Switch to stainless fermenters inexpensively

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bioguy

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I broke my 2nd 6.5 gal. glass fermenter in less than a year (after 20 + years with no breakage). So, I want to switch to stainless.

I typically do parti-gyle and make three 5-gal batches. I had three 6.5 gal glass carboys I was using as fermenters. I keg in 5-gal kegs. A simple switch might be to get 1/4 kegs to convert to fermenters. Anybody know where I can get some inexpensively and legally?

I could reduce batch size and ferment in cornelius kegs (i have a few extra); but I'm not excited about that idea. Brewing less beer for the same amount of time is not a direction I want to go.

I could use four 5 gal kegs and then combine into three for kegging--but that would make my big beer smaller and my small beer bigger.

Your thoughts please.
 
I would just get the tall 1/4 barrel kegs from Stout Tanks and go on without using glass. They hold 7.75 gallons, so you can ferment up to about 7.25 gallons (with care).

I'm working on a fitting that will allow you to ferment and then transfer to serving keg with a CO2 push. It will also have a thermowell that you can send a sensor down to get a reading from the center of the fermenting beer. I've been using a version of this setup for about a year (or more) now, with great results. If you want to go cheap you can use either an orange carboy cap, or a large universal bung with airlock. I like the CO2 push to extract the finished beer since it means zero lifting of the fermenting keg. So, you can ferment wherever you want/need and then transfer to serving keg. Once the keg is empty, then clean it (far lighter to do that).
 
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