Below is an interview with Kee Doery from KegLand and Ben from Beer and Brewer Magazine about the new FermZilla and how it’s changing the home brewing industry.
Ben from Beer and
Brewer Magazine(B&B): So why has KegLand decided to make this new
innovative product?
Kee from KegLand (KL): Pressurised
fermentations have been getting a lot of attention lately as they allow
customers to supress some of the off flavours produced in the fermentation
process but I personally prefer them as it enables the brewer to more easily
keep oxygen away from the beer and we already know how important this is for
beer quality and freshness.
B&B: So for the average brewer
how would they use this differently when compared with a conventional
fermenter?
KL: Well you have several
options. I mean sure you could use it
exactly the same and just ferment the beer than use gravity or a siphon to fill
this beer into bottles or cans for secondary fermentation if you like. With that said to get the most out of this
vessel we really recommend our customers to use pressure as this means you can
ferment, carbonate, and dispense finished beer from the one vessel.
B&B: We notice a lot of home
brewers looking for pressure rated fermenters why is this so important?
KL:I don’t want to make this answer
too long so I will try and cover this in a few short points. Pressure rated fermenter allow you to:
1. Brew Cleaner Beer Faster.
2. Being able to carbonate in the fermenter is nice because it means you can taste the finished beer before you transfer it into glass bottles, or cans with our Cannular Canning Machine or into keg. This means you have the opportunity to alter the beer before final packaging. Alternatively you don’t even have to transfer the beer if you don’t want to. Just dispense the carbonated beer directly from the FermZilla.
3. Oxygen free transfers would have to be one of the major benefits. Pressure rated fermenters means you can ferment under pressure and if you crash chill you don’t get a vacuum that can suck oxygen into the fermenter. Also being able to push beer out of the fermenter into kegs or cans or bottles without removing the lid really reduces overall oxygen exposure and we all know how important this is to beer quality.
B&B:But can’t we just do that with various other stainless steel fermenters?
KL: Yes absolutely you could do the same thing with a stainless conical/uni tank and we do have plans to stock a new range of stainless pressure rated stainless ones too. In some respects these FermZilla PET plastic units have some benefits over the stainless though. They are clear so you can see what’s going on. This is a huge benefit in my opinion as you can visually gauge what stage of the fermentation you’re at. You can see if your dry hops have settled out and it’s faster to educate yourself on the process if you can actually see what’s happening. The FermZilla also is rated to 2.4bar which is almost double what most of the stainless fermenters are designed to hold. So in some respects even though the price is less than half of a stainless conical some customers find it’s the preferred choice due to these benefits.
B&B: What about all the concerns with plastics, BPA and other plasticisers? Is this an issue?
KL: PET has been heavily researched and it’s completely safe for food contact which is why it’s so preferable for so much of the food industry. The plastic wall is BPA free and plasticiser free, very smooth, easy to clean and sanitise. It’s also got great O2 and CO2 barrier properties making it much more suitable as a fermenter than other PE(polyethylene) or PP(polypropylene) type fermenters.
B&B: So where to next from this product. You guys seem to be developing a lot of new gear at the moment.
KL: Well with regards to the FermZilla we already have the FermZilla Uni Tank on our website in both the 27L and 55L sizes. We also have the FermZilla Uni Tank available in a 35L size soon. These can be found on our website here:
27L FermZilla Uni-Tank
55L FermZilla Uni-Tank
With that said the FermZilla is a whole range of fermenters and we also have flat bottom designs, and pressure rated designs without the dump valve. So we will have some less expensive models also that will come out in the next few months.
We already have many other accessories to go with these fermenters too and a really cool Fermentation Chamber/Fridge that you will be able to put the FermZilla or any other fermenter into and this will completely heat, cool and log the fermentation up to the internet where you can set and log information. So this will be an awesome product to look out for.
To see a video on the FermZilla have a look here:
KegLand is a great place for all your beer brewing and keg dispensing consumables. For more stuff check them out here:
