Fermenting in stainless steel?

I'm about to start a 1 gallon batch of dandelion wine. I've got a 4 liter wine jug to use as a secondary but nothing to use as primary. I can't use a carboy or anything because there's now way to cram a cheesecloth full of dandelions and fruit into it.


I was just thinking of using my 3 gallon boiling pot for a primary fermenter seeing as how the recipe only calls for it to be in there for 3 days. (You boil your water, added dandelion heads and sugar, allow to cool, add some fruit juice and such and let it set for three days, then transfer to a secondary).


Nothing from the metal could leech into my brew could it? It' a cheapo pot but it's supposed to be stainless steel so that's inert right? Anything wrong with my theory?

I'm pretty sure the large conical fermenters are made of Stainless Steel.

That's what I wanted to hear! Thanks.

and lots of guys use corny kegs converted to work as fermentors.

Hi,
Stainless steel is fine - you don't have anything to worry about.

Brad

I use my 3 gal pot left over from my extract days as a primary fermentor with "experimental" wines all the time. No problems at all! I am going to do a dandelion wine as soon as my mango wine is ready to move into glass.

Cheers,

Wing nut

I ferment in stainless exclusively. I use old Sankey kegs. They are nice because I can transfer the beer with CO2 and don't need to worry about oxidation. Stainless rocks.

calpyro said:

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Where did you get the transfer connections on that? I am wanting to switch to a sankey to ferment in and that connection is great

Industrial wine making relies on stainless steel fermenters, so do not worry unless you know that the vessel was used in the past to store strong acid or so on ( this could have produced some toxic corrosion product).

mnadamn said:

Where did you get the transfer connections on that? I am wanting to switch to a sankey to ferment in and that connection is great

Click to expand...

+1 that thing is sweet!

Let me know how that dandelion wine turns out. I read about that recipe in one of my MANY books on wines, ciders and meads and, I'll admit, at first I just laughed. I thought, 'who would want dandelion wine?' Then I thought about it and it would definitely be...different. But please, let me know how it comes out. I want to try it just because it's something that I've NEVER heard of.

Crisco- I opened my first bottle last night actually. It had only been in the bottle for about a month, but I decided to try it because I had been told conflicting things. One guy told me he never aged his, and another guy told me you make it one summer and drink it the next.

I'm inclined to go with the second guy. It's a very unusual flavor. At first I didn't like it, but the second glass was pretty good. I wish I could describe it.... It had pretty good body (of course I bulked it a bit with some white grapes). At first it had a sharp alcohol taste (why I think it needs aged more) which faded to reveal a rich earthy flavor. It finished very sweet. I tried it both chilled and at room temperature. I think I liked it more at room temp.

I'll try and remember to post an update after it gets some more age on it.