New Piece of Equipment? Ideas appreciated...

A friend of mine came across a large stainless steel vessel of sorts and thought we might be able to use it for brewing purposes. It is all stainless steel without any leaks. The top open although my friend said there was a lid for it if we wanted it.

That is a 5 gallon bucket next to it to give you an idea of the size of it.

Any ideas for putting this thing to use? Also since I don't know the history of this thing, what would you do to clean and sterilize this thing?

Your thoughts and input are appreciated.

It looks like a very nice stainless steel vessel but I would be a little leary about using it if I didn't know it's history. I am not one to take risks. Even though I am passionate about brewing, this is just a hobby to me.

Wow, that thing is huuuuuuuuge!

Stainless is stainless, I wouldn't worry about previous uses excepting the valve assembly. Is it all stainless inside this assembly?


HLT? MLT? BK? Fermenter? You could probably find a way to adapt to each use.

The only drawback it's huge capacity.

It is stainless throughout, so my thoughts were also along the lines of eighty sixing the valve / shut off and moving forward from that point.

I understand that bleach is to be avoided when cleaning stainless, but any ideas as to a good cleaner for stainless?

yes no bleach...oxi clean for organic debris...detergent (PBW or dishwashing powder) for grease or oil. What do we think, 50 - 80 gallons???

It looks like a smaller variable volume fermenter for a large producing home winer or a small winery

If I did the math right...it will hold 78 gallons.

arturo7 said:

...
The only drawback it's huge capacity.

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How is that a drawback? Go for it! 50 gallon batches.

I would clean it out, completely restore it, and then try to sell it as a fermenter to a brewery for a pilot or something of the sort.

With the drain and valve out the bottom, that sounds like a MASSIVE mash tun. You just have to insulate it really well and add a false bottom.

If you can deliver it to NJ, I'll show you what to do with it ;-). I think it wants to be a mashtun. Even if you had to cut 24" off the top to make it more usable, it's a keeper. It would also work well as a BK, HLT or fermenter. The biggest problem is coming up with companion vessels at those volumes.

I've seen that exact container as a Pilot fermenter... I would restore it and sell it to a start up brewery!!!

Bowtiebrewery said:

I've seen that exact container as a Pilot fermenter... I would restore it and sell it to a start up brewery!!!

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That's what I'm sayin. That thing would probably fetch $6-700. That's a lot of good brewing equipment worth for your real system.

Bobby_M said:

The biggest problem is coming up with companion vessels at those volumes.

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Exactly...in order to utilize it for those purposes, you kind of need multiple units.

I will be looking for a way to possibly convert it into something like this product from Blichmann:
Fermenator

+1 for clean it up and sell it. You could magically turn one 70 gal pot into two or three 20 gal. pots.

clean it up, replace fittings and/or clean hell out of em and go for it...

I bet it will clean up nicely.

Brew really big batches and then just drop 5 gallons in each fermenter you have and use different yeast... make it a party.

what about a hottub?

Would make a good kettle for club "Big Brew" events.