My Fermzilla All Rounder has arrived!

[Petrolhead]

Well actually it arrived a week or so ago but I opened it on the weekend and put a brew in it on Sunday.

First impressions were really good. I assembled it, including the pressure kit, very easily but didn’t tighten anything up more than hand tight. Gassed it up to 5 psi and it immediately hissed. Tightened the lid and all was good.

Having left it an hour I noticed the pressure had dropped so tightened the two disconnects. No further problems.

Filling, moving it, in fact everything was fairly easy although the fit into the ferm fridge only just made it which was a surprise. In fact it wouldn’t have fitted unless I hadn’t inverted the stand. If you have a small brew fridge check the diameter fits well as my fridge is fairly big.

The start of fermentation was a delight and I was interested to see the wort ‘boiling’ with activity. I knew the spunding valve was set at 5 psi so once fermentation had started I gave it a tentative twist as I wanted to ferment at around 12psi. After a couple of hours I stuck my head into the shed and was surprised to see the 15 psi gauge was off the scale. It was then easy to let of gas and watch the gauge before stopping at 12 psi.

Now I have to come clean here in that I was using a spunding valve that I bought a good while back from a nice gentleman in China who had forgotten to include any instructions. Obviously a small turn was a big movement In pressure.

Everything then proceeded very well but I noticed the pressure was falling as the fermentation slowed so guessed I had a small leak. First move was to take off the valve and see if it was the Fermzilla. I gave it half an hour or just over, two pints to be more precise, and refixed the valve. It immediately jumped to over 15 psi and started venting so it was obviously the valve leaking.

I had a choice to fix it myself or claim on the warranty. So I reached for my spanner’s and checked all the joints, suspecting one pinched up more than it should have.

I refixed the valve and was very surprised to find wort squirting out of the end which I immediately identified as being caused by the said two pints. I had connected the valve to the ’outlet’ connect.

Since then all has been good. Love more valves and kit to fiddle with and looking forward to doing a pressure transfer to my keg.

 

[uDicko]

Good write up and all the same issues I had to begin with...

Now I think it's underrated that this fits in my beer fridge one of those small white foods with compressor step at the back and the shelf level to the door. It slides in well and has about 1cm clearance from the disconnects to the roof of the fridge.

Great bit of kit.

If you don't have a fermentation chamber then a reptile heat mat low wattage so's not to melt the PET, wrapped around the outside, hooked up to inkbird and wrapped in 5layers of silver foil insulation roll works a treat. I had 35c kviek NEIPA going using this just the other day.

 

[uDicko]

Oh and cleaning is super easy. My routine is to fill with sodium percarbonate to the brim put the lid on and let it soak. Give it a rinse out with clean water and use a soft cloth on any stubborn bits left.

Once done, fill with Chemsan and push into your corny keg. The other way also works fine if you have a keg with stuff in already

 

[cheeseyfeet]

I'm really torn between buying an all rounder or waiting to see what the new Keg Land products look like.

Would either of you be good enough to post a picture of it in your fridge? Being able to fit it in my aging ferm fridge is a main concern!

 

[uDicko]

Not great pic but shows the point. To make it easier I tilt the all rounder to the side so it slides into the fridge on the shelf nice and easy. Then I'll slide it so its standing upright

 

[cheeseyfeet]

Cheers! I may get away with it in my fridge , very tempted to order one.

 

[Petrolhead]

I have managed to put mine on the floor of the fridge. The compressor is only mounted on the one side which leaves a bit of depth on the other. It only just clears the door but success. This gives me a little more space for my spunding valve.

I'm honestly kicking myself that I didn't buy one ages ago. I admit I was hanging on until I got a fridge big enough to fit one with a yeast/trub bottle but now I harvest my yeast by over building the starter there's little reason to over complicate things.

