Anyone have a Fermentasaurus?

[universalfrost]

i picked up a fermentasaurus on eBay from NorCal Brewing for $119 shipped with the pressure kit.. no joke! was last one they had..

I brewed a belgian white (blue moon all grain) clone with it and liked the ability to watch the trub falling down after the first few hours and then once I tossed the trub that was collected in the bottle I pitched the yeast.. Collected the yeast in the bottle after it dropped and it's sitting in the fridge now for my next batch (already saving me money on liquid yeast).

I have not used the presssure kit yet, but brewhardware has a spunding valve that I'm looking at getting for this to test out the natural carbonation on a batch shortly.

I am contemplating buying another fermentasaurus , but most of the kits are at the 140 range and am still in the air versus buying an SS conical which runs 190ish.

If you can find a fermentasaurus deal like I got then jump on it.

 

[universalfrost]

Here's the fermentasaurus in action with a Belgian Whit..

Dumped in the wort.. let it sit overnight to drop out the trub in to the collection bottle and discarded the trub, then pitched the wort...

This was brewed in March and is now in the keg. I collected the last bottle of yeast and put that in a quart mason jar in the fridge for reuse on my next batch. I'm happy so far and have not had any issues with trub or yeast getting stuck on the sides like some have...

I'm gonna try the pressurization kit with this on my next Imperial IPA so that I can have it carbed and ready to transfer to the keg and drink (my house Imperial requires no waiting after it its FG and has 3 days of dry hops)... This uses two ounces of whole cone hops and im gonna try and collect the yeast then put the dry hops in the collection bottle (once i dumped the yeast of course) and then dry hop from the collection bottle (so as to keep pressurization on the fermenter.

 

[lagermeister1]

let us know how it goes dry hopping from the bottom. I have a spunding valve and will plan on doing that also. i fermented my belgian dubble off pressure since i want phenols and esthers and i am naturally carbonating it in the fermentasaurus at the moment. ill be close transferring it to finish off carbonating in the keg this weekend to make room for another batch. thanks to all the comments on here and ideas on how to use this guy. i removed 3 bottles yeast and trub and was able to tap it under pressure for the last bottle to fill it up with beer before screwing back on. i did not have any problems with the yeast getting stuck either.

 

[kbaggen]

Hi all,
I put my review of "Bottling with Sugar cubes and Fermentasaurus (Mini review)!" on my website:

www.posebryg.dk

 

[lagermeister1]

did a closed transfer to the keg last night and it worked flawlessly. it was already naturally carbonating in the fermentasaur for a week so i figure it has about 3 more weeks since the stronger beers take longer to condition.

 

[universalfrost]

let us know how it goes dry hopping from the bottom. I have a spunding valve and will plan on doing that also.

There's a guy on youtube that posted a vid on fermenting an IPA with the fermentasaurus and he dry hopped from the collection ball while it was naturally carbing with a spunding valve...

I don't have a link as i was on my phone watching it at work but google is your friend.

I ordered the spunding valve from brewers hardware and he has tweaked it to be more accurate by swapping out springs.

glad to see others having success with this fermenter. Im getting ready for a double imperial IPA and doing a 7 gallon batch with 3 different dry hop additions for over 8 ounces of dry hops. (done this recipe previously with a spiedel fermenter and hop sacks,but still had ton of hop residue in the final batch. )

 

[Sadu]

I had success dry hopping into the co2 purged bottle, filling it with beer/foam from the tap, then reconnecting the bottle and turning the whole thing upside down to get the hops into the brew. Took a bit of shaking and squeezing the bottle, but minimal oxygen exposure.

 

[Brewer2B]

If so would you reccomend it?
Thanks.

Yes; but follow instructions to the letter on setting it up (biggest issue that I've run into is getting the main cap to seal tight-this was easily solved by using keg lubricant on the threads of the cap and being careful to place the seal on correctly) again pay attention and you should have not trouble. I have brewed Apple Jack under pressure with the psi. kit and it turned out delicious.

