Latest Ss Brewtech purchases

[Beer-lord]

I had a hole drilled into the lid of mine so I could put my Thermowell down that way.

The Borg is lucky its Easter cuz I know some scummy guys who could work with this line a bit.

[mashani]

The lid... seems "safer". Easier/cheaper to replace it if something bad happens.

[Beer-lord]

Maybe the lid is safer but Brewtech suggested to me in an email to put it where I did at about the 4 gallon mark and no lower than the 3 gallon mark.
I do have the extra long probe that I ordered with my Fermostat but only have used it in my Big Mouth fermenter.
Either way, the job was easy and even for me, hard to mess up and the seal kept PBW in all night with not even a drop on the outside. I'd be more concerned with a leak on the included spigot on the bottom.

[Kealia]

After using it for the first time today here are a few more thoughts:

1) I love the big open top. It's so much easier than dealing with a carboy opening (and just like a bucket, of course).
2) I Love the volume etchings on the inside. It's nice to know EXACTLY how much was put into it.
3) I hate the silicone base. It was awkward picking it up and moving it around since I don't brew where I ferment. Incidentally, I emailed them asking what they were thinking and they are now selling the base on its own to allow for having one where you brew and one where you ferment. I may just have to pick one up because I ended up picking up the fermenter and hugging it against my shoulder like a baby while trying to carry the stand, too. Grrr.
4) I love the spring clips on the lid.

I'm looking forward to not needing a siphon when it comes time to rack out of this into a keg so that's a big plus, too.



My biggest quandry is that I think I'm going to end up doing more 5G batches but I don't have room to put 1/2 in this and half in a second container. I'd really like to have the 7G version but my fermenting fridge is 1 inch too small (depth-wise) to hold it.

What to do....what to do.......

[Beer-lord]

I think I mentioned that I can't use the spigot on mine because every single brew I've brewed in it had too much yeast that was either above the spigot or close enough to it not to let our clear-ish beer. I still use an auto siphon.
My unit has legs though a tiny bit wobbly though not enough to complain about. I'll use this for m any years to come. Simply love it!

[mashani]

I'd need the spare base too. My hands suck, no way I can juggle the whole fermenter and try to hold onto the base and make it downstairs without potential for disaster.

@Beer-Lord, aren't you supposed to rotate the spigot/racking arm thing so it sticks "upwards" before you use the spigot? I thought that was to make it clear the trub. Your trub is that far above the spigot?

[Beer-lord]

Yes, the instructions say to keep it lowered during fermentation so nothing gets in it and turn it up when you use it to rack. But all my beers have always has a ton of funk leftover. That's one reason I do 6 gallon batches so that I still have close to 5 gallons in the keg.
I emailed them and they said to try their newer and slightly longer spigot but it didn't make any difference.

[Kealia]

Yeah, you are. That sounds like a LOT of trub. I know you're BIAB, but are you dumping everything from your ketlle in? I know you use a ton of hops.

[Beer-lord]

Sometimes I dump it all but I'm also using a tight strainer going into the fermenter.
It really hasn't mattered what I do, the outcome is the same and many others have posted on forums with the same challenge. It's not a problem because my auto siphon is faster anyway.

[mashani]

Sometimes (not always, it just depends on what CO2 volumes I'm looking for and how picky I feel about it) I will bottle prime using Dominos Dots. In that scenario, it would become a problem for me as I'd not want to be using the auto siphon to rack it. So @Kealia, I'm interested to know if this becomes an issue for you too. It's actually faster for me to bottle using the DOTs then to batch prime.

It is only been a problem a couple of times with the LBCs where I had so much trub that it clogged the spigot. Of course the first few ounces is all trub filled, but I just pour that, toss it out, and then I have clear pours after that.

My only go so far with Mini-Cooper, I had a good 1/2" of clearance between spigot and trub.

Without a functional spigot that I could use most of the time, I wouldn't want one.

[Kealia]

I'll be racking to a keg and not bottling with this batch - but I don't think that's the meat of what you were asking about (priming).
Based on the trub levels I normally see I'm expecting that I won't have any trouble with this - but I reserve the right be horribly wrong in a few weeks when I do keg it!

I'm actually thinking that this is going to be become my new bottling bucket when I want to split a 5G batch between a keg and bottles. With the etchings I'll always know exactly how much volume I have to get right amount of sugar in it. Likewise, that would allow me to finally get rid of the last LBK I've been hanging onto to use as a bottling bucket. Of course, this is all dependent on how well the spigot works this first time around.

I'll make sure to keep you updated.

[mashani]

I'll be racking to a keg and not bottling with this batch - but I don't think that's the meat of what you were asking about

It pretty much is - if you can't rack to keg with spigot vs. auto siphon, then nor can I bottle from spigot if I feel like bottle priming.

[Kealia]

Yeah, I worded that poorly. I know what you mean. If I think about it when the time comes I'll try to take some video. But even if I don't, I will post my thoughts.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Kealia]

After racking to a keg last night I have to say that I love the ease of racking and cleaning this. While my auto-siphon always did just fine, it's no comparison when using gravity.
I simply attached some sanitized tubing and drained this in about 2 minutes. I had HUGE trub loss in this batch but was still able to use the built it siphon just fine.

I will say that carrying it when full didn't allow me to also carry the base - it was too clumsy and awkward so I had my wife carry the base for me when I moved it. I'll be buying a second base for sure to make that a 1-person job.

If I had the room I would easily spend the money on the 7G version to ferment my 5G batches but sadly it won't fit in my fermentation fridge so until I buy a bigger one of those I'll be sticking with my plastic carboy. But now I'm on the lookout for a larger fridge!

[Beer-lord]

I wish I could you the spigot on mine but I always have too much funk so it's the auto siphon for me.
Now that I have the thermowell on the side, I'm golden. It's working just fine too!