SS Brewtech Chronicle 7 US Gal Conical Fermenter

Excellent bit of kit... only downside is the cost, though at just over £300 its a lot cheaper than some other stainless conicals...overall 6 out of 5

Good Things:
-Adjustable racking arm
-Thermowell - surprise yourselve to see temp it's actually fermenting at..probably 3-4 deg c higher than room temp in first couple of days
- Takes full 5 UK gallon brews with enough headspace for krausen
- clear electronically etched volume markers (luckily 6 US gal = 5 UK gal)
- lifting handles so you can lift onto work surface when draining after fermentation to bottle bucket (ie no syphoning hassle) and possible to move from room to room for rudimentary temp management.
- proper ball valves (if you're into that sort of thing :whistle: )
- Bottom valve to dump trub / harvest yeast /or take yeast away and keep the beer in there for a secondary fermentation/conditioning. Even if you don't dump the yeast, it settles into that tube at the bottom and the narrow part of the fermenter..so the surface area of yeast exposed to the beer is pretty small.
- For whatever reasons, it gives me quick reliable fermentations...even on a batch of mead.
- easy to clean (I use sodium percarbonate, then sterilise on brewday with starsan- dumping it out the bottom just before the wort goes in).
- its nice to look at and enjoyable to use.

Bad Things
- cost (though it should last a long time)
- need to strip down ball valves after each brew... but I find that enjoyable.

Pics:
1) general pic
2) etched volume markings
3) looking down...thermowell and racking arm
4) basin of ball valve bits cleaned and ready to reassemble for next brew.e

Lovely bit of kit there mate, bloody lovely!
Two questions, can you taste the difference in fermentation character?
And are there options for temperature control?

Nice bit of kit and great review TS :thumb:

TheRedDarren said:

Lovely bit of kit there mate, bloody lovely!
Two questions, can you taste the difference in fermentation character?
And are there options for temperature control?

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Since I started using it all my fermentations have tasted very 'clean' is the only way I can describe it...assuming I'm not imagining it. I'm drinking a pint of 6% abv Fullers ESB clone I only bottled 4 days ago and it tastes great.

There are options for temp control but they are quite expensive.

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=55

Fantastic piece of shiny, Tartan!

Could you tell me how tall it is (not including the airlock). I'm just wondering if it could fit in my Cool Brewing Fermentation bag as the thing is absolutely massive

MyQul said:

Could you tell me how tall it is (not including the airlock). I'm just wondering if it could fit in my Cool Brewing Fermentation bag as the thing is absolutely massive

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its about 33 / 33.5 inches without the airlock.

TartanSpecial said:

its about 33 / 33.5 inches without the airlock.

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Thats a shame. The cool bag is about 26". Plenty of room for an FV but not a Chronical

Fantastic bit of kit, this would be my dream fermenting vessel, it's lovely how the pouring tap sits just about the trub line, but more importantly ........................It's shiny!!!!

you could always go for the brewbucket (the newer one with the thermowell....it is shorter)...but you don;t get the bottom valve for harvesting yeast,but it will gather in the conical bit on the bottom.

LarryF said:

it's lovely how the pouring tap sits just about the trub line,

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for most brews, if you don;t dump the tub/yeast, then the layer of yeast/trub is about 1 inch below the racking arm (turned down to its lowest setting) so you can rack off the beer and only lose a v small quantity. Thats what I do, and even if harvesting yeast, I rack off first, then harvest from the bottom. Also, because the racking arm is attached to a 1/2 inch ball valve it only takes a couple of minutes to drain the beer into a bottling bucket.

https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...rment-tank-standard-102-l-27-gal#.Vmx112YYbMI

In the words of the song - 'I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it'. I'm picking up two of these bad boys. Bad news, not until February. Good news, it's nearly January. I am like an expectant father right now.....

ManseMasher said:

https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...rment-tank-standard-102-l-27-gal#.Vmx112YYbMI

In the words of the song - 'I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it'. I'm picking up two of these bad boys. Bad news, not until February. Good news, it's nearly January. I am like an expectant father right now.....

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have u worked out how many sleeps yet?

50 days 1204 hours 72259 minutes 4335569 seconds but obviously seconds are changing! I quite often work nights, so amount of sleeps is less!!

ManseMasher said:

I'm picking up two of these bad boys. .

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very nice.... the real deal. :thumb:

Dear Santa, you won't believe how good I've been this year...........

Nice review, would love one of these, looks like a cracking bit of kit

These do look really impressive.

Why do you have to strip everything down?

Bunglebrewsbeer said:

Why do you have to strip everything down?

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Its the only way to clean the ball valves and junctions properly. The ball valves come off easily...I could remove them to clean the various junction surfaces, and esp the curved tube at the bottom and the silicon gaskets, and not bother stripping the ball valves down, just soak them in starsan, but its not much more work to strip them down (4 bolts) and make sure every component is clean, including the chamber the ball sits it. I have found wort/yeast in there on occasions so I have adopted a 'minimise risk' approach.

Do like the look of these. Very shiny and swanky. How do you regulate temp in it?