FermZilla

[Stockport1]

Where would I get one of these coolers? No fridge space, but plenty of 12v !

WOW! Fascinating and thank you for your reply. Can I say as a newbie that is rocket science. Hopefully I'll get there one day.

 

[foxy]

Where would I get one of these coolers? No fridge space, but plenty of 12v !

Not on the market just yet, they will be released here in Oz around Christmas I believe, its called the Thermentor King, they not only cool but heat as well and leave only a small footprint. If you have a FermZilla with a thermal jacket and cooling coil you can use it with them.

 

[itry]

More reading here..https://discussions.probrewer.com/s...the-purpose-of-quot-Capping-quot-fermentation
And here is Terri Fahrendorfs full article.
http://www.terifahrendorf.com/Closed-Pressurized-Fermenatation.pdf


Before you use it for fermenting your first beer it would be wise to pressure test it, almost fill with water and use a bike pump if you have no gas. The biggest complaint about the FermZilla is not holding pressure.
No fridge space? Get yourself one of these little 12 volt units 20-21 C differential in ambient and fermenting temperature. Ambient of 30 C around 10 C fermenting and thats without a jacket.

@foxy is this your rig? this a mk1 fermentasauraus , the lid looks busy!!!? I run a system very similar to this. using the jacket to wrap round it. I use a brew belt( silicone belt that passes water through it) connected to a maxi110 chiller. ive just managed to trace and order on of the internal coils however so ill be changing again soon.

 

[Blackout84]

It's arrived! If you've any questions or want more detailed pictures, let me know. So excited!

View attachment 20896 View attachment 20897

Awesome :) will be interesting to hear your thoughts after use. Please give us a cheeky review of it.

What you going to brew to Christian it?

 

[user 23602]

So, the Fermzilla.

I'm a science nerd, it's who I am, what I'm paid to do and also what I'm studying. So when I saw the Fermzilla I naturally got excited, especially as I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to homebrewing, even more so as I'm still on the extract kits. Apart from the sci-fi appearance, the 2 main reasons I wanted to buy it was because I could watch the brew doing it's thing and secondly, I seemed to be useless at removing and separating sediment from my brew, so the idea of a conical fermenter with such a large dump valve appealed to me massively.

When the Fermzilla arrived, I couldn't have been more surprised by it. The reinforced stainless steel stand with handles was light, sturdy and looked good. The 27L tank was slick, weighed next to nothing and again, was easy on the eye. Once I had assembled it all, which literally took 2 minutes, I was desperate to brew because I was encouraged by an urge of confidence... And I like beer.

The christening brew would be an American IPA from a Muntons kit with some additions of Mosaic, Simcoe and Amarillo hops plus some Light Spray Malt and Lactose. As this was a kit brew, this may be irrelevant to some, if not most of you, so my apologies in advance, but bear with me.

First of all, I ballsed it up from the start. I chucked in all the necessaries with the exception of the yeast without open the butterfly value, numpty. But enough about my brew, let's talk about using the Fermzilla.

So I didn't use the pressure kit, so any of my thoughts on that would be unfounded. The reason I didn't use it is simply because I don't have a clue about it, right now I don't have the time to read up about it and lastly, because I wanted to ease myself into the fermenter and see what it's capable of first.

27L Tank: This was sturdy without anything in, but feels really strong when it has 23L of brew inside. It holds it's shape well and you can watch the fermentation process with ease and there is no reason what so ever to open your fermentation lid. The tank comes with 2 stickers, one temperature gauge and one measurement gauge which I thought was a nice touch, both being stick on meant you could then choose where you wanted them visible.

Butterfly Valve: It's huge. For collecting sediment, it's fantastic. Especially when you can see the difference of the sediment and dreg ends of the beer just sat at the bottom. Now, disposing of it... This was one of a couple of challenges. Removing the dump valve was stupidly difficult to disconnect in order to remove the collective crap at the bottom. Once the valve handle has been switch to closed and you've opened one of the side screw caps to release the naturally occurring pressure, the seal itself is still firm. You are provided with a rubber strip with handle tool to assist if necessary which is great, except the stainless steel stand is in the way and with the tank only sat in the stand and not locked into place, it means that when you try to unscrew the dump valve, the tank moves with it. I ended up recruiting my wife to hold the tank whilst I tried to get a good grip and position to unscrew the seal of the dump valve. And it's not like you can take the stand away as well, it just won't work balancing 23L of brew and fermenter on the dump valve you're trying to move.

Tank Thermo Jacket: Amazing. It looks fantastic, it fits over the whole unit including the stand, it zips easily and has a draw string at the bottom. And most importantly, it kept the temperature the same... And I checked it daily for 3 weeks.

When it came to moving the fermenter along with brew from the kitchen to my airing cupboard, it was simple. The stand comes with stainless steel handles and that made it easy to move about.