Take care,
Brew2be

 

[universalfrost]

I am currently fermenting my first batch in my fermentasaurus and have been really pleased with it thus far. I opted to buy the pressure kit but was not willing to go without good temperature control, so I modified the regular fermenting lid that comes with the fermentasaurus by adding a 12" SS thermowell with 0.5" NPT threads (dudadiesel) + hex locknut.

All in all, I am about <$20 in and am able to temp control my fermentasaurus, which I saw as the biggest issue with it right out of the box. Since the lid drops right down on top, one could probably find a 16" thermowell for not much more and have access to the higher temperature spots just above the cone.

I apologize for the lack of in-use photos, but I had just swapped this out for the pressure lid before seeing this thread.

what are you using for heating ? I was looking at some of the heating belts and heating wraps on amazon and morebeer etc...

 

[andyn2001]

Used mine twice, first time didn't realise you needed to leave the butterfly valve open when adding the wort. I waited until the end to find all the trub was stuck.

Now on second brew and still having probs with trub/yeast settling into collection bottle. It's 48 hours and only a third full of trub/yeast. By now it should be full according to other reviews and you tube clips. Is it because I am not fermenting under pressure? I am just using airlock, I don't want to carb in FV. But, it is advertised to work under pressure or not under pressure.

I bought the Fermentasaurus so I could dump all the trub/yeast and rack from the FV, no transferring to a bottling bucket. I rarely keg. I now have doubts I can do this if the trub/yeast gets stuck all the time......why didn't they make the hole bigger?! Or am I doing something wrong?

Any suggestions?

I am thinking I may sterilise the end of a long mash spoon and give it a poke. But, I don;t see why I should have to intervene in that sort of way.

 

[lagermeister1]

did you try squeezing the capture bottle a couple times? I have done 2 batches one with and without pressure and i did not have clogging issues. if after squeezing it a few times and and 1 more day to settle doesnt help, maybe give it a poke.

 

[andyn2001]

I gave it a poke this morning, and it filled up during the course of today. I've added back the bottle after purging it, but the big gurgling and bubbling as the beer fills it up again makes me nervous, especially as I am very close to end of ferment! Fingers crossed. Next time though I will try squeezing the bottle, thanks for that tip!

 

[andyn2001]

Quick update, I emptied the bottle, re-attached and I think I had clogging again, so a couple of squeezes of the bottle and hey presto! Thanks for the tip, can't believe I didn't think of that!!!

 

[lagermeister1]

great! i cant take credit for that. I think it was Sadu who mentioned the tip earlier in this thread.

so far i am very happy with the saurus. i just finished a English IPA and had my spunding valve 8 psi at 70F. its mostly carbonated already and i just got finished removing the dry hops from the bottle.

 

[Frogger42]

before reattaching/re-dumping if you can, purge the collection bottle with CO2 to ensure no/minimal oxidation

 

[andyn2001]

Yes, I did that and now I have dry hopped, I just dropped them in from the top.
My next dilema is hops/trub are have already filled up the collection bottle. Do I keep emptying now that fermentation has stopped? I reckon after I cold crash I could go through another three bottle changes, and all the risks of adding oxygen, even after purging the bottle. Is that what other's do? Otherwise, I can't see how I will be able to rack using the dump attachment, I need to clear the hops/trub.

 

[lagermeister1]

before reattaching/re-dumping if you can, purge the collection bottle with CO2 to ensure no/minimal oxidation

I do thanks. I came up with an easy way to purge the collection bottle buy using a 2 liter bottle, my carbonator cap, co2 in keg connector and length of hose. i connect my co2 tank connector to the 2 liter bottle with carbonator cap, purge with 8psi , then put the connector with the legnth of hose into the saurus collection bottle and connect it to the 2 liter bottle. that way i dont have to unscrew anything on my co2 tank.

 

[burtom]

Just finished my first brew in mine, a Helles. Pressure transfer and filtering went well, easy actually. I do have a question for other users though. Do you take the Butterfly Dump Valve Assembly apart each time?

