WILLIAM:
Hey, I'm William from Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply. I'm here
with our new Reactor Stainless Conical Fermenter. We’re really excited to offer this piece of
equipment to homebrewers out there and we've had quite a bit of fun using it in-house
here and trying different things with it. Today we’re going to show you the Reactor in
action to spotlight its special features and to show you how great of an addition it is to your
homebrewery. In this video we’ll quickly go over cleaning and sanitizing the Reactor, then look
at usage on brew day and during fermentation, and even how the Reactor can speed up your bottling
day easier if you're bottling your homebrew. Before we dive into it, if you
like new equipment videos as well as full brew day videos, show
us some love: like this video, subscribe to Northern Brewer’s YouTube channel,
and share with anyone you think might like it. We’re about to show you the Reactor in action,
but first want to show you the main components. As you can see the Reactor featured 304
stainless steel and it is a 8.5-gallons. The Reactor has embossed graduation makers every
half-gallon from four gallons up to eight gallons, including every liter from 15-30. Its cone
shaped bottom helps separate and collect unwanted sediment, like yeast and trub. It
comes with a clamp-down lid with silicone ring plus an airlock and stopper for airtight
seal. There is also an adjustable racking arm, which gives you the option of positioning
downwards, sideways, or even upwards for those crazy triple New England IPAs that
might leave more sediment in the cone. There is a racking and sampling port – a
⅜-inch barb on racking arm valve – that makes it easy to take samples for
gravity readings and taste tests; it can help also you with bottling,
which we’ll cover a little bit later. Below the racking port, you’ll also find
a bottom valve that is handy for draining the conical during cleaning or sanitizing
that features a ½-inch NPT male fitting. The whole thing is kept sturdy and well-supported by three 7-inch steel legs which
feature rubber feet at the bottom. Alright, time to put Reactor into action
mode! As with any piece of new equipment, we suggest a thorough cleaning and
sanitizing routine – even if it’s brand new. Before filling the Reactor, be sure to
close the sample port and bottom valve. Here we made a solution of PBW
with about two gallons of water, then used a brand new scrub pad to wipe down
the entire inner surface of the fermenter. Put the racking arm inside the bottom of
the cone to soak or soak in a separate bowl of cleaner solution. Let it sit for five
minutes to let the cleaning solution do its work. It helps to open and close the sample
port and bottom valve a few times to make sure they get exposed to the cleaner and then drain
the solution through them into a sink or tub. Spray and rinse the Reactor
with clean water several times, allowing the rinse water to drain from
the bottom valve, making sure to remove all the cleaner. If this is happening on
brew day, move on to sanitization; if not, simply store upright with valves open
and lid on until you’re ready to use it. On brew day, sanitize the fermenter. You can do
this however you like, but we find it simplest to use a spray bottle with Star San solution in
it. Before inserting the racking arm into the port we recommend spraying the inside and outside
with sanitizer, then placing it into the port to make sure it's fully sanitize. Next, sanitize
the entire interior surface of the fermenter as well as the lid and silicone ring. Rest the lid on
the fermenter until ready to use after your brew. For this example we brewed an extract
batch of our popular Dragon’s Silk Imperial Stout beer recipe kit, which we
chilled with an immersion wort chiller, then transferred into the
Reactor using a sanitized tube. Best practice here is to keep the lid over as much
of the fermenter as possible during this transfer process, but for the sake of example we wanted
you to see inside the fermenter. Whether you do this via transfer tube or pour the wort into the
fermenter from your kettle, the graduated volume markers are super helpful in seeing exactly how
much wort or beer you have in the fermenter. In this case we did need to top off with about a
gallon of water after our partial-volume boil. The large opening on the Reactor also makes
it easy to oxygenate with pure O2 and wand, pitch yeast – which for this big brew was two
packs – and make any additions such as FermCap. Once filled, firmly fit the lid into place using
the four clamps and make sure that your airlock has water or sanitizer in it. The Reactor does
feature sturdy handles for minimal moving and lifting, but we do suggest placing your fermenter
in the fermentation area prior to filling it. One last thing to point out for brew day.
