12 Dollar Sanke Fermenter

The lid is form Goodwill. The clasp, chain, hooks and gasket material are from Lowes. The rest is just some time.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j56/sketerbuck/IMG00100.jpg

sketerbuck - nice!

How much are you fermenting in there, 5 gallons or larger? I am thinking of doing the same if I can find a few more kegs.

I bought one (craigslist) for $25 and will use it for my boil kettle. The stainless fermenters seem to be far superior than glass. If I can find a few more, I'll sell my 6.5 gallon glass carboys.

Have you thought about putting a valve & drain at the bottom of the kegermenter?

Lowes sells gaskets?

My fermentation is done in a chest freezer so the racking cane works just fine for me but you could do that easy enough. Lowes sells stick on gasket material that works perfect. I havent used it yet but it will be for 10-12 gallon batches.

I just stick an orange carboy cap over the neck of mine & call it done! Nice work though!

This looks cool...

My buddy in Texas tried this... I think he was successful but I have to ask... Is an air tight seal really that needed so you can watch an airlock bubble?

Nasties fall down and in not up n over the edge. Does a fermentation benefit from the back pressure? I think not.

So many of us use buckets with loose lids covering them. I have a bucket that the lid fits so loose I get zero airlock activity... Why teh extra work?

A well cleaned and sanitized Sanke with a #10 bung works great...

I use the carboy cap so I can use CO2 for a pressure transfer to the serving keg/bottling bucket with a racking cane.

I ferment in my basement. It's not a finished basement. I see creepy crawlies down there all the time during warm months, beetles, earwigs, spiders, and we get fruit flies in the house. It would freak me out if my fermenters weren't airtight. Plus I have read a couple "maggots in my fermenter" threads so I am sticking to closed fermentation.

I agree seems like a lot of work. Lots of folks use Sanke's as fermenters but I have never seen one cut like that for a fermenter. At least you are 1/2 way there for making it into a BK, HLT, MLT if you ever want to

wyzazz said:

I just stick an orange carboy cap over the neck of mine & call it done! Nice work though!

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sketerbuck said:

My fermentation is done in a chest freezer so the racking cane works just fine for me but you could do that easy enough. Lowes sells stick on gasket material that works perfect. I havent used it yet but it will be for 10-12 gallon batches.

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As long as you are diligent in checking your gravity and transfer when it is done then you should not need to worry about getting it too air tight. There will be enough krausen and co2 in there to ward off anything that might ruin the beer. General rule of thumb I have been using is transfer to my clearing tanks 24 hours after hitting final gravity.

jtrainer said:

Nasties fall down and in not up n over the edge. Does a fermentation benefit from the back pressure? I think not.

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Fermenting under pressure actually seems to be extremely beneficial. Here's an epic thread on the subject: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

Personally, I seem to have problems with plastic fermenters and minor infection issues on two recent brews from a plastic bucket that's past its prime. From here on out, it's glass or metal fermenters only for me. I'm hoping to get the time this winter to build up a closed, pressurizable fermenter from a pony keg.

Nice job OP.

Not sure why people post negative crap about someone showing off an idea that has merit. Why do you care if it seems like a lot of work? Nobody is requiring anyone else to do it for themselves. I posted something a while back about a simple project that I did and got negative remarks as well.

+1 on sealed fermenters with pressure ferments!

What is the lid?

DrawTap88 said:

What is the lid?

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Sketerbuck, correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like a glass casserole dish lid.

Saying it seems like a lot of work is not negative it's just what it is. No one said it sucked or looked crappy or anything negative. Just a lot of work.

Is someone decides to engrave there SS kegs and I think that is a lot of work are you gonna call me negative?

And why do you care why we care that its a lot of work?

samc said:

Nice job OP.

Not sure why people post negative crap about someone showing off an idea that has merit. Why do you care if it seems like a lot of work? Nobody is requiring anyone else to do it for themselves. I posted something a while back about a simple project that I did and got negative remarks as well.

+1 on sealed fermenters with pressure ferments!

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wyzazz said:

Sketerbuck, correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like a glass casserole dish lid.

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That's what I thought it was. Cool set up.

The whole project took me a couple hours in the garage. I just don't like the idea of cleaning thru that small opening and I want the to be able to get hop socks in and out. I also like to see the fermentation. When I see active fermentation on my lagers I bring the temperature down. BTW I'm not offended the it might seem like a lot of work but it wasn't. My favorite part of this hobby is that I get to hang out in my garage an tinker with this type of stuff.

Till I found a nice plastic food grade 15 gallon fermenter with an airtight lid I was looking at using a sanke keg as a fermenter for 10 gallon batches and was thinking the same as you that it would be a pain to fill and clean. All the sanke users assured me it wasn't.

Then I realized how expensive sanke's are and realized I needed 3 for my brew set up and can't afford more for fermenters so I had to bail on the whole idea.

sketerbuck said:

The whole project took me a couple hours in the garage. I just don't like the idea of cleaning thru that small opening and I want the to be able to get hop socks in and out. I also like to see the fermentation. When I see active fermentation on my lagers I bring the temperature down. BTW I'm not offended the it might seem like a lot of work but it wasn't. My favorite part of this hobby is that I get to hang out in my garage an tinker with this type of stuff.

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DrawTap88 said:

What is the lid?

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wyzazz said:

Sketerbuck, correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like a glass casserole dish lid.

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I was going to guess crock-pot, but casserole works also.

I got lucky. My uncle came by with 5 sanke kegs he got at an auction. I don't know what he paid for them but he gave them to me. I already had sankes for my HLT , MLT and boil kettle. I made an extra boil kettle and some fermentors.

Yours looks to be a lot easier to clean and inspect than a sanke with a 2 inch neck. Good work.

This is a better picture of the lid and the gasket material that I used.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j56/sketerbuck/lid.jpg