 

[jceg316]

I'm looking to get a couple of these for easy transfers and bottling. I have a Fermzilla which is ok, but when I started pressure fermenting I found there were actually a lot of parts which could leak (and did), which also complicates sanitising and cleaning. Without the collection tub it seems a lot of that complication goes away

 

[uDicko]

They are great bits of kit. Only the lid and locking ring to use. No dump valve and attachments to have hassle with

 

[uDicko]

Granted the disconnects needed some ptfe and a couple of tests but thats it

 

[foxy]

The best thing about the all rounder they don't explode, (haven't seen any yet) the down side is there is no cone for the lees to settle. That's why its good to have the cone nicely compacted down and draw all the beer off.

 

[Petrolhead]

Just finished my first brew in my favourite toy. Loved the Allrounder and wish I had bought one years ago so if you are toying with the idea just do it.

I still have a small leak as pressure is held when fermentation is very active but towards the end of fermentation the pressure was dropping.

Today I connected my CO2 to the Allrounder‘s gas in port at about 8 psi and connected the liquid out to the liquid out of the Corny keg. I had previously filled this with Starsan and pumped it out to ensure that it was full of CO2. I also disconnected the CO2 and reattached it to the Allrounder so I knew that they were at the same pressure.

I then connected a party tap to the gas in of the Corny. I then had total control of the flow of beer into the Corny from the Allrounder as I vented the Corny with the party tap and by connecting the ’wrong’ way around I was able to see immediately when the beer level reached the bottom of the gas in pipe.

The siphon and float setup which came with the Allrounder worked a treat and I was able to fill up my Corny with lovely clear beer.

I then had about 5 litres left in the Allrounder so I switched my party tap onto the beer out post and filled up ten bottles. By tilting the Allrounder over, very easily because of its shape, I had virtually no waste. Amazing.

Plus a quick mouthful from the party tap suggests one of my best brews yet.

 

[chillipickle]

Doing my first ferment in the snub nose, it has been sitting at 10 psi and the fridge smells amazing.Will do the same, fill keg with starsan and pump it out with co2 then transfer via the snub nose to keg.

Quite looking forward to see how it turns out.Also quite nice to see the beer ferment in the snub nose.

 

[emerson909]

Just finished my first brew in my favourite toy. Loved the Allrounder and wish I had bought one years ago so if you are toying with the idea just do it.

I still have a small leak as pressure is held when fermentation is very active but towards the end of fermentation the pressure was dropping.

Today I connected my CO2 to the Allrounder‘s gas in port at about 8 psi and connected the liquid out to the liquid out of the Corny keg. I had previously filled this with Starsan and pumped it out to ensure that it was full of CO2. I also disconnected the CO2 and reattached it to the Allrounder so I knew that they were at the same pressure.

I then connected a party tap to the gas in of the Corny. I then had total control of the flow of beer into the Corny from the Allrounder as I vented the Corny with the party tap and by connecting the ’wrong’ way around I was able to see immediately when the beer level reached the bottom of the gas in pipe.

The siphon and float setup which came with the Allrounder worked a treat and I was able to fill up my Corny with lovely clear beer.

I then had about 5 litres left in the Allrounder so I switched my party tap onto the beer out post and filled up ten bottles. By tilting the Allrounder over, very easily because of its shape, I had virtually no waste. Amazing.

Plus a quick mouthful from the party tap suggests one of my best brews yet.

if you haven’t done so already I found where mine was leaking from by pressuring it up and dunking in a bucket of water, bubbles show you where the leak is straight away.

 

[Justin Dean]

I have the fermzilla conical. I replaced seals and inner cap and just doing it up hand tight there is no leaking. If overtightened the seal becomes deformed and it will leak.

 

[private4587]

Just finished my first brew in my favourite toy. Loved the Allrounder and wish I had bought one years ago so if you are toying with the idea just do it.

I still have a small leak as pressure is held when fermentation is very active but towards the end of fermentation the pressure was dropping.

