Fast Ferment Plastic Conical & Stand

[Godsdog]

Took delivery of this fermentation conical a few days back and after watching a few reviews on you tube it was obvious that if your going to use the stand it needed a cube to sit it on as the guy on you tube had it on his kitchen worktop internal corner and struggled to adequately attatch the beer out line for filling the keg.the trouble being it needed an elbow connector so the line could clear the kitchen worktop instead of vertically down and bent forward off the kitchen counter,all in all it looked very precarious so it was then I decided to build a bespoke cube for it.so off I went to the local B&Q with my needs and cutting list and knocked up this little creation in less than an hour for £20.there is a 25mm hole in the top under where the catch bottle sits as access to your keg via the beer outline pipe for filling a cornice or king keg

Anyway day one and brewday arrived yesterday and brewed a coopers English bitter,nothing special as I quite like this as it comes and just following the kit instructions,bunged it in the conical and topped up to 23 litres and pitched the yeast on top of the liquor as per instructions with the catch bottle attatched to it and the tap open,not sure as to wether its best left closed until the fermentation has ceased.The brew initially was sitting at around 17C when put in the conical and im thinking that's a tad cool as the kit says 21/27C is the variable ideal tempeture,now the problem,how to raise the tempeture up to a convenient level as ive always used a bucket to ferment with a heating tray if required,but you cant get a heating tray under this conical so after some thought I wrapped the conical in a blanket and slipped the tray in the inside of the stand sideways on its edge thinking any heat has got to improve the tempeture
day 2 woke up this morning and the tempeture is 24C and my heath robinson idea has worked and raised the temperature sufficiently and the brew is obviously fermenting although not vigorously,also noticed the air lock is not bubbling.I followed the instructions the day I put it together and screwed the lid down 9/10 times to supposedly seat it down properly.Up to yet today ive had it off a few times trying different ways to get a decent seal,ie cling film,ptfe,and Vaseline all to no avail.

Major gripes up to yet
I'm pretty miffed the cap doesn't seal airtight although I'm aware it doesn't need to be but its nice to be able to guage the fermentation by the rate of the bubbles.
as I said in an earlier post the O ring that seals the catch bottle and outline is on the underside of the conical,how easy would it have been to make it sit in the bottle and outline attatchements where you could have seen it.
Aso It Urgently needs redesigning for a pair of handles on it like on a king keg as its a bloody awkward thing to handle when full and you have little chance to which is why I made the cube,once its on there it doesn't need moving again.
The metal stand needs to be another inch or so higher so you can slide a tray under it when you disconnect the catch bottle as there is only around a half inch clearance to play with and I'm sure there is going to be a little liquor loss when removed.
And finally the cap,it only needed to be the size of a king keg cap because unless you have hands like plates of meat its very difficult to grab and turn,or they could have made the cap with a lug on it to turn it with.

All in all a decent idea but rushed to the market with very little thought given to the real practicalities of it and imo overpriced,for the conical and stand it'll set you back �£118 delivered from brew uk

As for my cube?i'm gonna make a few modifications to improve it.First of all im gonna drill the top within the circle of the stand where its sits with a honeycomb of holes around 50mm and then fit a few brackets either side underneath the top board so I can slide the heating tray underneath it and the holes will allow the heat to rise up under the conical to enable me to raise the temperature .then I may raise the stand another 18mm off the cube top with an off cut of the 18MM board with a hole slightly smaller than the stand base circle cut into it which will allow the room to get a tray under it as I mentioned previously that when the catch bottle is disconnected there will be a little liquor loss which will be unavoidable so a trays a very good idea.

All that remains now is too see how long this fastfermenter takes to ferment out a brew,cant see it being any quicker in my view
PS just one other thing I fixed the stand down to the cube with a few 8mm cable clips need a few more as not taking any chances of an accident happening

over and out for now and thanks for reading this:

 

[Brewed_Force]

Nice review. I see HBS do a wall-mounting version of this fermenter for £85.
I agree that some handles would be a great improvement
Overall it seems like a good idea and if enough people take it up the price will drop.

 

[MyQul]

Great review GD! :thumb:

I think (and from the youtube vids I've watched) your suppoesed to leave the tap closed (and catch bottlec empty) till the fermentation has finished. Then you open the tap and the first 1 or 2 catch bottlefuls will just be trub which you can just bin. The next 1 or 2 will be yeast which you have now harvested and can be re used.

As far as fermentation temps go, the ideal temp is 18C-20C or ale so your 17C is far off and fine. At 24C you'll defintely get esters (fruitiness) which is good for an English style bitter but not for other cleaner styles you might want to brew. At 24C your also starting to stray into fusil alcohol temps which will ruin your beer and make it undrinkable.

As far as handles go perhaps a carboy carrier would do the trick? (not sure where in the uk you'd get one though)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OF8V5W/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Godsdog]

It did come with the hanging brackets but Mrs dog said no to them and the only way out was the stand,also myqul it says in the leaflet that came with it to fill it with the tap open on the catch bottle, I think maybe because some folk have had issues with the trub sitting above the bottle and blocking its route down into the bottle thru the tap valve when fermentation is finished

tempeture is now a steady 22C

 

[TartanSpecial]

Good move putting on a cube which you can customise. Pity about the niggly quality issues (what do brewuk say about the non sealng cap?). Curious to see what it does to your brew times..moving to a conical brought my primary fermentation times down considerably the the advertising blurb says the same for yours..

