Looking to borrow a conical or other large fermentation vessel

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum... I didn't know where else to put it.

I just brewed up 30 gallons worth of my cherry wheat as my wedding ale for later this year. Apparently the cherries had some significantly different amounts of sugars from the two 25 lb bins.

The OGs are as follows for the 5 batches:
1.075
1.081
1.067
1.062
1.063

The 3rd batch used 5lbs of cherries from each bin. So that leads me to believe the sugar content was different.

I don't want to have significantly different levels of alcohol in the bottles. So I am turning to everyone here for help.

I live just outside Chicago. I am looking for a solution that would allow me to combine all 30 gallons worth of beer into a larger fermentation tank. Estimated 42 gallon if conical. If anyone is willing to assist me with this that would be great. Any suggestions on cheap solutions would be great too.

I would need to borrow the equipment for about 3-4 months. Compensation can be negotiated if desired.

Please assist me with this! I don't know who else to turn to.

Buy a used but not too ruined 55 gallon drum and buy a drum liner.

http://www.uline.com/BL_6755/Molded-Poly-Drum-Liners

Cheap suggestion, a plastic 55 gallon HPDE food grade water storage drum.

Rain barrels (the type whole foods carries) are also usually food grade, although at twice the price. Check around your town for something like this.

HPDE Drum looks like a good plan. The liners are only sold in groups which I could buy a rotomold conical for cheaper. Seems odd to me but maybe this is where the rotomold conical becomes a reality.

I'm not sure how much the barrels cost, but since you are transferring anyway what about 5 ale pails and put 1 gallon from each into the buckets?

I was going to say exactly what jeff said. 6, 6.5gal food safe buckets with lids and you're good to go. beats trying to get help from strangers on the internet. (not that it doesn't safely happen everyday, but that would be my absolute last resort)

rubbermaid brute garbage can, and lid. Can be had at most home improvement stores for <$50. They are NSF Food Safe. I believe they come in 35 42 and 55 gal sizes or there abouts.

You can get a Brute plastic garbage can that is food grade. Ferment it all together or blend all the batches together before bottling/kegging.

How do I know if the plastic garbage can is food grade or not?

It will have a NSF logo on the bottom I believe all the blue-grey Rubbermaid "brute" garbage cans are NSF food grade

Ferment them separate, then combine a gallon of each at a time and bottle, or save the strong stuff for the wedding party, and the lower three for the guests.

44 gallon bin

Transferred all buckets over this morning.


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Things not to say at the wedding:
"Here, try a pint of my cherry wheat. I brewed it in a garbage can!"

two_hearted said:

Things not to say at the wedding:
"Here, try a pint of my cherry wheat. I brewed it in a garbage can!"

Click to expand...

HAHA yeah. Well fermented, but still.

Not the prettiest sight for sure but I never knew trash cans were food safe. I also didn't think the lid was air tight. Things to think about if I ever need 30+ gallons of beer at one time.

Love it. Following along for progress updates. It looks like there's already a high krausen ring on the inside of the bin, or am I making that up?

What type of cherries did you use?

The "high Krausen ring" was really just from the agitation from pouring the 5 buckets in. They only had just started their fermentation last night so a little more aeration shouldn't hurt. (i'm hoping)

The lid is far from air tight. But with the winter the way it is currently and the lack of bugs around I figure I have a little bit before I need to worry about "air tight"

Its possible I will be getting some plexi-glass and some small weights to get a better seal once I know heavy fermentation is done.

I have fermented in one several times before, and had no problems with bugs, or oxidation. I'm about 100 mi south of you. I don't know that I would want to secondary, or let it settle out for a long periods, but I have never had a problems letting mine sit for 2 weeks, before racking out to glass or better bottle for the long term. The Co2 should drive of most anything that will bother your beer at least in the short term.

That's the plan. Once primary fermentation is done I will be transferring to 5/6 vessels (cherries probably going to keep a couple gallons from me) for secondary conditioning.

Oh. And I forgot to mention the type of cherries: Door County tart pie cherries. 50 lbs of them in that bin.

So an update on how the beer is going.

Checked the gravity last weekend and this morning. Gravity read 1.012 both times. I was hoping for a slightly lower final reading. So to be sure of the temp it was fermenting at I checked. Temp of beer sitting steady at 60 f. That's the low end of ideal temp for us-05. So this weekend we are raising the temp of the house to the upper 60s to see if we can promote some additional yeast activity.

Still have had a really decent attenuation with the yeast. Started at 1.067 so about 81% attenuation.


Sent from a happy little yeastie.