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

 

[Nicholas Jones]

Thanks Peter. Have finally replied to all. Pretty much have 20 testers. Boom!

[Nicholas Jones]

[Nicholas Jones]

[Nicholas Jones]

We have a spare 70L beta now due to a withdrawl. Delivery this coming week. Feel free to contact on [e-mail].

[Paul Finney]

As per Peter earlier in the thread, you have mail!!

[Peter Church]

Hi Nic, any update on delivery schedule

Cheers

[Michael_H]

If you need any more beta testers I'm keen. 

[Nicholas Jones]

Thanks Michael, we are tapped out at the moment. Will update once we are set for production release. Cheers mate

[Adam Sparks]

Filled this bad boy on the weekend…. Seems like a solid product so far, th einside is beautifully smooth and well made…. Im not sure that the bottom dump needs to be so large, Kinda feels like I might empty the entire fermenter in a second if I open it right up :) But perhaps thats just how conicals are? First time Ive used one!

I am a tad concerned with how Ill transfer the beer when its done, I guess Ill just need to find some reducing fittings that I can attach a hose barb too, whats everyone else gonna do?

Its nice being able to move it around, the lid seals just fine and the sample valve certainly makes life easy…. Will post a full review once Im done with this double stout

[Tom]

Looks like a good bit of kit.

[Nicholas Jones]

Hi All, 

thought it high time to give an update on this project. We are just going through our final amendments to the fermenter tool following on the back of a fantastic beta trial with 20-odd users of varying levels of ability/expectation. We collated all the feedback and then prioritised the requirements according to the overall needs of the majority of users, and set about to make the design changes accordingly. We believe have struck the best balance of affordability, functionality, features and quality, and hope you will all agree once final product is in hand. I have to give a big thanks to all the Beta testers, without them we would not have the product we have, the level of response and care for the product we are producing is humbling and we hope to be able to give a little back in return for the knowledge they have imparted.

We will be now formalising our sales network around nz too, which will be largely through the home brew shops and online stores. At this stage I dont really have much more to say, we should have off-tool parts within the next 2 weeks and from there on I will be advertising retailers through Realbeer and our own online channels. Much appreciated for the patience, I will update this page as soon as I can.

Cheers, Nick

[David Upex]

So Nick what is the recommended retail price on these, happy with a ball park guess?

Cheers - Dave