SS Fermentor Choices

Head First said:
Should work well. I want to keep it as simple as I can for cleaning up. Simple lid with 1 hole.
The single hole up top on this one should get your arm in there.
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Yep sure thing and as you can see 4 inch tri clover fitting and preassure transfer lid.
As long as your not built like Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn't be an issue getting your arm in there.
 
Head First said:
So are you saying Barbie uses plastic buckets? I wonder if her buckets stain over time also from darker beers?
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It's an old song, and I'm just being silly. And no, darker beers have never stained my plastic.
 
I have 2 conicals from Stout Tanks and love them. They're good for 5 to 6.5 Gallon batches. Got one of them off CraigsList, and another on Black Friday from Stout Tanks directly.
 
Nosybear said:
It's an old song, and I'm just being silly. And no, darker beers have never stained my plastic.
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JK also. My daughter was THAT age on a vacation when that song was popular. Now unfortunately I can still remember most of the words after an 8 hour drive to the coast that year. Seriously though i do get staining and discoloration after some time in my plastic buckets mostly right at the krausen level. I only use a washcloth and mild detergent for cleaning then maybe once a year a bleach soak. I have been happy with how they held up over time, i get about 6 years out of them. It is time to replace 2 of them so just thought it was time to upgrade.
 
Head First said:
JK also. My daughter was THAT age on a vacation when that song was popular. Now unfortunately I can still remember most of the words after an 8 hour drive to the coast that year. Seriously though i do get staining and discoloration after some time in my plastic buckets mostly right at the krausen level. I only use a washcloth and mild detergent for cleaning then maybe once a year a bleach soak. I have been happy with how they held up over time, i get about 6 years out of them. It is time to replace 2 of them so just thought it was time to upgrade.
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I do get staining too like an off white. A bleach soak clear this up obviously.
 
J A said:
I have the 14 and have fitted it with triclover fitting adapter and closed fermentation/pressure transfer fittings. Also just installed a lid-mounted glycol chiller coil. I use a thermowell in the blow-off tee fitting until I need to transfer and then change that out for a racking cane.
I was able to start with it for cheap and even with the gradual additions over a couple of years, I'm still into it for less than half of any temp-controlled conical on the market.
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Interesting, can you post a couple pictures of this?
 
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upload_2019-5-7_8-48-50.jpeg

there you go @The Brew Mentor
 
Trialben said:
I do get staining too like an off white. A bleach soak clear this up obviously.
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I likely don't get staining because the plastic I use is carboys, a different, less porous plastic than the polyethylene used in the white plastic buckets. The only white plastic I use is the bottling bucket and the beer isn't in there that long.
 
yes those white plastic buckets are terrible about staining, I stopped fermenting in those years ago, I now use these
pc-container-barrel-55galmetal-nfg-w_lid-green.jpg
 
This thread started me to consider fermenting in a corny keg for a number of reasons. Has anyone tried this?

Pros:
  • All stainless steel, sanitize with boiling water, doesn't break, degrade or harbor bacteria
  • Almost endless life, can be rebuilt over and over
  • Can be completely sealed or vent co2 out the gas port. When you remove the gas connector it seals immediately. Rated for 125psi
  • Easy to handle
  • Tall and skinny, can fit more onto the fermentation chamber
  • Easy to rack off to secondary (to another keg for serving, unitank) Floating liquid line could eliminate transferring trub to unitank
  • Can adapt a spunding valve and naturally carbonate with the fermentation itself
  • reduced oxygen exposure, could be theoretically eliminated
  • Crash cooling under pressure, no suck back from airlock
  • Experimenting with fermentation under pressure, cleaner lagers at higher temperatures
  • Relatively cheap, used ones are still under $75 US, new ones are $125 for a high quality keg (Made in Italy)
Cons:

  • Can only ferment 4 gallons (biggest draw back). With trub loss there may only be 3.5 gallons of finished beer. This could be improved be transferring trubless wort and leaving the rest in the kettle, or brewing 6 gallon batches and splitting them between 2 kegs. Still not ideal.
  • Difficult to add finings after fermentation. Would have to either remove cover, which would negate the "no exposure to oxygen" or devise a way to force finings under pressure into gas port while the keg maintained a positive pressure.
  • Dry hopping still is a problem and there are no solutions that I can think of that would not add oxygen.
  • Can't see the fermentation, I kind like glass for that.
Or I could buy 4 of these Sabco fermenters (link below). They have thermowell, racking cane, multiple inlets on top (large enough to force hydrated hop slurry under pressure into fermenter), ferment a full 5 gallons with plenty of head space. I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind me spending 3000 bucks for them.

https://brewmagic.com/products/fermenter-7-75-gal-by-sabco/
 
Last edited:
HighVoltageMan! said:
This thread started me to consider fermenting in a corny keg for a number of reasons. Has anyone tried this?

