Conical Fermenters??

Vallka

Vallka

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So I am thinking about a conical fermenter, plastic, looking at the FermZilla or the Fastferment.
Any insight would help, Pro's Con's
I heard the Ferzilla is a pain to clean? (but I'm not to lazy)
 
I have a SS 7 gallon and it's really tall, it didn't fit in the keezer so I cut the legs down and added a top draw floating pick up to be able to pull beer from the top. The downside to cutting the legs shorter was I can't drop trub, hops and yeast out the bottom, which is the biggest advantage to a conical for homebrewers. There is some talk that the shape of the conical will help with better fermentation due to the recirculation effect, but I don't really buy it. The top comes off, that's really nice for cleaning.

I like my other fermenters (modified Sanke kegs) better simply because they can be pressurized. My SS can be pressurized, but only to 3 psi. That is still enough to do closed transfer. I guess it comes down to personal preference.
 
I have the fermzilla and the All Rounder. As far as ease, the All Rounder wins hands down for me. The Fermzilla is great, but for most brews it's more than I need. Cleaning it kind of a pain. And I don't always need the collection chamber in the bottom. The chamber does come in handy for dry hopping and if you like to capture yeast.
All Rounder gets my vote. Plus the price is nice.
 
thunderwagn said:
I have the fermzilla and the All Rounder. As far as ease, the All Rounder wins hands down for me. The Fermzilla is great, but for most brews it's more than I need. Cleaning it kind of a pain. And I don't always need the collection chamber in the bottom. The chamber does come in handy for dry hopping and if you like to capture yeast.
All Rounder gets my vote. Plus the price is nice.
Click to expand...
Yeah I would endorse the Fermzilla Allrounder - simple, cheap, very easy to clean and a great introduction to pressure fermentation. I have two of them.
 
Vallka said:
So I am thinking about a conical fermenter, plastic, looking at the FermZilla or the Fastferment.
Any insight would help, Pro's Con's
I heard the Ferzilla is a pain to clean? (but I'm not to lazy)
Click to expand...
I have the Big Demon - it's a plastic conical. Easy to clean and can be equipped with a yeast dump - I tried it and didn't get it to work but it's an option.
 
I use fermentersaurs.
I like the look of the allrounder and 4 inch opening easier to get into and easier for dry hopping.
Whatever decision make sure it can hold some pressure.
I wouldn't ferment in anything else now.
 
I too, own 2 All Rounders and a regular Fermzilla and can easily say that my All Rounders get way more use! It's funny, but I tend to only use the Conical version if I have beers in the All Rounders already! LOL

I have also used the Fastferment but started having issues with the handles breaking - the company was AWESOME and always replaced for free - no questions asked and could easily be reached by phone.... However, the Fermzilla and All Rounder blow it and the CATALYST (Yeah I have one of those too! lol) out of the water!

While I like the Catalyst, it is over priced. It is a very nice fermenter and I would recommend it over the Fastferment I suppose. It is just way too pricey (I can rightfully say it because I bought one and truly feel it doesn't live up to the cost) - That and, I did get a mason jar stuck to the bottom once and man was that an issue! Took forever to get it off - like weeks later after I purchased the Fermzilla and used the leverage tool that comes with it on the mason jar!

Anyway.... All Rounder - ALL DAY! Pressure ferment, (even better - pressure tansfer!) rack off yeast cake and snag only clear beer! Too easy! I've even rack off and then back onto the yeast cake on a brew day! Loved it!
 
Vallka said:
So I am thinking about a conical fermenter, plastic, looking at the FermZilla or the Fastferment.
Any insight would help, Pro's Con's
I heard the Ferzilla is a pain to clean? (but I'm not to lazy)
Click to expand...
Just curious if you made decision yet?
 
Ididn't read the other replies. But seriously consider stainless. You can get a 7 gal ssbrewtech for under $200. You really have to be careful with plastic that you dont scratch it and light is an issue too.

Just my $0.02
 
Blackmuse said:
Just curious if you made decision yet?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the insight.
I need up getting the Fermzilla conical, did one beer and that and it turned out great, and went out and got to rounders. All of them are fully set up to pressure ferment.
 
Vallka said:
Thanks for the insight.
I need up getting the Fermzilla conical, did one beer and that and it turned out great, and went out and got to rounders. All of them are fully set up to pressure ferment.
Click to expand...
It's awesome isn't it!? More so than the pressure ferment, I love the closed transfers!
 
What a find, I have a spike cf15 for fermenting but this would be great for a brite tank! Most of my dark/high gravity beers need several months to age and this would work very well! I havent found a way to pressure transfer the beer from the rounder to kegs though, or am i missing something?
 
Dogwood said:
What a find, I have a spike cf15 for fermenting but this would be great for a brite tank! Most of my dark/high gravity beers need several months to age and this would work very well! I havent found a way to pressure transfer the beer from the rounder to kegs though, or am i missing something?
Click to expand...
Make a jumper lead (Beer line with two liquid disconnects on the end).
One and goes on out post on rounder one goes on out post on keg.
Release PRV valve on keg or use spunding valve at lower psi than fermentation preassure.
Occasionally you need to replace pressure in Rounder with more co2 to keep transfer going.
 
Blackmuse said:
It's awesome isn't it!? More so than the pressure ferment, I love the closed transfers!
Click to expand...

Hehe yeah closed transfers are pretty nice!

Trialben said:
Make a jumper lead (Beer line with two liquid disconnects on the end).
One and goes on out post on rounder one goes on out post on keg.
Release PRV valve on keg or use spunding valve at lower psi than fermentation preassure.
Occasionally you need to replace pressure in Rounder with more co2 to keep transfer going.
Click to expand...
Huehue like dis?
PXL_20210516_065823473.jpg
PXL_20210516_065830909.jpg
 
Marz said:
Well when you got 6 lbs of Raspberry and blueberry puree with seeds in there, it's a must!
Click to expand...
Well if I only lol.
My passionfruit saison is on the Cold Crash atm I'm hoping three days near 0c should drop it enough to not get any cloggidge on transfer day.
 
Trialben said:
Well if I only lol.
My passionfruit saison is on the Cold Crash atm I'm hoping three days near 0c should drop it enough to not get any cloggidge on transfer day.
Click to expand...
Ugh, I wish the fermzilla lid was the same size as the fermentasaurus... Nothing universal fits it to replace the shitty plastic lid that keeps getting stripped because of the poor plastic threads design.

Right before I kegged, all of the fruit was floating on the top so I threw 30psi at it and literally everything inside dropped to the bottom and was a pretty smooth pressure transfer. If you're not already pressurized, do it 1 hour before transfer, it'll help
 
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