Keg King Apollo 30L Snub Nose Test & Review - Top Quality PET Pressure Fermenter for Homebrewing
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- Breaking down the features of the Apollo Snub Nose with @Keg-King and reviewing it after a thorough road test at home! This is a PET Pressure Fermenter for home-brewing with some excellent design features and high build quality check it out here in the UK:
www.themaltmiller.co.uk/produ...
Direct from Keg King for those in Oz:
www.kegking.com.au/apollo-30l...
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Great vid and review as usual 👍🍻
So much better than the Fermzilla. When it comes to pressure fermentation Keg King is King! Cheers 🍺
Love it love it love it I need one in my life. Looks like a really nice bit of kit. Great job at reviewing it cheers 👍🍻
Awesome vlog Richard thankyou for the dimensions I’m off to measure up internal dimensions of my fridge and if all ok I’m going to treat myself to one of these 👍🍺
Thanks Alan, hope it fits and you enjoy using it if you do get one!
Really good review Richard thanks, I got a snub nose and a spundy for Christmas from the other half (beats socks). Apologies if I have missed one you might have done already, but could you do a video guide to pressure fermenting please? I find your delivery and the level of detail in your videos ideal for me. (let me know if you have already done one!) I intend on using the snub nose to do lagers and ales, but i don't want to suppress the esters we want in a lot of ales. So a video with tips on what pressures we might use for different styles, how we start - do we pressurise from pitching using the CO2 tank or do we let it build up, how do we target a specific carbonation level by adjusting the pressure at the back end of the fermentation to hit that level, etc etc. Just a few ideas of questions I have rattling around my head! Love the channel keep up the good work.
Thanks for the feedback really appreciate it, I haven't done a pressure fermentation specific video (that I remember!). Its a good idea and I will add it to the list but there is a lot of stuff already planned so don't expect that anytime in the near future. To answer a few of those questions now rather than waiting that long: If you want to be absolutely certain there will be no loss of esters just do the fermentation without pressure and then crank it up towards the end, you can still generate some natural carbonation that way and help ensure an oxygen free environment for transfer etc. Generally if its a relatively clean ale yeast like US-05 or its equivalents I will still ferment under pressure and go for around 8-10psi, lagers I go a bit higher 12-15psi not really any definitive rules around this and bear in mind some yeasts respond better than others to pressure. I always let pressure build naturally from the fermentation this gives the yeast a chance to multiply freely before the pressure can (potentially) inhibit growth. Working out the exact carbonation level given is a bit of a guessing game as you will often need quite high pressure to achieve typical co2 volumes, often that means cranking up towards the end. You might not have enough co2 being generated by that point to fully carbonate though so I almost always end up topping up in the keg but this will still happen quicker as you have some co2 already in there. As an example at ale temp of 20c during fermentation you would need 20+psi constantly to guarantee around 2vol co2 but you will usually do the majority of fermentation at a lower level, you then also have the complication of temp changes for cold crashes etc which will also affect co2 absorbed. So in short I usually use the pressure ferment to get a head start on carbonation and use the force carbonation charts to set pressure as normal in the keg following that. Hope some of that helps!
We love our snub nose and wrote a review on it last year as well - agree with all the points you made. The dry hop port is definitely too small, much easier to just take the lid off and throw them all in.
Speaking as a mechanical engineer, I don't like the idea of screwing metal posts onto a plastic lid. I would prefer bulkhead fitting posts or plastic like kegland.
Obviously a stainless steel lid further down the line will solve my issue with the posts.
I've added some lifting handles to the top of the stand (like the firmzilla). I use a chest freezer as a fermentation chamber, so unless I've got a spare stand, I need to lift the fermenter and the stand out in one.
I Like the fact that it comes with the thermowell.
I agree with you on the silicone dip tube!
I had to change the outer o-rings on both my gas and liquid posts that were supplied as they were far too tight with the disconnect, maybe just a dodgy batch of o-rings.
🍻🍻
Some good points there I hear what you are saying regarding the metal to plastic interface, have heard a lot of feedback about the kegland ones working better with the plastic rather than metal. That said I have also had issues with the plastic ones not sealing perfectly. With the snubby using a proper dip tube with oring to form the seal at least there shouldn’t be any issues if the threads do wear a bit at least unless they fail completely! Good idea with the stand handles it just occurred to me that actually there aren’t many situations where you would want to lift the fully filled fermenter out of the stand anyway as it obviously cant stand up on its own. What are your thoughts comparing it to the all rounder overall?
I did think about buying an all rounder but I decided to wait for the snub nose.
My first pressure fermener was the Fermzilla 35lt.
I really got on well with that until the yeast collection jar developed tiny cracks on the seam line from the moulding process.
I decided I didn't really need it for harvesting yeast and I always dry hopped by removing the lid.
If Kegland had made a snub nose version I'll probably would gone with that.
I never had any problems removing lid on the Fermzilla, I always released the pressure first, then it was easy to loosen the locking ring just a couple of turns then a little burst of gas would pop the lid before loosening off the locking ring completely.
I’ve had mine for close to a year now and agree that the instructions are somewhat skimpy, and I switched out the tubing pretty quickly for some 6mm silicone from TMM too. I have a chest freezer as a ferm chamber and the handles do shred your hands a bit but nothing a few tea towels doesn’t solve. But even with all that, this is still my go to FV and I have 2 all rounders which just sit gathering dust now. 😅
I’m glad that your experience has been similar! I have 2 all rounders as well and I think they will be moving on once I get another one of the snubbies…
How do you dry hop with this? I've found even the funnel into the port blocks when dry hopping 200g+ of hops, and so wondering what you are doing to ease my issues!
No way round that other than pouring them in very slow with the funnel or just popping the lid and chucking them in quickly, tbh I don’t worry that much about oxygen exposure while dry hopping with either method as long as I do a good flush with co2 afterwards
whats it iike with a brew in ?