GW Kent Micro-'s

[jdheinrich103]

Hi all,
Do any of you have any thoughts or experience with the Micro-fermenters or brites from GW Kent? As a startup, I'm looking at cost savings. How about any different companies with comparable priced products?
Thanks,
JDH

[YSBrewer]

We haven't had any issues with our 7bbl brite.

[AnthonyB]

We have 2 of the 5 BBL micro fermenters, 2 of the normal 7 BBL fermenters, 9 of the 3 BBL micro brites and 2 of the 7 BBL micro brites.

Generally I am happy with all of it. I like the shadowless manways on the normal fermenters better than the manways on the micro-fermenters. The manway on the microbrites changed between some of our tanks, I actually liked what they used to do on those tanks better than what they do now. The new ones are a real pain to seal correctly because the arm generally misaligns the tank door. The newer brites have the CIP spray ball directly attached to the CIP arm where the old brites just threaded the CIP ball onto a fitting that was welded on the top of the tank. One odd "feature" on our 5 BBL micro fermenters is that the racking port doesn't completely come out of the tank. Somehow the tube is bent too far so that even after you remove the DIN fitting, you can't pull it out of the fermenter. That makes cleaning a little bit of a hassle. Some of the tanks shipped with little bits of polishing compound in the inside, felt marker marks for welding alignment, etc. but this is all easily dealt with.

Some of the tanks have a few more scratches inside than what I would prefer but generally the welds are all smooth and it all makes beer. Their shipping/crating seems to have significantly improved since we first ordered with them as well.

Overall I would order more tanks with them. The lead times are always reasonable and the customer service has been top-notch.