Today I connected my CO2 to the Allrounder‘s gas in port at about 8 psi and connected the liquid out to the liquid out of the Corny keg. I had previously filled this with Starsan and pumped it out to ensure that it was full of CO2. I also disconnected the CO2 and reattached it to the Allrounder so I knew that they were at the same pressure.

I then connected a party tap to the gas in of the Corny. I then had total control of the flow of beer into the Corny from the Allrounder as I vented the Corny with the party tap and by connecting the ’wrong’ way around I was able to see immediately when the beer level reached the bottom of the gas in pipe.

The siphon and float setup which came with the Allrounder worked a treat and I was able to fill up my Corny with lovely clear beer.

I then had about 5 litres left in the Allrounder so I switched my party tap onto the beer out post and filled up ten bottles. By tilting the Allrounder over, very easily because of its shape, I had virtually no waste. Amazing.

Plus a quick mouthful from the party tap suggests one of my best brews yet.

I am thinking of getting one of these to try pressurised fermenting did you go with plastic connectors or SS

 

[RGeats]

Just finished my first brew in my favourite toy. Loved the Allrounder and wish I had bought one years ago so if you are toying with the idea just do it.

I still have a small leak as pressure is held when fermentation is very active but towards the end of fermentation the pressure was dropping.

Today I connected my CO2 to the Allrounder‘s gas in port at about 8 psi and connected the liquid out to the liquid out of the Corny keg. I had previously filled this with Starsan and pumped it out to ensure that it was full of CO2. I also disconnected the CO2 and reattached it to the Allrounder so I knew that they were at the same pressure.

I then connected a party tap to the gas in of the Corny. I then had total control of the flow of beer into the Corny from the Allrounder as I vented the Corny with the party tap and by connecting the ’wrong’ way around I was able to see immediately when the beer level reached the bottom of the gas in pipe.

The siphon and float setup which came with the Allrounder worked a treat and I was able to fill up my Corny with lovely clear beer.

I then had about 5 litres left in the Allrounder so I switched my party tap onto the beer out post and filled up ten bottles. By tilting the Allrounder over, very easily because of its shape, I had virtually no waste. Amazing.

Plus a quick mouthful from the party tap suggests one of my best brews yet.

Doing my first ferment in the snub nose, it has been sitting at 10 psi and the fridge smells amazing.Will do the same, fill keg with starsan and pump it out with co2 then transfer via the snub nose to keg.

Quite looking forward to see how it turns out.Also quite nice to see the beer ferment in the snub nose.

Just a tip that might be of interest to you. I clean a corny and use chemsan to sanitise. Dump all the steriliser out, put the lid on, then connect a line from my snubnose gas out to corny beer out, and put the spunding valve on the corny gas in post. Then all the co2 produced by the fermentation purges through the corny and out through the spunding valve. Saves using your own co2 cylinder to purge the corny.

Although you do need a way to get the line through your fridge, I am using a repurposed kegerator which has a hole in the door already.

 

[private4587]

Just a quick couple of questions to those using the allrounder, ( thinking of getting Santa to bring me one). How do you take a sample to test to see if fermentation is finished, and how do you dry hop. Thanks in advance for your assistance

 

[HarryFlatters]

How do you take a sample to test to see if fermentation is finished,

I guess you attach a party tap to the beer out and draw a sample from there?

and how do you dry hop. Thanks in advance for your assistance

Thinking outside the box, put your weighed out dry hops in a hop sock with something ferrous, like a stainless steel spoon, then using a magnet on the outside of the fermenter, 'stick' the hop sock to the top shoulder. When it's time, remove the magnet, the hops drop into the beer and sink.

 

[uDicko]

I guess you attach a party tap to the beer out and draw a sample from there?



Thinking outside the box, put your weighed out dry hops in a hop sock with something ferrous, like a stainless steel spoon, then using a magnet on the outside of the fermenter, 'stick' the hop sock to the top shoulder. When it's time, remove the magnet, the hops drop into the beer and sink.

This is exactly how I do it.