Hi Courtney, water can be used to regulate temperature during fermentation. For most styles of beer and in most locations, cooling water can be automatically ran through the jacket to cool the beer down if it starts to heat up. (High temperature during fermentation will product off-flavors.) Either tap water can be used (our controller will open/close a valve to let water in as needed) or our Chiller can be used to pump cool water through the jacket and back to the chiller in a 'closed-loop' fashion.

Without a pump you could use the same cup the video shows for catching trub/break; dump it out the bottom of the jacket and put into the top of the Colander.

Yes, it works great. And a 'shotgun' condenser can be purchased on the website that connects to the lid of the fermenter. With the heating element already inside the 'wash', it is effectively a pot still and works great for stripping runs and can be used for redistilling with other columns attached to the lid. Our larger Microbrewery BIACs (4-in-1 fermenters) even have a 5" center port in the domed lid so a much larger tower could be connected. (We recommend cleaning the element after fermentation before firing it up for distillation as the yeast coats the element and can scorch.) Here is the link to the condenser and other accessories for distillation brewhaequipment.com/collections/distilling-hardware