I just preordered a FastFerment... now questions...

[cannman]

Honestly, I've quite excited about my purchase of the FastFerment for $90 and how it is going to compliment my BIAB efforts this Fall.

Now that I'm planning more, writing things out on paper, and playing around with different setups, I've come to a few questions that maybe a few of you can help me figure out.

So the product is shipped meant to mount on a wall somewhere... but I really like the fact that they are coming out with a tall stand for this item in the future. Buy if you didn't have any of this, how would you fill this thing?? I guess the question is, how do you fill any conical???

Should I seriously consider a pump?

I'm strong enough to lift 6 gallons of brew from a kettle up to a table or countertop, but typically, how does one fill this puppy?

Any other considerations I should take with this new toy?

 

[masskrug]

My concern was not how will you fill it, but how do you intend to chill it? On a wall? How will you keep the room at temp? In a chamber? How will you lift it up to remove the yeast ball?

Too many questions.

 

[phyllobeddo]

With fermentation temperature such a contributing factor to good beer, I would suggest dedicating a small fridge to the conical and building a stand for it to sit in while it's in the fridge. I've seen a set up like that before. The stand looked like small, welded steel beams, and it was fabricated specifically to hold the conical.

 

[cannman]

With fermentation temperature such a contributing factor to good beer, I would suggest dedicating a small fridge to the conical and building a stand for it to sit in while it's in the fridge. I've seen a set up like that before. The stand looked like small, welded steel beams, and it was fabricated specifically to hold the conical.

The new stand they are coming out with is much much taller. Fortunately, I will have the reverse situation with weather where I'll have to warm it up from ambient (I'll tape on heating wire). But since has a wall frame, I may just build my own frame in my ferment area...

 

[Fast_Rack]

@cannman

How would you fill this thing?? I guess the question is, how do you fill any conical???

-You have 2 options:
#1 You can mount it lower on the wall so you can pour directly into it.
#2 You can order our small stand and fill it using this. (https://www.thefastrack.ca/main/ff_accessories)


@musskrug
My concern was not how will you fill it, but how do you intend to chill it? On a wall? How will you keep the room at temp? In a chamber? How will you lift it up to remove the yeast ball?

Most people are using the small stand on our accessory page above or they are figuring out a way to using the wall mount in a stand up fridge.

@phyllobeddo

-Bingo!

 

[Fast_Rack]

Hey There,

Our thoughts are for brewer that are dealing with temp control the best thing to do is get one of the accessories stands. Its fabricated specifically for the unit. The bottom ring is 14" OD so its not any wider than the conical. When the FastFerment is in the stand the bottom collection ball is just off the ground keeping it as compact as possible but still able to remove the ball and hook up the hose attachment. Hope this helps and have a sweet weekend!

Cheers,

Casey & The FastRack Team

 

[waldo711]

Does anyone have a chest freezer that will hold the FastFerment on the "small" stand? Total height with the airlock is 39 inches. I have a feeling it will require a full size fridge or upright chest freezer to hold this thing....

 

[Brewitt]

Does anyone have a chest freezer that will hold the FastFerment on the "small" stand? Total height with the airlock is 39 inches. I have a feeling it will require a full size fridge or upright chest freezer to hold this thing....

I just received my FastFerment and I haven't used it yet. I have a full sized refrigerator that I have set up with an STC-1000 to control fermentation temperature. Even with that refrigerator, I am having to make my own rack that will keep the total height at 36" because that is the height of my refrigerator box. I'm planning to use two Plywood rings supported by uprights. Since my brewing setup and my fermentation fridge are not in the same location, I intend to make a rack with removable glides and handles so I can move the intact fermenter around after filling. That way I only have to lift from the floor to the fridge. It should just slide in with no room to spare. In fact, I may just use a blow off tube for an air trap to reduce the height required. I had hoped to fit two of these in the fridge but there is no hope of that. I'll report back when I have this working.

 

[JAG107]

Does anyone have a chest freezer that will hold the FastFerment on the "small" stand? Total height with the airlock is 39 inches. I have a feeling it will require a full size fridge or upright chest freezer to hold this thing....

