Using FastFerment Conical - CONFUSED!

grapeman · Dec 29, 2015

Unless you are in a hurry for the wine. I would transfer it to a carboy for all further work with it. It can be degassed, monitored for any further clearing, etc while in the carboy.

JoeCal1952 · Dec 30, 2015

grapeman said:
Unless you are in a hurry for the wine. I would transfer it to a carboy for all further work with it. It can be degassed, monitored for any further clearing, etc while in the carboy.

Hi all - Sorry I didn't get back to ya'll quicker, but my computer was down and had to re-build it and now saw these posts. I haven't sold my Fast Ferment as of yet, but I am no longer making wine either. Stuff happens in life and I really don't have the time. I have produced some really good wines with the Fast Ferment and did so by transferring the wine into a carboy for longer aging. If anybody is interested in the Fermenter I still would sell it but it is hard to ship. If I ever get back to wine making this will be the place I will come to for help!

Billpizzaiolo · Jan 12, 2016

richmke said:
If I were using a FastFerment, here is what I would do:

1) Keep the valve closed, and ferment during the normal "primary" time. Stir daily to keep the yeast suspended.
2) At SG 1.01, give a good stir, open the valve, and stop stirring. (end Primary phase, and start Secondary phase).
3) Wait 5 days, close valve, remove ball, and drain to Carboy. Test SG at this time.
4) Resume normal fermenting process.

Note: If you have skins, put them in a bag so they do get stuck in the valve.

I used FastFerment last September on a Barbera/Zinfandel blend. I did the first fermentation in my open vessel punching down the skins every morning and evening until it slowed down after 5 days. I pressed the skins lightly and put the first run and the pressed juice into four Fast ferment jugs for a few months and removed lees twice as needed.(about 28 gallons) I let the juices flow into three glass carboys and two 5+ gallon oak barrels. I will take the wine from the barrels in April and replace it with the wine in the glass carboys. I will then bottle the wine from the barrels. I plan to repeat the process with next fall's crush. It is a slight change from my only using glass from the process. I always top off the carboys with inert gas

and the barrels with reserved wine as needed. Wine in small oak barrels get oaked faster than in the big ones. So far the taste is very similar to doing it all glass. However the wine has minimum air contact after primary fermentation. Since the original posting of this I switched to using straight Argon gas to blanket my wines. As it is considerably cheaper and has no CO2 that might make it fizzy.

Billpizzaiolo · Feb 5, 2016

I recently used two FastFerment vessels to ferment Chenin Blanc juice bought on sale at Corrado's. This is the result that I got today when I transferred it to two glass carboys. The color is result of the lighting in the in the kitchen at sunrise. The wine is the right color. It is in my SG test column.

Billpizzaiolo · Feb 7, 2016

FastFerment has a new users manual posted on line as a pdf. In it they stress "It is recommended that you make wine with fresh juice and concentrates only." As i mentioned in an earlier posting i use fresh whole grapes and only put the juice in the FastFerment vessels after I press the skins. In reality that is "fresh juice." It worked very well for me and the wine although new tastes rather good as it is now in small wood barrels and is very clear due to the ease of racking and lack of O2 contact due to using Argon blanketing or