Conical fermenters - Now made in NZ!

[Liam Callaghan]

Hey guys,

 

Following up a long discussed project of manufacturing plastic conical fermenters in NZ.  Nicolas Jones (from the forum) has bought it and is well on his way to getting them into production! 

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/profile/NicholasJones  (I hope the link works...)

I'd like to give him and his partner a very warm thank you for picking this up and taking it forward.  They have a huge amount of drive and energy and I wish them all the very best with it.  Congratulations mate!

Nick's an industrial designer with a great eye for detail and understanding of the industrial processes, equipment and tooling.  He is looking to make a fantastic high quality product and I look forward to putting my order in shortly.

He's a bloody good brewer too, with some really interesting brews under his belt.  Made an awesome twist to a stout that I'm looking at tinkering with very soon!  Sorry Grant, but it's as good as your Scotch Ale.

Anyone with queries please feel free to hit him up and I'm sure he'll post up on here when he has things under control.   I'm quite amazed at how far he has taken it in a few short weeks, especially as he's running his own business too, baby in tow and building a brewery haha.  Legs, lid, seals and clamps are being detailed and priced as well as minor mods to the tanks.  Very impressive!

Fingers crossed this is just his first project and he'll roll into mash tuns, chillers, grain mills and maybe log splitters (I would like a hydraulic log splitter).

 

All the very best Nick!

 

Liam

 

[DMAC]

More conical fermenter porn - check out mine loaded with IPA!

So far so good. No leaks. Seals well so I plan to hook it up to CO2 like nick did but this time to push beer through a filter. I was most impressed with how thick the plastic is, which has got to be at least twice as thick as your average fermenter.

The only thing I would change is the large right angle fitting for the lower ball valve as it has quite a few parts and seems like a good place to trap  bacteria. Fortunately Nick has already corrected this in the production units which you can see in his photos (above this post i guess). So really I cant fault the new design.

Also check out this passion-fruit cheesecake i made which i'm kind of proud of (found the picture while uploading the conical photo and couldn't help my self...).

 

[Nicholas Jones]

Daniel, once again we find ourselves up at the wee hours behind the computer...at least you are doing important shit! The cheesecake is a win, Im not sure which gets me salivating more that or the IPA ;)

It must be noted that Daniel got one of the first, first samples, which was usable but not exactly pretty, he got the Friday night special if you will..

Cheers for the props bro! Look forward to hearing how the beer turns out

[Chris Franich]

Hey nick

How you doing? Any idea on when I can get my hands on one of these? Price?

Cheers
Chris

[Nicholas Jones]

Hey Chris, sorry I have been so inactive on here, it is now just a waiting game. All orders have been placed with suppliers, and many of the retailers and distributors are primed ready to order, just waiting to get parts in hand and package and ship. Keep an eye on Brewers Coop or Hauraki Homebrews facebook pages as these 2 are our local retailers here in Auckland, they have all pricing too. Should be around the end of the month Im hoping Chris, thanks for hitting me up :)

[Nicholas Jones]

Hey All, not wanting to jump the gun on this as we've had a great many false starts, but we are looking to ship the fermenters out to retailers later this week. Ive had a facebook page up for a while https://www.facebook.com/MaltMechanics, but havent been pushing it too hard, as Im still at the mercy of my moulding shop. I was asked today to pop down tomorrow to show them how to pack them into the boxes, so one can only assume that we are all but ready to rock. At this stage we have Brewers coop and Hauraki Homebrew for the Aucklanders, All Grain in Welly and Dunedin Malthouse in the deep south. Brewshop are pretty keen too, That Beer Place in Nelson have also been making noises. Paul at Finneys is lacking space but we will do our best to get some coverage in the Chur too. I suspect the cusp-dwellers are just waiting for confirmed finished articles, as no doubt we all are.. So yeah, go poke your nose into your LHBS and enquire and hit your better half up for a bit of brew porn for xmas! Cheers for the patience/support/shared frustration. NJ

[Nicholas Jones]

Clearly we are getting there...

[Nicholas Jones]

Uploaded the last pic from my phone.. heres another of our production run

[Nicholas Jones]

This is already on Facebook but I seem to be forgetting my roots.. another pic, brewday tonight too!

[Rhys Williams]

What are the prices?

[Nicholas Jones]

Hi Rhys, they are retailing $350 for the 30L, $420 for the 60L. I see you are in Auckland so Brewers Coop, Hauraki Home Brew, or Home Brew West will be able to sort you out, all have stock. Cheers

[TBone]

What is the cleaning regime for these? Can they handle a product like PBW?

[Nicholas Jones]

Hey TBone, the spec sheet for pbw here says its safe on plastics http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/wp-content/uploads/PBWTech.pdf and given HDPE is a common brewing plastic, and is highly chemical resistant I suspect that would suggest it is suitable for use in our fermenters. However, this is not an endorsement to use PBW, you will want to test this yourself -  I do not recommend any specific cleaners or sterilisers.