Where to get HDPE piping?

Anyone know where to get HDPE piping? I have looked online and can only find suppliers that sell 40+ feet lengths.

I'm looking to try and make a tall narrow fermenter out of it. Thinking 6" or 8" diameter which would give me a 2-5 foot tall fermenter for 6 gallon capacity. I understand that it is permeable to O2 so these will not be used for long fermentations.

First one I make I plan to make a larger batch and ferment some in a glass jug and see if I can tell any difference due to the shape and/or material.

Any other suggestions are welcome.


Idea came from this thread: pvc pipe -- friendly or Nos?

I would just use a corny keg to get about the right shape. Maybe do a 4 gallon batch so there is room for foam.

I am interested in what will happen if you do a side by side comparative. Something like 4 gallons in a corny and 4 gallons of the same batch of beer in a glass carboy.

the owner of my LHBS said ale yeast fermentation is best with a greater surface area. So he recommended that short wide ale pale. Would having this pvc pipe go against that, if there's any truth to that ? I guess if ale yeast is top fermenting it might?

I'm just trying to figure out the intent of the tall/skinny design when buckets are plentiful and much cheaper?

cleaning 5ft pvc is gonna be tougher than cleaning a pale

JesseRC said:

the owner of my LHBS said ale yeast fermentation is best with a greater surface area. So he recommended that short wide ale pale. Would having this pvc pipe go against that, if there's any truth to that ? I guess if ale yeast is top fermenting it might?

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Bobby_M said:

I'm just trying to figure out the intent of the tall/skinny design when buckets are plentiful and much cheaper?

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Tall skinny ones would use less floor space. Also I think they would look more appealing then a bucket. And I am curious about what differences the shape would make in the finished beer. How do you know it would be much cheaper? Do you know of some place that will give me a price on HDPE pipe? That is one thing I'm trying to look into but can't find is even a rough estimate on how much it would cost.

I think the surface area would only slow down the fermentation if anything. That's one thing I would like to find out though.

HDPE is not very cheap, I know this because I work in the civil engineering field. However if you could scrounge some scraps from some construction sites then you could almost do it for free. Any fittings such as end caps are gonna be expensive. I looked into making kegs out of hdpe a while back and it's just cheaper to buy cornie kegs when you figure in all of the end caps and other fittings.

JesseRC said:

cleaning 5ft pvc is gonna be tougher than cleaning a pale

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Not really worried about cleaning it as I have only lightly scrubbed my bottles with a cleaning brush and shaken around with cleaning and sanitizing solution. Could easily do this with HDPE just as easily.

I'd like you to keep at it and post the results. At least it would be cool to see some uniquiely designed fermenters.

What about CPVC or something similar? I know it's discussed on here a lot for use in MLT's. How would it work for a fermentation vessel?

JesseRC said:

the owner of my LHBS said ale yeast fermentation is best with a greater surface area. So he recommended that short wide ale pale. Would having this pvc pipe go against that, if there's any truth to that ? I guess if ale yeast is top fermenting it might?

Click to expand...

I assumed that the point of the pipe was to test the theory that ale yeast likes big surface area.

farmbrewernw said:

HDPE is not very cheap, I know this because I work in the civil engineering field.

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I guess I'll let this idea go unless I happen to stumble over some other cheaper material.

McKBrew said:

I'd like you to keep at it and post the results. At least it would be cool to see some uniquiely designed fermenters.

What about CPVC or something similar? I know it's discussed on here a lot for use in MLT's. How would it work for a fermentation vessel?

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I'll keep an eye out for other ideas. Only thing about CPVC is the possible leaching of plastics into the beer that I don't know how to test for? Anyone know how to test for those? As I understand it people don't mind using in the MLT and other spots during the brew day cause it is only in contact for a short time and not a few weeks which could possible add a significant amount of plastics to the beer. Don't want to test this and not be able to taste it but still have a significant amount in there that might cause problems down the road.

usplastic.com

p4ck37p1mp said:

usplastic.com

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Looked there for piping. Pretty costly.