Has anyone used this

[AGBrewer]

The fermentap, will this do a better job of keeping sediment level down than a racking can in transferring from primary to secondary or to bottling bucket
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4914

 

[Orfy]

I'll be blunt.

They're crap.
Never heard a good report.

 

[nerdlogic]

The goal when brewing is to allow the sediment to collect on the bottom, so in this case you'll need to start the fermentation with the bottle inverted. Otherwise when you flip it over to put it in this thing all the sediment will mix back in.

Ok so now its upside down from the beginning and theres a huge amount of gunk at the bottom (which would have been the top of the carboy). How does the gas get out? That can't work.

I guess back to flipping it after the fermenting is done-- If you flip it you'll have to wait for it to settle for a long while again.

And then how do you get a sample without 6 cups of pure trub first?

Ex: Inverted Carboy

|&#175;&#175;&#175;&#175;&#175;| <-- carboy
|~~~~|
| | <-- mmm stuff
\###/ <-- trub
)#(

 

[Nexus555]

Perhaps a carboy could be constructed with both ideas in mind. Have a lid on top like usual, and have an identical bottom as the top. This way you have your lid on top where the air is, as usual, at the same time having a funnel shape on the bottom to bottle and easily dispose of the sediments. Wouldn't be any more need for a siphoning hose either. Thoughts?

 

[Bugeaterbrewing]

Perhaps a carboy could be constructed with both ideas in mind. Have a lid on top like usual, and have an identical bottom as the top. This way you have your lid on top where the air is, as usual, at the same time having a funnel shape on the bottom to bottle and easily dispose of the sediments. Wouldn't be any more need for a siphoning hose either. Thoughts?

Such a thing has already been done. It's called a conical fermenter. In addition to access from the top, the bottom cone in a conical is at a 60° angle which permits the yeast and trub to slide to the bottom port where it can be removed from the beer when you are ready to begin secondary. The Fermetap won't allow this stuff to slide because the bottom (when the carboy is inverted) is at too shallow an angle. Save your money and don't buy the fermentap unless you want to spend $25 for a stand for drying carboys. It's no good for anything else.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I'll be blunt.

They're crap.
Never heard a good report.

Agreed. I bought one a few years ago and only used it once. Leaked like crazy and the sediment plugged everything up so I had to rack anyway. Don't waste your money.

 

[RichBrewer]

The goal when brewing is to allow the sediment to collect on the bottom, so in this case you'll need to start the fermentation with the bottle inverted. Otherwise when you flip it over to put it in this thing all the sediment will mix back in.

Ok so now its upside down from the beginning and theres a huge amount of gunk at the bottom (which would have been the top of the carboy). How does the gas get out? That can't work.

I guess back to flipping it after the fermenting is done-- If you flip it you'll have to wait for it to settle for a long while again.

And then how do you get a sample without 6 cups of pure trub first?

Ex: Inverted Carboy

|¯¯¯¯¯| <-- carboy
|~~~~|
| | <-- mmm stuff
\###/ <-- trub
)#(

It is designed to be left inverted. There is a racking cane that is inserted into the carboy. the top of it sits in the air space. This is what vents the CO2. water is placed in the elbow of the cane as an air lock.

I'll agree with everyone else so far. It is a total waste of money. I tried mine twice and I'll never use it again. The sediment just doesn't drop to the bottom of the carboy.

 

[whodwho]

I actually acquired a couple of these in a $20 used buy, got a couple carboys couple primaries and what I was after a 3 gal cornie with pluming! Anyways I had heard all the bad reports of the Fermentaps but had nothing to loose in trying them. So with no expectations of success I was ok with the results, I did a couple mods to for what I thought were issues with leaks and thru a batch in( I think one main reason for leaks is some carboys don't seem to have a uniform opening). With the reports of not being able to dump I made sure to filter out as much Trub as possible and made sure to dump daily for the first couple days - several times the first day. Also for the shallow slope decided with previous observations with carboys if you give them a couple quick twist back and forth they settle better. So I put the carboy with fermentap on a turntable(used the glass plater and roller out of a microwave oven) and just gave it a twist now and then. I also used a S type airlock and zip tied it to the stand.

All in all I think it worked as advertised tho I did not harvest the yeast I did get a couple good cups of fairly clean yeast after dumping the Trub the first couple days. It is far from a "set and forget" but for the fruggle it can be usable. I think you could try the same setup with an orange carboy cap racking cane and something for a dump valve.