bottling question

bartonj

hi all, i am looking at upgrading my fermentation vessel to something like the fermzilla, but i bottle all my beers so im wondering if that was possible. or dose anyone have any other suggestions of a conical fermenter?

thanks
josh

BeerNut

According to the FermZilla manual:

You can connect a sanitised picnic tap mounted to a disconnect (to allow to take hydrometer samples. Simply slip some 10mm hose over the end of this and you now have a simple bottling gun! Just make sure the FermZilla is elevated so that gravity can carry your beer down to the bottle. You may need to squirt out some of the trub and yeast sediment before getting clear beer.

TomOnBoard

bartonj wrote: »

hi all, i am looking at upgrading my fermentation vessel to something like the fermzilla, but i bottle all my beers so im wondering if that was possible. or dose anyone have any other suggestions of a conical fermenter?

thanks
josh

Why?

TomOnBoard

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Why?

Because they’re better I’d imagine.

bartonj

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Why?

because i want a better setup, currently i am fermenting in buckets bought from geterbrewed, which work but i've upgraded everything else so want to upgrade my fermentation vessels.

TomOnBoard

bartonj wrote: »

because i want a better setup, currently i am fermenting in buckets bought from geterbrewed, which work but i've upgraded everything else so want to upgrade my fermentation vessels.

I get the desire to upgrade (who doesn't like more/better bling), but I'm wondering in what way is a conical fermenter a 'better setup' than buckets which work right now? I'm asking, not because I think you shouldn't, but because I trying to understand what benefits you are trying to achieve, and whether those benefits might apply to me.

I see many advantages in a basic buckets strategy so long as it is safe, sanitary and it works. It is low-cost, can be dumped or re-purposed when the plastic gets too scratched, and allows for multiple simultaneous fermentations. For example, I have 6 fermentations of a base Craft Blonde kit going right now, using 6 different yeasts as a trial/experiment, using 5 litre supermarket water bottles that my brewing water came in (town water is crap here). How could I do that with a fermzilla? I have 4 30L fermenter tubs that I use for my normal 23L brewing as well as a load of glass carboy/demijohns for my wine batches. I can harvest yeast off the top during fermentation and can harvest slurry after ferm. The only thing I can't do is brew under co2 pressure, but that doesn't interest me much anyway.

Bet you're sorry you asked now...

bartonj

TomOnBoard wrote: »

I get the desire to upgrade (who doesn't like more/better bling), but I'm wondering in what way is a conical fermenter a 'better setup' than buckets which work right now? I'm asking, not because I think you shouldn't, but because I trying to understand what benefits you are trying to achieve, and whether those benefits might apply to me.

I see many advantages in a basic buckets strategy so long as it is safe, sanitary and it works. It is low-cost, can be dumped or re-purposed when the plastic gets too scratched, and allows for multiple simultaneous fermentations. For example, I have 6 fermentations of a base Craft Blonde kit going right now, using 6 different yeasts as a trial/experiment, using 5 litre supermarket water bottles that my brewing water came in (town water is crap here). How could I do that with a fermzilla? I have 4 30L fermenter tubs that I use for my normal 23L brewing as well as a load of glass carboy/demijohns for my wine batches. I can harvest yeast off the top during fermentation and can harvest slurry after ferm. The only thing I can't do is brew under co2 pressure, but that doesn't interest me much anyway.

Bet you're sorry you asked now...

the main reason is it looks nicer :), but i also like the idea of seeing it ferment but i get what your saying with the buckets, i normally do 2 fermentations at a time so i suppose i cant with the fermzilla, id love to upgrade everything to a connected stainless steel setup like the ones from polsinelli.it

TomOnBoard

bartonj wrote: »

the main reason is it looks nicer :), but i also like the idea of seeing it ferment but i get what your saying with the buckets, i normally do 2 fermentations at a time so i suppose i cant with the fermzilla, id love to upgrade everything to a connected stainless steel setup like the ones from polsinelli.it

Yeah, it's lovely to watch them yeasties perform... Better than BGT on a Monday night...

However, if you can see in, then light can get in also... Most brewers like to keep the light away from ferments.. Dunno the science,but something about brewing in the dark where possible.. Those Italian jobbies would do that alright...

rubadub

I liked the idea of being able to get it fairly well carbonated and separate the yeast off in the bottom chamber thing. Then I could fill bottles and just add a tad more sugar to get up to full carbonation with minimal yeast.

illumin

Be very careful with pressure fermentation as you may have a giant beer bomb on your hands! I would advise use of a spunding valve so you can viarate the prussure if needs be during fermentation and also as an extra safety mechanism. Make sure that you don't over tighten any of the connections either or they can leak. If you are just doing it for looks, it's really not worthwhile imho but I know how new shiny things are always attractive.

TomOnBoard

illumin wrote: »

Be very careful with pressure fermentation as you may have a giant beer bomb on your hands! I would advise use of a spunding valve so you can viarate the prussure if needs be during fermentation and also as an extra safety mechanism. Make sure that you don't over tighten any of the connections either or they can leak. If you are just doing it for looks, it's really not worthwhile imho but I know how new shiny things are always attractive.

^^^ This, plus:

If you're going to remove trub and/or harvest yeast during the fermentation, you MUST de-pressurise the vessel before closing off the bottom valve and unscrewing the jar. If you don't release pressure, as soon as the jar is un-screwed, you'll have an explosion of pressurised trub to deal with. Then, as soon as you've emptied and cleaned/sanitised the jar, you will need to fill it with something to prevent a big glug of air getting into the fermentation as soon as the jar is screwed back on and the bottom valve re-opened.

To my way of thinking, that's just too much work for negligible benefit. If you are using an un-pressurised system, the yeast can be top-cropped at high krausen or else the slurry can be bottom-cropped once the initial fermenter is emptied.

bartonj

TomOnBoard wrote: »

^^^ This, plus:

If you're going to remove trub and/or harvest yeast during the fermentation, you MUST de-pressurise the vessel before closing off the bottom valve and unscrewing the jar. If you don't release pressure, as soon as the jar is un-screwed, you'll have an explosion of pressurised trub to deal with. Then, as soon as you've emptied and cleaned/sanitised the jar, you will need to fill it with something to prevent a big glug of air getting into the fermentation as soon as the jar is screwed back on and the bottom valve re-opened.

To my way of thinking, that's just too much work for negligible benefit. If you are using an un-pressurised system, the yeast can be top-cropped at high krausen or else the slurry can be bottom-cropped once the initial fermenter is emptied.

Thanks for the advice, think I'll hold of so and stick with the buckets, seems more hassle than needs be