Hello everyone, and welcome to our first "product spotlight". In these articles we are looking to shine the light on some of the new or up and coming products available to us homebrewers. This spotlight features HOPTOPs, a new product which is an airlock created to fit on mason jars. Let's dig in.
HOPTOPs offer a new way to ferment things.
I asked the creator of HOPTOPs about how they worked, and got some interesting history in the process.
HOPTOPs come apart for easy cleaning, and are dishwasher safe.
So fermentation airlocks go way back to none other than the prolific inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. I just saw an original glass version of a Da Vinci air lock in use storing some Chianti Classico in Tuscany last week. The principal is simple, the excess CO2 escapes by pushing its way through a reservoir on standing liquid, often antiseptic [Star San or water are fine for us!]... The patent pending mechanism makes the fermenting container more stable and easier to transport or store without any risk of knocking off the old-school bubbler in the process.
One of the huge benefits I see with this product is the ease of storage. Airlocks are always in the way it seems, as they add an extra 4 inches of height to everything. Beyond the extra space and easy storage of these airlock lids, there are some other uses.
As the video on Dave's (the creator's) Kickstarter page explains, even pro brewers have found a few uses for HOPTOP's prototype models.
Create perfect blends and do easy oak aging experiments.
I showed the HOPTOP to my friend, an awesome cider fermentation consultant, and he said that to him the value was doing dozens of small blend recipes at once with a really controllable volume and process. He said he could also use it to capture the live cultures from the lees and store them conveniently until inoculation of the next batch. The simple cleanup being a chief advantage over earlier methods.
Mason jars were just outside the brewers paradigm because they were lacking an elegant lid/airlock solution. In every way they are an perfect vessel, they are super easy to clean because you can stick your hand inside they are cheap and can even be heat cleaned in the dishwasher . HOPTOP itself splits right in two so washing it thoroughly is part of the design, (unlike its closed predecessors).
I see a few great uses for the HOPTOP. Firstly, it's a great way to grow and test wild cultures, similar to what Dave's cider-making friend has done. If anyone remembers the rice-wine thread (and article) here on homebrewtalk, they are made in containers similar to mason jars (or mason jars themselves), with cheese cloth in between the jar and the lid. These can give rice wine makers a lot more control in the airflow department.
Mason Jars come in all shapes and sizes, making them great for many homebrewing applications.
The largest Mason Jar you can acquire is one gallon, with more common jars being 64oz (half gallon). You may be thinking that you can't use these effectively, as they aren't ideal for fermenting a larger 3-5 gallon batch. However, there are a few options that you may not have considered. You could bottle most of your batch and age a smaller portion on oak or fruit for testing. Or you can rack the entire batch into lots of jars, each with separate oak varieties / toasts, fruits, or spices to get "quick wins" when it comes to your experiments, and apply your findings on a larger scale next time.
People have long used Mason Jars for fermenting foods but the homemade airlock solution of a rubber grommet through the lid made a lousy seal and and resulted in a cumbersome vessel. The HOPTOP makes the perfect system by combining the time-tested elements of existing technology creating a whole new animal.
HOPTOP will be available on Kickstarter for about two more weeks. We are almost at 10X our original goal! If you think you could use it, ordering it on Kickstarter is your best bet. While we do sell our previous products directly to the public after kickstarter, anything can happen between now and when we actually get our website up and running.
They will be produced in the USA, which is always reassuirng to hear. Their Kickstarter can be seen and backed in the link below. Rewards include sets of HOPTOPS if you're interested on getting your hands on some; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1640002012/hoptop-mason-jar-airlock-brew-and-ferment .
The low profile makes HOPTOPs great for storing
If you know of a new product that deserves to be a product spotlight here on Homebrew Talk, send a PM to me (MarshmallowBlue). It can be a new product that you think people should know about, or a promising upstart looking for exposure.
Cheers
HOPTOPs offer a new way to ferment things.The History and Beginnings of HOPTOPs
I asked the creator of HOPTOPs about how they worked, and got some interesting history in the process.
HOPTOPs come apart for easy cleaning, and are dishwasher safe.So fermentation airlocks go way back to none other than the prolific inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. I just saw an original glass version of a Da Vinci air lock in use storing some Chianti Classico in Tuscany last week. The principal is simple, the excess CO2 escapes by pushing its way through a reservoir on standing liquid, often antiseptic [Star San or water are fine for us!]... The patent pending mechanism makes the fermenting container more stable and easier to transport or store without any risk of knocking off the old-school bubbler in the process.
One of the huge benefits I see with this product is the ease of storage. Airlocks are always in the way it seems, as they add an extra 4 inches of height to everything. Beyond the extra space and easy storage of these airlock lids, there are some other uses.
Real World Applications
As the video on Dave's (the creator's) Kickstarter page explains, even pro brewers have found a few uses for HOPTOP's prototype models.
Create perfect blends and do easy oak aging experiments.I showed the HOPTOP to my friend, an awesome cider fermentation consultant, and he said that to him the value was doing dozens of small blend recipes at once with a really controllable volume and process. He said he could also use it to capture the live cultures from the lees and store them conveniently until inoculation of the next batch. The simple cleanup being a chief advantage over earlier methods.
Mason jars were just outside the brewers paradigm because they were lacking an elegant lid/airlock solution. In every way they are an perfect vessel, they are super easy to clean because you can stick your hand inside they are cheap and can even be heat cleaned in the dishwasher . HOPTOP itself splits right in two so washing it thoroughly is part of the design, (unlike its closed predecessors).
I see a few great uses for the HOPTOP. Firstly, it's a great way to grow and test wild cultures, similar to what Dave's cider-making friend has done. If anyone remembers the rice-wine thread (and article) here on homebrewtalk, they are made in containers similar to mason jars (or mason jars themselves), with cheese cloth in between the jar and the lid. These can give rice wine makers a lot more control in the airflow department.
Mason Jars come in all shapes and sizes, making them great for many homebrewing applications.The largest Mason Jar you can acquire is one gallon, with more common jars being 64oz (half gallon). You may be thinking that you can't use these effectively, as they aren't ideal for fermenting a larger 3-5 gallon batch. However, there are a few options that you may not have considered. You could bottle most of your batch and age a smaller portion on oak or fruit for testing. Or you can rack the entire batch into lots of jars, each with separate oak varieties / toasts, fruits, or spices to get "quick wins" when it comes to your experiments, and apply your findings on a larger scale next time.
In Closing
People have long used Mason Jars for fermenting foods but the homemade airlock solution of a rubber grommet through the lid made a lousy seal and and resulted in a cumbersome vessel. The HOPTOP makes the perfect system by combining the time-tested elements of existing technology creating a whole new animal.
HOPTOP will be available on Kickstarter for about two more weeks. We are almost at 10X our original goal! If you think you could use it, ordering it on Kickstarter is your best bet. While we do sell our previous products directly to the public after kickstarter, anything can happen between now and when we actually get our website up and running.
They will be produced in the USA, which is always reassuirng to hear. Their Kickstarter can be seen and backed in the link below. Rewards include sets of HOPTOPS if you're interested on getting your hands on some; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1640002012/hoptop-mason-jar-airlock-brew-and-ferment .
The low profile makes HOPTOPs great for storingIf you know of a new product that deserves to be a product spotlight here on Homebrew Talk, send a PM to me (MarshmallowBlue). It can be a new product that you think people should know about, or a promising upstart looking for exposure.
Cheers
