I first tested what was then called the V Vessel some 8 years ago and wrote about it in my book Techniques in Home Winemaking. The V Vessel was a conical food-grade HDPE plastic fermenter with a bottom valve and collection capsule assembly to collect lees and other grape residues to facilitate racking. Grape juice could be fermented, and wine racked and bottled all from this same container without ever really racking the wine, and so, the wine always remained in a single container thus minimizing oxygen uptake and risks of oxidation. Separating the lees from the wine could not have been made simpler.

Fast-forward to 2015 with a new owner, FastBrewing & WineMaking in Toronto, Ontario, who bought the rights to the V Vessel and made some improvements. It is now marketed under the name FastFerment and sells for about US$100. It accommodates up to 30 liters (7.9 gallons) of wine and is ideal for 20- and 23-liter (5- and 6-gallon) batches with lots of available expansion room during fermentation. Although it doesn’t really speed up fermentation, which we don’t really want in any case, the FastFerment is still true to its original goals of ease of fermenting, racking and bottling.

It is intended for making all types of wines from kits and fresh juice. It is not meant, nor designed to make reds with maceration of grape skins, although I imagine those looking for a challenge might give it a try.

What’s New?

The major enhancements include a large 6-inch access hole at the top to ease pouring water or juice in, stirring the contents, and cleaning, a large 1-inch ball valve for increased flow rate, a flat-bottom-shaped collection ball that can be set on a flat surface without rolling away, a thermometer, and a sampling port (this is currently a retrofit).

Important: The thermometer well is made of brass, probably a carry-over from beermaking. Metals will leach into the acidic medium of wine to cause oxidative and casse-type problems. The well should be of stainless steel for winemaking. I have replaced mine with an inexpensive off-the-shelf thermometer. I discussed this issue with the manufacturer and I trust that they will change the thermometer/well in new units.

The FastFerment still includes brackets for mounting the unit on a wall but an optional stand and carrying strap to move the fermenter around are available.

All this with a much-improved, detailed user manual. And soon, a temperature-control jacket will be available.

Operations

To make wine, the FastFerment is first thoroughly cleaned and sanitized as any other winemaking equipment with suitable cleaning and sanitizing agents. Concentrate from a kit and water or fresh juice are poured into the vessel, and yeast is added along with other ingredients as required. The lid and fermentation lock are placed on top, and the bottom valve is opened to allow lees to collect in the ball during fermentation.

If a first “racking” is desired following what is often referred to as the primary fermentation (when the SG is around 1.030), the bottom valve is closed, the collection ball is removed, and the contents of the ball poured out. The collection ball is placed back on the fermenter and the valve is again opened.

Fermentation, or what is often referred to as the secondary fermentation, is allowed to continue until it completes, usually at dryness when the SG is around 0.995. A second “racking” is performed and the ball is replaced as previously.

Stabilizing and fining agents are introduced to protect the wine from spoilage and to help it clarify and ready it for bottling. The large access hole makes stirring the wine and agents as well as degassing a simple task.

A third “racking” is performed when the wine is clear, at which point it can be filtered or bottled, directly from the FastFerment. The collection ball is removed and a racking tube and clamp are installed in its place. The valve is opened to gravity-feed the wine into a filter system and into a collection carboy, or directly into bottles.

Sounds easy?

I’ll be giving the FastFerment a try and reporting on how the improvements work out.

Stay tuned.

Daniel