Pros:
  • All stainless steel, sanitize with boiling water, doesn't break, degrade or harbor bacteria
  • Almost endless life, can be rebuilt over and over
  • Can be completely sealed or vent co2 out the gas port. When you remove the gas connector it seals immediately. Rated for 125psi
  • Easy to handle
  • Tall and skinny, can fit more onto the fermentation chamber
  • Easy to rack off to secondary (to another keg for serving, unitank) Floating liquid line could eliminate transferring trub to unitank
  • Can adapt a spunding valve and naturally carbonate with the fermentation itself
  • reduced oxygen exposure, could be theoretically eliminated
  • Crash cooling under pressure, no suck back from airlock
  • Experimenting with fermentation under pressure, cleaner lagers at higher temperatures
  • Relatively cheap, used ones are still under $75 US, new ones are $125 for a high quality keg (Made in Italy)
Cons:

  • Can only ferment 4 gallons (biggest draw back). With trub loss there may only be 3.5 gallons of finished beer. This could be improved be transferring trubless wort and leaving the rest in the kettle, or brewing 6 gallon batches and splitting them between 2 kegs. Still not ideal.
  • Difficult to add finings after fermentation. Would have to either remove cover, which would negate the "no exposure to oxygen" or devise a way to force finings under pressure into gas port while the keg maintained a positive pressure.
  • Dry hopping still is a problem and there are no solutions that I can think of that would not add oxygen.
  • Can't see the fermentation, I kind like glass for that.
Or I could buy 4 of these Sabco fermenters (link below). They have thermowell, racking cane, multiple inlets on top (large enough to force hydrated hop slurry under pressure into fermenter), ferment a full 5 gallons with plenty of head space. I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind me spending 3000 bucks for them.

https://brewmagic.com/products/fermenter-7-75-gal-by-sabco/
Click to expand...
Well hell, I should have been looking at these when the wifee was ordering a new coffee pot!;)
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
This thread started me to consider fermenting in a corny keg for a number of reasons. Has anyone tried this?

Pros:
  • All stainless steel, sanitize with boiling water, doesn't break, degrade or harbor bacteria
  • Almost endless life, can be rebuilt over and over
  • Can be completely sealed or vent co2 out the gas port. When you remove the gas connector it seals immediately. Rated for 125psi
  • Easy to handle
  • Tall and skinny, can fit more onto the fermentation chamber
  • Easy to rack off to secondary (to another keg for serving, unitank) Floating liquid line could eliminate transferring trub to unitank
  • Can adapt a spunding valve and naturally carbonate with the fermentation itself
  • reduced oxygen exposure, could be theoretically eliminated
  • Crash cooling under pressure, no suck back from airlock
  • Experimenting with fermentation under pressure, cleaner lagers at higher temperatures
  • Relatively cheap, used ones are still under $75 US, new ones are $125 for a high quality keg (Made in Italy)
Cons:

  • Can only ferment 4 gallons (biggest draw back). With trub loss there may only be 3.5 gallons of finished beer. This could be improved be transferring trubless wort and leaving the rest in the kettle, or brewing 6 gallon batches and splitting them between 2 kegs. Still not ideal.
  • Difficult to add finings after fermentation. Would have to either remove cover, which would negate the "no exposure to oxygen" or devise a way to force finings under pressure into gas port while the keg maintained a positive pressure.
  • Dry hopping still is a problem and there are no solutions that I can think of that would not add oxygen.
  • Can't see the fermentation, I kind like glass for that.
Or I could buy 4 of these Sabco fermenters (link below). They have thermowell, racking cane, multiple inlets on top (large enough to force hydrated hop slurry under pressure into fermenter), ferment a full 5 gallons with plenty of head space. I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind me spending 3000 bucks for them.

https://brewmagic.com/products/fermenter-7-75-gal-by-sabco/
Click to expand...

You could get a 10 gallon corny keg ($$). I haven’t tried one yet. For 5.5 gallon batches there would be lots of head space.
https://www.cornykeg.com/product/10-gallon-strap-handle-keg/
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
I saw those, wow that’s expensive! Why are 10 gallon Cornys so high in price?
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I assume cuz they are not mass produced like the 5 gallon Pepsi kegs. I like the ball locks, prv, high pressure, height for a chest freezer and the lid is the same as a standard 5 gal corny. I would want a long thermowell in the lid and a port for dry hops and fining additions.

I don’t know, conical with heat and glycol... It’s maddening; the options are endless these days. :)
 
I do the long term secondary ferment for my sours in cornies. Works well and as the primary sacch ferment has already happened I can fill them pretty much to the top. I have fitted a blow off arrangement, but it was so inactive I just burp them every few weeks now.

Don't know why I haven't moved the rest of my fermentation to them. It probably would work perfectly as I'm generally aiming at a 10-15 litre (2.5 - 3 gallon) batch. And I could fit multiple fermenters in my fermentation chamber.

If I was doing primary I'd probably get the floating dip tubes and just put sanitised foil over the blowoff and set it open for most of the batch rather than doing something smart with blow off tubes or airlocks attached to disconnects. Mainly as that would make the spunding based carbonation such an easy win. Just close the blow off when I've got about 10 or so points left and attach a spunding valve.

Think that's convinced me where I'm going when it's time to replace my next Speidel plastic.

Edit: will have to test how well a tilt sends data when it's inside one. That'll make things like temp and when to add the spunding value much easier to manage.
 
Yep I've definitely thought once or twice about fermenting in a corny and am pretty much convinced it's gotta be the cheapest stainless steel option. And for me I can ferment more beer in korny kegs with my fermentation chamber setup.
 
my biggest issue would be the beer yield and more to clean, seems I clean more than I brew :confused:
 
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