chunks (small), reattached but they were unable to make it back up through the trub sludge gauntlet. They've been sitting there until last night.... I've removed the bottle, put the cocoa and hops into a hop back and dropped it in the top (thank goodness for the largish opening.... My plan now (as ugly as this is) is to wait on the "dry hop" addition, and then the night before bottling, use a bottling brush zap strapped to a stir spoon to stir up the trub and see if I can get it to drop to the bottle.

What a waste of bleeping time!!! No wonder they're releasing a Fermentasaurus 2. That narrow hole is brutal.

I've spoken with my LHS and they are going to take it back, to "upgrade" to a Catalyst. I'll probably end up modifying it like Abi Brewery. Since most of my brews are 5g - ish I'm good with the small space.

Unless there is a better option.

 

[Sadu]

I bought a Fermentasaurus after watching your video Larry, and other videos, and, after its first batch I'm quite frankly extremely disappointed with the narrow channel to the bottle.

Yup this is one of my key complaints too. I was dumping everything in from BIAB and in the end gave up on removing via the collection jar because it was taking 8 or so bottle swaps and considerable grief.

I've since got a Grainfather which produces MUCH cleaner wort from the recirculation. On top of that I use a hop spider and let the wort settle in the Fermentasaurus for a couple of hours before pitching. I might remove 3 bottles of trub before pitching, after which point the wort is very clean, almost no hops or trub. I pitch the yeast and let it go. From here it seems to work as designed, you end up with 1 or 2 collection bottles of very clean yeast and while there's a small amount that sticks to the side of the cone it's close enough.

That 3 bottles of trub that was removed before pitching goes into a growler in the fridge, let it settle overnight and ends up being about 50% clean wort which is used to make a starter for the next brew.

I've also got a WilliamsWarn Brewkeg (similar thing, stainless conical with collection jar). This has a wider opening and has much better success at getting the trub into the jar than the Fermentasaurus. I suspect the issue is less about the width of the opening and more about the little shelf around the opening that the yeast tends to collect on.

 

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

I agree. I've had recurring issues with my Fermentasaurus clogging every single time I've tried to use the trub jar as well as difficulty cleaning the inside as the opening was too small to get my hand inside to wipe off the stubborn crud.
I guess the version 2 is supposed to resolve both issues when it finally arrives.
In the mean time, I quit bothering with trub removal from all of my conicals entirely as it's an unnecessary step anyway for the beers I brew and have gone back to either carboys or just using the Fermentasaurus without removing the trub and using it only for pressure fermentations and transfers.

 

[thirstypanda]

I agree. I've had recurring issues with my Fermentasaurus clogging every single time I've tried to use the trub jar as well as difficulty cleaning the inside as the opening was too small to get my hand inside to wipe off the stubborn crud.
I guess the version 2 is supposed to resolve both issues when it finally arrives.
In the mean time, I quit bothering with trub removal from all of my conicals entirely as it's an unnecessary step anyway for the beers I brew and have gone back to either carboys or just using the Fermentasaurus without removing the trub and using it only for pressure fermentations and transfers.

Aside from the size and all other pros/cons, would you prefer the Catalyst over the Fermentasaurus for residual trub? My LHS will upgrade the Fermentasaurus to a Catalyst for me.

 

[ABI Brewery]

I have a catalyst and really like it, but I am going to add the sample port and try to do something with the jar on the bottom, I would like to add a 1 1/2" line with a ball valve so that I can take the trub and hops out without disturbing too many things, not sure how I can do this yet but would like have something like stainless fermenters have on the bottom

 

[BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY]

...would you prefer the Catalyst over the Fermentasaurus for residual trub?

Actually, I still prefer my good old fashion glass carboy over any of the conicals I've tried thus far.

Leaving residual trub in a fermenter for a few weeks is nothing to worry about making removing it an unnecessary step.
Since it's unnecessary to remove it, spending a lot of money on something that does something that you don't need it to do in my opinion is throwing money away if cheaper options exist.

I did a couple of videos related to this topic on my YouTube channel.

The Unnecessary Secondary: Why I Don't Use Secondary Fermenters


Choosing a Fermenter: Bucket, Carboy, Keg, or Conical


However, if removing sediment and yeast is still your goal, the Catalyst did a better job as it didn't clog. However, it still leaves a lot of sediment on the side walls which can slides into the hose when draining it.