Williams Siphonless Fermentors, anyone use them?

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Grossy

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Has anyone tried these Siphonless Fermentors or Siphonless Fermentor Transfer Valves from Willliams Brewing.

WILLIAM'S SIPHONLESS FERMENTOR


TRANSFER VALVE


The Siphonless fermentor allows you to drain out of the bottom of your fermentor directly into your keg.

While I dont have a problem with the auto siphon, it is kind of pain.

Sanitize it inside and out, Sanitize the tubing, inside and out.
Repeat for each keg.
I do 10 gallon boils so that could be 2-4 kegs at a time.

It sound pretty simple to just open the tap, drain into keg. And then clean everything.
 
This was my first fermentor, and I still use it whenever it's available. It makes hydrometer readings so much easier. It's different from a bottling bucket in that it has a little nut behind the spigot that reaches down so that you can drain more beer while still leaving most of the yeast cake. It's a pretty high quality bucket. It works as a nice bottling bucket as well.
 
I use that. It is almost the same as the bottling bucket except that it has a 90 elbow on the end to reach down and get more of the beer out. It works well but if you have a lot of trub, you will suck it up. What I do is lean the bucket back on a 2x4 so that the valve does not get any trub by it. All the trub goes to the other side and makes racking so much easier.
 
I use those things to bottle beer. The spigot woiks great. If you don't mind fermenting in plastic then you are good to go. (I'm superstitious).
 
-shrugs-

Id just go with a better bottle and a autosyphon. You get a better fermenting chamber and really, I never had a n issue with siphoning to begging with...... especially since I got my syphon clip,, which has kept the trub that it sucks up to a minimum.
 
-shrugs-

Id just go with a better bottle and a autosyphon. You get a better fermenting chamber and really, I never had a n issue with siphoning to begging with...... especially since I got my syphon clip,, which has kept the trub that it sucks up to a minimum.

What makes a better bottle better? My beers taste the same and last as long out of my better bottles, glass carboys! And buckets. And buckets sure are easier!
 
The only reason I prefer Better Bottles over buckets is because I like to be able to visually check my beer without opening the lid. Plus its a lot easier for me to tell if I'm going to need a blowoff BEFORE the airlock fills with krausen, rather than after.

Other than that, I don't really see a huge advantage for one over the other. The bucket does have a carrying handle, and most have spigots, although I still use an autosiphon to avoid trub going through the spigot.
 
I do almost all of my fermenting in bottling buckets - it is very convenient for transferring, and one less thing to worry about/deal with in regard to not needing to siphon. In addition, it is a GREAT way to harvest yeast into a mason jar to save. Drain bucket to keg. Close spigot. Swirl up the remaining liquid in bucket. Drain into sanitized mason jar through the spigot.
The only thing is you need to make sure you are thorough in cleaning and sanitizing spigot - take it apart, etc. I also put a new sandwich baggie over the spigot with a twist tie to keep dust, etc. from contaminating it during fermentation.
I have tried basically every type of fermenter - bottling buckets are a winner in my opinion. Not sure that I would spend 2-3x as much for this as opposed to a regular bottling bucket.
 
The only reason I prefer Better Bottles over buckets is because I like to be able to visually check my beer without opening the lid. Plus its a lot easier for me to tell if I'm going to need a blowoff BEFORE the airlock fills with krausen, rather than after.

Other than that, I don't really see a huge advantage for one over the other. The bucket does have a carrying handle, and most have spigots, although I still use an autosiphon to avoid trub going through the spigot.

I should mention that on this particular bucket, you can see thru it partially, and you can tell if there is krausen or not. There are also clear gallon marks to make volume estimation much easier. The only advantage BB has, in my opinion, is that it is made with a slightly higher grade plastic which will let oxygen in much less in the long run, and has less surface area of the wort touching air (like any carboy, with the proper size). For normal fermentation, this is negligible, but for lagering or extended aging, there may be a difference. I use my william's fermentor for primary, and I use my BB for secondary.
 
Started with the williams kit and have done several successful batches with the siphonless fermentor setup. Works great and the valve is easy to remove for cleaning.
 

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