The top lid of the Fermzilla has all your pre drilled holes for numerous additions, such as pressure kits, airlock etc. But what was also useful were the caps provided for the holes that you didn't use, which meant I could open a small hole to get a good smell of the added hops. It's also worth adding that the top lid and caps are the only external thing to show if you're using the thermo jacket which means you don't need to keep taking the jacket off if you're adding things to the brew etc.

Bottling was another story. As this fermenter doesn't have a bottling wand, I knew I was going to transfer the brew from the Fermzilla to my old fermenter which has a bottling wand. Transferring using our good friend gravity was made more difficult because the Fermzilla sits proudly higher than most fermenting buckets, so required some chairs, books etc to get the height I needed for my rubber tubing to reach the secondary bucket. From there, it was easy.

This is a small review of the Fermzilla, if I've left anything out, please let me know and feel free to ask me any questions... As long as they're not pressure related!

All in all, so far, I'd give the Fermzilla a decent 7/10. I'm dropping marks for the dump value seal being such a bitch to take off whilst it's in it's stand and I can't mark the pressure capabilities as I haven't used them.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Hi all,

Total newbie, but I have a FermZilla, Jacket, pressure kit and wifi temp control.

So currently I have my first ever brew (extract kit) on its 5th day, currently at 21c @ 10psi and all in a cold garage!!!!

So, this was not all smooth going.....
Since I've never messed around with C02 or the fittings, I thought i'd practise with water. So I fill the FermZilla with 25L of water and pressured it to 15psi.
Leaking both C02 and water. Turns out they come semi assembled, so read the instructions and give everything a tighten.

Attempt two, I was just leaking C02 out of the top. Not much, but after 10 minutes it was back to 0 psi. After a email with jonny from BrewTapKeg, he recommended grease on the o-ring this fixed my issue. :-) Top guy, Thank you!!! I used vaseline.

It's November and it is getting cold. The FermZilla with pressure kit and spunding valve does not fit in my under counter fridge. :-(
Maybe with a smaller collection jar, and no stand, but I might just get a full size fridge. Anyway I ordered a Jacket, brew belt and Inkbird Wifi temp controller.
Well, with the addition of a jumper (Yes clothing), and some insulation around the brew belt this thing is holding at 21c in a cold garage. Amazed. The 25W element is JUST enough.

So I will be adding the hops tonight. As my brew is already carbonated, I've to be careful not to fizz over 23L of brew.

I'll take some picks, but i recommend that jacket for the £30 cost.

Neil

 

[johncrobinson]

Re:>Grizzly Notations
Greetings fellow scientist I too would like a fermzilla setup but my budgets today dont permit the cost still i can dream

 

[user 23602]

Re:>Grizzly Notations
Greetings fellow scientist I too would like a fermzilla setup but my budgets today dont permit the cost still i can dream

Christmas!

 

[Neil Whittaker]

I had to sell everything from my last hobby inorder to get all my brew stuff.

I am going to save up for AG.

 

[johncrobinson]

My mate sold all his photograpy kit to get into metal detecting.
He missed his cameras and ended up buying new ones again.

 

[foxy]

Best to keep these contained in a fridge.

 

[user 23602]

Best to keep these contained in a fridge.

What did you do?

 

[F00b4r]

What did you do?

my guess is shut the dump valve with the collection jar attached whilst fermentation was still under way, nowhere for the pressure to go.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Unlikely, I see a spunding valve on the shelf behind. So that would have let a controlled amount of pressure out as fermentation was active. Looking at the pic, I only see trub so I assume the beer was already removed.

I'm going to go with: Whilst handling, it was dropped on the hard title floor. I do not see the handles installed at the top of the unit.

You can buy a replacement for not to much.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Unlikely, I see a spunding valve on the shelf behind. So that would have let a controlled amount of pressure out as fermentation was active. Looking at the pic, I only see trub so I assume the beer was already removed.

I'm going to go with: Whilst handling, it was dropped on the hard title floor. I do not see the handles installed at the top of the unit.

You can buy a replacement for not to much.

The spunding valve would let out pressure from the main chamber, but would have no impact on the collection container if the butterfly valve was closed over.

 

[foxy]

The butterfly valve was shut, pressure builds up in the collection bottle, no where to go so it blows. Very dangerous.

 

[Brew_DD2]

User error.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Oh I think i understand now... I did not consider fermentation would still be active there. Wow. Good share, this probably has save me hitting the same issue.

I guess the brew survived.

So if I want to remove trub and harvest yeast, once that buttlerfly valve is closed, get that bottom collection jar removed soon ish.
In my last brew (first brew ever), i never used the valve, but my next one I will be doing.

 

[Graz]

Every time I see something like the above I want one of these things less and less. But then I never really wanted one in the first place

 

[Brew_DD2]

The only way that would happen is if you cock up and leave the valve closed.