 

[lagermeister1]

Just finished my first brew in mine, a Helles. Pressure transfer and filtering went well, easy actually. I do have a question for other users though. Do you take the Butterfly Dump Valve Assembly apart each time?

i do not. i have had to take it apart before and it was very difficult because of the opposing threads. I fill the fermenter up with water and pbw solution and let it soak for 24 hours with the valve open.

 

[burtom]

i do not. i have had to take it apart before and it was very difficult because of the opposing threads. I fill the fermenter up with water and pbw solution and let it soak for 24 hours with the valve open.

Thanks. Kind of why I asked. Taking that valve apart is, I'll be nice and just say painful. I used petroleum jelly and thought I would come apart easier. Anyway I love the pressure transfer aspect of this thing, makes in the house transfers nice and clean.

 

[GRJBowers]

I just bottled a batch from a pressurized fermentation using the Fermentasaurus yesterday and thought I'd share my thoughts. Some of these have been mentioned already in this thread, but here we go anyway.

1. As others have mentioned, the cone likes to plug up with trub. After 3 days the collection ball was a third to half full, I tried squeezing the collection ball with little success while pressurized to 15 psi. For the next brew I plan on leaving the butterfly valve closed for the first two days of fermentation to let the trub settle out the let the pressure push the plug into the collection ball.

2. I dry hopped using the collection ball using more than the recommended maximum amount (1.75 oz vs the recommended 30g/~1 oz maximum). Due to the trub plug previously mentioned, as soon as I reopened the butterfly valve the plug blasted into the collection ball. Not sure how much this will affect dry hop utilization, but I'm sure it will. Fix for this seems to be taken care of by the solution in the previous list item.

3. Since I was bottling, but fermenting under only 15 psi, I still needed to add priming sugar which required depressurizing the Fermentasaurus. This led to two problems, one compounding the other. The air trapped in the collection ball started to vent, throwing hop debris into the beer and the beer started off-gassing causing it to foam up like crazy (should have expected the latter in retrospect). Fortunately it was only a 3 gallon batch so there was no overflow of foam. I intended to bottling via siphon through the dispensing line, but the liquid post got blocked with hop debris so I had to switch to the barbed valve attachment to continue bottling. Next brew with dry hops, I'll close the butterfly valve before depressurizing the fermenter, hopefully this will reduce off-gassing and keep the beer from foaming up too much.

4. Cleanup was pretty straight forward. 2.5 gallons of warm water and a tablespoon or so of Oxyclean. Shake a few times to get the entire inside wet. Let it sit for a 5 minutes and shake again. Repeat the shaking/rest step 2 or 3 times. To rinse, I added a gallon of warm water and gave it a shake a drained it. I rinsed three times. Hopefully that and the Starsan rinse before next use will be enough to remove any residue.

All in all, I'm glad I bought it and look forward to using it again with hopefully the worst of the learning curve behind me.

P.S. Sorry for the wall of text, I just wanted to share my thoughts on the Fermentasaurus.

 

[lagermeister1]

ive seen reviews where they leave it shut during primary under pressure and it still clogs. i guess we need to try and filter out more hop trub from the kettle when we move the wort to the fermenter. my valve didnt clog up until after i dry hopped, the hops floated up then after a few days my valve got plugged up a little . i ended up getting most of the hops out though through the bottom.

 

[GRJBowers]

ive seen reviews where they leave it shut during primary under pressure and it still clogs. i guess we need to try and filter out more hop trub from the kettle when we move the wort to the fermenter. my valve didnt clog up until after i dry hopped, the hops floated up then after a few days my valve got plugged up a little . i ended up getting most of the hops out though through the bottom.

I use a hop spider so the trub in my case was probably cold-break that took a while to settle out.

 

[lagermeister1]

this exbeeriment seems to suggest the longer light lagers sit on kettle trub in the fermenter, the more prone the beer is for off flavor. IMO this gives us conical fermenter users a nice advantage in that we typically remove that trub from the bottom as soon as it settles from the bottom with minimal effort.

http://brulosophy.com/2018/03/26/ke...n-a-cool-fermented-lager-exbeeriment-results/

 

[Dory Rules]

Using the Fermentasaurus, how often do you dump the trub? Do you wait until most of the fermentation is complete, or just as the ball fills up?