The sample port is great for taking a wort sample for an original gravity reading of the
brew. We also suggest you tip the airlock and stopper ever so slightly to create a small
gap when pulling samples from the port to avoid pulling liquid from your airlock into the
fermenter. If your fermenter is at an elevated place it's easy to open the valve and get the
hydrometer sample full. If you're fermenting on the ground, place the test jar at an
angle under the valve and slowly open it. When the test jar is about three-quarters full,
close the valve and move the test jar. A spray bottle of Star San comes in handy here to sanitize
the inside and outside of the barbed valve. Once fermentation begins you
will see bubbles coming out of the airlock as CO2 escapes
the tightly sealed fermenter. While we recommend you keep the fermenter closed,
again for the sake of example we wanted to show you the inside of the Reactor. With the lid off
you can see the krausen coming up to just above the six gallon mark. There is still plenty
of headroom in the fermenter, even for the aggressive fermentation of this high-gravity beer
without risk of blow-off through the airlock. When fermentation is complete,
bubbles will stop in the airlock. Another look underneath the lid shows
that the surface of the beer is flat, all krausen and yeast have fallen out into
the cone, and there’s a ring of dark foam on the inner wall that shows how far the
krausen had come up during fermentation. Use the sample port once again to confirm that
fermentation is complete when gravity readings are consistent. We got a final gravity
reading of 1.023 three days in a row, which would indicate that it's done fermenting. Your beer recipe might call for
additions directly to the fermenter. Could be more hops during fermentation or dry hops
after fermentation. Maybe additional sugars or spice additions. In the case of Dragon’s Silk
we soaked oak cubes in Bourbon and then added them directly to the fermenter to rest for a few
days to a week depending on your preferred taste.
After all fermentation and conditioning is
complete, it’s time to package your beer. If you need to move it, carefully move the Reactor to
a surface that for safety we suggest not be above waist-height. Now you can transfer beer into
bottles, kegs, or other secondary fermenter. For bottling, the sample port is going to cut
down on a LOT of work and dirty equipment. Sanitize the port valve, bottle
filler, and short piece of ⅜” tubing. When bottling off of the fermenter like
this you'll want to use Fizz Drops. Place a fizz drop into each sanitized bottle and
insert the bottle filler and start filling. Once full, cap the bottle and continue
filling as many bottles as you like or need. The sample port is also handy
for transferring beer to a keg. Use a longer length of sanitized tubing
for this. Connect it to the valve, open the valve, and run off right
into the keg. Easy hands-free racking. After racking the be er, you’ll
see just how much leftover trub and yeast cake did NOT make it into your beer. The shape of the cone bottom helps separate the
beer you want from the junk that you do not. Time to clean once again. Blast the Reactor
with warm or hot water a few times to break up the trub and dump it into a sink. In this batch
our trub also included oak cubes that was added. Scrub away any larger or tougher
clumps of krausen as well. Use as much cleaning agent as needed and fill the
fermenter to soak to remove any stubborn gunk. You can also soak the racking arm, airlock,
and any tubing you used in racking. Let it sit, then drain, rinse and allow to dry with ball
valve open until the next time you need it. We also offer an upgraded Temperature Control
Lid for the Reactor that features a thermowell, chilling coils, and port for an airlock. The
thermowell allows for precise control of your fermentation temperature, one of the key ways
to improve your homebrew beer or homemade wine. Paired with a temp controller you can
control both heating and cooling of the system. Adding a heat wrap is an easy way to add heating
to the conical. The cooling coils feature ½” NPT connections making it easy to connect to a glycol
chiller or simply to pump chilled water through. In this video we walked you through a brew
day using the Reactor. But, the Reactor is not limited to just beer; it's perfect for
wine fermentation, cider fermentation as well, or even mead fermentations. Lot of the feedback
we're getting from customers is that they love it for the ease of cleaning and sanitizing,
and also super easy to transfer out of. A lot of people love just transferring straight
to that keg for that quicker kegging day. The Reactor Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter
is now available at northernbrewer.com. [MUSIC ENDING]