I have an Igloo chest freezer that will just barely hold the fast fermenter if I take off the collection ball and just have it sit on the union fitting, and use a blowoff tube instead of an airlock. Not ideal but I figured I could just hook up the ball and dump the trub/yeast the day I bottle. Haven't had a chance to use mine yet, plan on trying it out in a month or so.

 

[Brewitt]

From my last message:

.... I had hoped to fit two of these in the fridge but there is no hope of that.

Well, I'm wrong. In case anyone else missed the size change, I can report that the diameter of the redesigned FastFerment is now 14" and 15" with the little support studs. That means I can fit two in my fridge. They will have to be staggered rather than right next to each other but I can't complain. They do seem to be about an inch taller than the previous design, as well. But, if I leave the airlock off and rig up a pair of blow off tubes I should be able to make a rack that keeps the collection chamber about 1" off the bottom to allow removal.

Strangely enough, even though I cancelled one of the two that I had originally ordered, they made a mistake and sent me two anyway (they charged me for two, as well). So, instead of complaining and returning, I guess I will keep both. I'm a happy brewer!

 

[waldo711]

I have an Igloo chest freezer that will just barely hold the fast fermenter if I take off the collection ball and just have it sit on the union fitting, and use a blowoff tube instead of an airlock. Not ideal but I figured I could just hook up the ball and dump the trub/yeast the day I bottle. Haven't had a chance to use mine yet, plan on trying it out in a month or so.

I'd like to hear how that works for you. I'm particularly interested in hearing how much trub is stirred up when you reattach the collection ball and open the valve....


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kjsgtr9012]

Just ordered mine and I'm finishing a custom stand out of PVC. What about dry hoping? Would you just put the hops in the ball after primary?

 

[Brewitt]

For those that might be interested, yesterday, in the midst of brewing, I decided I was going to put together my two FastFerments, make some temporary stands and modify my fermentation refrigerator to fit them. Kind of crazy but, as it stands, it all worked out pretty well.

First picture shows two fermentors in the refrigerator fitted with an STC-1000. The temperature probe is in the thermowell of one of the fermentors, which is working very well. I had to take the panel with the bottle racks off the door, which loses me some storage space but otherwise worked out fine.

The second picture shows the rack which is two relatively heavy duty plastic buckets with about a 9.5" opening. Laboratory chemicals come in these when bought in large quantities. They have a screw top lid so the top edge is very thick and durable. The handles were removed, the center of the bottoms were cut out leaving about a 1" flange all the way around, the bottom edges were trimmed so the two bottoms would sit against each other and I screwed the two together with sheet metal screws and duct taped the joint for cleanliness. I cut a window to access the spigot, quick disconnect and the trub/yeast collection vessel (shown in the third photo).

All in all I am pretty happy with the arrangement. Hopefully the beer ferments OK and the rest of the system works well.

 

[cannman]

For those that might be interested, yesterday, in the midst of brewing, I decided I was going to put together my two FastFerments, make some temporary stands and modify my fermentation refrigerator to fit them. Kind of crazy but, as it stands, it all worked out pretty well.

First picture shows two fermentors in the refrigerator fitted with an STC-1000. The temperature probe is in the thermowell of one of the fermentors, which is working very well. I had to take the panel with the bottle racks off the door, which loses me some storage space but otherwise worked out fine.

The second picture shows the rack which is two relatively heavy duty plastic buckets with about a 9.5" opening. Laboratory chemicals come in these when bought in large quantities. They have a screw top lid so the top edge is very thick and durable. The handles were removed, the center of the bottoms were cut out leaving about a 1" flange all the way around, the bottom edges were trimmed so the two bottoms would sit against each other and I screwed the two together with sheet metal screws and duct taped the joint for cleanliness. I cut a window to access the spigot, quick disconnect and the trub/yeast collection vessel (shown in the third photo).

All in all I am pretty happy with the arrangement. Hopefully the beer ferments OK and the rest of the system works well.

Great idea.