 

[Frogger42]

I'm curious as well

 

[lagermeister1]

Using the Fermentasaurus, how often do you dump the trub? Do you wait until most of the fermentation is complete, or just as the ball fills up?

i dump after fermentation seems to be slowing down and with the last batch it was 3 or 4 dumps . This is usually a few days into it and you can visually see when either trub or yeast is all compacted in there and there is no liquid flowing up inside the bottle from the fermentation. after the first one i dump i wait 24hrs and there will be more compacted again . the last beer i made was a english pale ale with 40 ibu's and i dry hopped it . so i removed trub and yeast from the ball over the course of 3 or 4 days after fermentation then it was clear to add the dry hops. you want to add teh dry hops only when there is no more yeast settling into the bottom. i added the pellets through the bottom and after a couple days removed the dry hops which had floated up and back down to settle in the bottle again. like i said in my previous post i shoot the bottle wiht co2 from my purged 2 liter bottle with the carbonator cap and length of hose every time before i reattach the bottom ball.

 

[Frogger42]

Just did my first closed system transfer and it was so incredibly easy. Wow!!! Awesome!!

 

[Dory Rules]

Lagermeister: thanks! Does this keep the valve from getting plugged?

 

[andyn2001]

I've been writing to Oxebar about my probs with hops sticking in the valve. They mentioned about a new version coming out soon. I think my concern there was a flaw has been admitted and addressed. Just wish I waited a few months before buying mine!!

KegLand Fermentasaurus 2 - 27L

The new and improved Fermentasaurus Gen2 in 27L brought to you by the critical key minds and engineers behind the original Gen1. But with all the tweaks that make it the most cost effective conical fermenter to date!

We found that the Gen1 Fermentasaurus although it was revolutionary at the time of conception. That there were some key flaws in it's design.

Available in 27L and Double Batch 50L


New and Improved:
1. Larger Dump Valve
2. Larger opening
3. Pressure rating 2.4bar (35psi)
4. Designed to fit in the new WiFi Fermenter Fridges (coming soon)

 

[lagermeister1]

Lagermeister: thanks! Does this keep the valve from getting plugged?

well i have finished 2 batches in there without anything getting stuck. i have a maibock in it now i am fermenting at 70F under 10psi pressure with saflager 34/70.

 

[lagermeister1]

The new and improved Fermentasaurus Gen2

this sounds exciting, i am going to want one.

 

[Mark Solomon]

So I just brewed my first batch with the Saurus, a NEIPA 3 days ago. I was worried about leaks, but took the advice here, used some lube on the lid, and no issues at all. I am fermenting at 20psi, with a spunding valve from BrewHardware. This one has the upgraded spring and to get to 20psi, my valve is set to 90%.

I dumped the first bottle at the end of day 2 (full krausen), then just did a second and third dump tonight (krausen has begun to fall). I added 3 oz of hop pellets (not realizing that the suggestion is 1 oz max....oh well). The hop pellets do seem to be stuck, so I pulled the pressure release valve and the "boiling" effect seemed to pull at least a third of the hops out of the bottle. I then re-pressurized with my CO2 tank and the foam created by the boiling went down rather quickly. I am going to leave it be overnight, then see where I am at and maybe pull the release valve again tommorrow. I am just worried that yeast will be settling out at the bottom of the cone, preventing more hops from escaping.

-Mark

 

[Mark Solomon]

After writing my post above, I couldn't resist, and took the pressure down again to zero. Again, as the pressue was releasing from the collection bottle, the hops were shooting up into the fermenter. I am fermenting at 20 psi. Now at least half of my 3oz hops are floating in the fermenter. Only drawback is removing the amazing aroma from the fermenter.

Definitely think that dumping them into the top after de-pressurizing is the better option....thoughts?

-Mark

 

[lagermeister1]

Definitely think that dumping them into the top after de-pressurizing is the better option....thoughts?