 

[Mickeywheelspin]

Looks like a nice bit of kit. I guess if you fill with the catch bottle empty and the tap closed, when you open the tap to let in the sediment you'll also let out a load of air that will glug through the beer with oxygenisation risks and will stir up the sediment nicely?

 

[Godsdog]

another thing I did was highlight the top 3 fill marks with some red nail varnish off mrs dog after masking them up as they are pretty hard to see ,especially at my age lol.as regards putting a tray under the bottle its gotta be less than 235mm wide and no higher than 8mm and its no good putting one under to start with if you can find one of the right size as in future it will defeat the purpose of honecombing the top and stopping the heat rising thru the holes off the heating tray.so it needs to be removable with the bottle attatched,problems eh?obviously not designed by an experienced brewer imo

 

[MyQul]

It did come with the hanging brackets but Mrs dog said no to them and the only way out was the stand,also myqul it says in the leaflet that came with it to fill it with the tap open on the catch bottle, I think maybe because some folk have had issues with the trub sitting above the bottle and blocking its route down into the bottle thru the tap valve when fermentation is finished

tempeture is now a steady 22C

Interesting. Makes sense though, especially point mickey stated about letting in air

 

[MyQul]

When I was internet mooching I came across this bad boy

http://www.tanks-direct.co.uk/cone_tanks/40_litre_conical_tank?gclid=CKa2lofJ_8kCFWj3wgodXbEKng

 

[Steved53]

Good find MyQul!
You can get yourself a 200 litre fermenter and frame delivered for less than £250 inc. vat. I wonder how easy it would be to add another take off point half way up the cone (that didn't leak).

 

[MyQul]

Good find MyQul!
You can get yourself a 200 litre fermenter and frame delivered for less than �£250 inc. vat. I wonder how easy it would be to add another take off point half way up the cone (that didn't leak).

I did notice those larger volumes - far more than my brewing capacity. I think it would depend on your DIY skill to be able to put another tap in. The blurb on the site says the plastic is thick and good quality so I think it would be fairly straight forward, if you've got the skills to be able to do it (I don't)

 

[flash]

have you tried removing the catch bottle while the fermenter is in the the stand?
I only say this because I have the same fermenter and stand and I found that even when fully unscrewed there isn't enough room to slide the catch bottle out without lifting the fermenter out of the stand slightly, I ended up putting three small blocks of wood under the stand just to raise it a bit.
also try not to screw the catchbottle in to tightly as it stretches the neck of the bottle(too easily done). anyway good luck with it, I don't use mine anymore as its to much of a faff.

ps. don't bother trying to get the lid to seal it cant be done plus it will take two of you to get it of again after you've tried.

 

[Godsdog]

Put another brew in it yesterday,the second and you are right Flash they are a bit too FAFF,far easier to brew in a plain bucket, will I continue using it? Or shall I sell it on.

 

[flash]

sell it mate, just thinking about cleaning mine again stopped me using it, that and chasing leaks.:lol:

 

[JapanBrew]

Sounds like good input. I had been looking at those to get but hearing this input, won't go down that road. My glass FV are easy to clean.

 

[LarryF]

Thanks for the posts Godsdog and Flash, I got totally sucked in by the video about this I watched earlier.

 

[Godsdog]

Thanks for the posts Godsdog and Flash, I got totally sucked in by the video about this I watched earlier.

im still using it Larry and the plastic taste has finally gone now.its a bit cumbersome to use but I think if wall mounted near to your water supply it would be good,the best thing about it is when you are kegging,so easy and so quick and clean after removing the catch bottle which I then empty into a swing top after cold crashing so nothing at all wastedalso dry hopping in it is a breeze,hang the mulin cloth around the conicle neck weight it down with a couple of SS spoons into the wort and put the cap back on,job done

 

[LarryF]

im still using it Larry and the plastic taste has finally gone now.its a bit cumbersome to use but I think if wall mounted near to your water supply it would be good,the best thing about it is when you are kegging,so easy and so quick and clean after removing the catch bottle which I then empty into a swing top after cold crashing so nothing at all wastedalso dry hopping in it is a breeze,hang the mulin cloth around the conicle neck weight it down with a couple of SS spoons into the wort and put the cap back on,job done

Funnily enough it was the catch bottle that hooked me, I think it's a really good way of, rather than taking the beer off the trub you take the trub out from under the beer, ingenious! When watching the video I thought you'd obviously have to have the stand to wash and clean it and as convenient as the wall rack is I'm not sure how it would work with temperature control. It did look very swish on the wall but mine would be covered by a bubblewrap hat and coat held together with celotape and would have the thermometer and heat band leads hanging out from under the bubblewrap. I'm not sure it would be as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as it was in the video.

 

[MyQul]

Funnily enough it was the catch bottle that hooked me, I think it's a really good way of, rather than taking the beer off the trub you take the trub out from under the beer, ingenious! When watching the video I thought you'd obviously have to have the stand to wash and clean it and as convenient as the wall rack is I'm not sure how it would work with temperature control. It did look very swish on the wall but mine would be covered by a bubblewrap hat and coat held together with celotape and would have the thermometer and heat band leads hanging out from under the bubblewrap. I'm not sure it would be as aesthetically pleasing to the eye as it was in the video.

As far as temp control is concerned they do a jacket for it a bit like my cool brewing brew bag. It was in pre order the last time I mooched on their site

 

[LarryF]

As far as temp control is concerned they do a jacket for it a bit like my cool brewing brew bag. It was in pre order the last time I mooched on their site

But will it have the style and panache of this little beauty?