Yes, as much as i would like the dry hops in the bottle to be effective, we are going to get better aroma by cracking it open from teh top and adding them. my English pale ale tastes great but the aroma is just not there and i added 2oz from the bottom. somebody else in the string stated they didnt get good aroma from the bottom also. but yea if you are going to add them from the bottom, try and add them after the yeast has all been removed.

Now im thinking i need more then a 5# co2 cylinder for all these purgings and closed transfer with the saurus. the EPA was my first pressure batch and me and several others agree it is a really good beer. i still havent tasted my dubbel after i closed transferred and keg conditioned it a month ago.

 

[Sadu]

Now im thinking i need more then a 5# co2 cylinder for all these purgings and closed transfer with the saurus.

Gas is really expensive where I live so I'll avoid having to repressurise the fermentor at all costs.

So there's 2 methods I use with success. The first is to depressurise, and add the dryhops at the same time as your simple sugar addition. If I'm brewing an IPA or decent pale ale I will build 3-5% simple sugars into the recipe for this purpose. This kicks the fermentation off and purges the headspace.

The second method is to remove all the slurry over the course of fermentation. Then add your hops to the bottle, fill it up with beer/foam, reattach. Then turn the fermentasaurus upside down as many times as necessary combined with twisting the valve to get the hops into the main fermentor. This is kinda awkward and with 30L/7G batches it helps if you've been going to crossfit 4 times a week - but it's about the only way to get 100g/4oz of hops into the fermentor under pressure. It feels weird all that shaking of the beer, but I can't see more than a tiny amount of air getting in via this method.

Also you don't need CO2 to do a closed transfer. If you push the beer out using your CO2 tank then yeah it's gonna use a heap of CO2. But if you connect liquid to liquid and gas to gas with the FV on the bench and the keg on the floor then you can closed siphon the beer into the keg. Uses no CO2, which in my case is a couple of bucks saved each time.

 

[lagermeister1]

This is great info thank you for sharing. what should the psi be for both vessels using your closed transfer technique? i was investigating on these forums how to reuse co2 from recently tapped empty kegs to purge cleaned and sanitized kegs for closed transfers from the saurus. i hooked up a hose to my laundry tub foucet onto the out connector of the used keg and connected a hose on the in of that keg to the out connector of the cleaned and sanitized keg . spund valve set to 10psi on my cleaned keg in post, turn on the water , wait till used keg was full of water and started coming through the tie in hose and shut everything down . it worked great .

 

[Sadu]

This is great info thank you for sharing. what should the psi be for both vessels using your closed transfer technique? i was investigating on these forums how to reuse co2 from recently tapped empty kegs to purge cleaned and sanitized kegs for closed transfers from the saurus. i hooked up a hose to my laundry tub foucet onto the out connector of the used keg and connected a hose on the in of that keg to the out connector of the cleaned and sanitized keg . spund valve set to 10psi on my cleaned keg in post, turn on the water , wait till used keg was full of water and started coming through the tie in hose and shut everything down . it worked great .

It can be any psi you like, so long as its the same in both. You don't want to be changing the pressure of the saurus at transfer time as that mixes the sludge up. So measure the saurus pressure and make sure the keg matches.

 

[lagermeister1]

this worked good for me until about the last 1.5 gallons left in the saurus. i had to vent my keg to start the siphon again and of course some yeast started floating up to the top in the saurus but luckily by that time i had removed most of the yeast and trub from the bottom so wasnt a big deal. Im pretty sure the siphon stopped because i only had a length of 2 ft on the out to out keg connection. im thinking a little more height on the saurus and a 3 ft hose on the saurus out to keg out connection should do it would you agree? very nice technique to save alot of gas so thanks again.

 

[Mark Solomon]

I just finished my first beer in my Saurus, and did the keg transfer. A couple things I noticed are that I needed about a 5-7 psi differential to keep it flowing nicely. I am thinking this is because my CO2 tank and regulator are in my kegerator, and the readings were not apples to apples. Overall, the transfer took me about an hour. I was able to keep it going until the diptube got buried in the yeast/hops at the bottom....I ended up leaving almost .5 gallons of clear liquid in the bottom. Is this what others have experienced?

-Mark