Ferment in the Brew kettle?

Has anyone ever Fermented the beer in the brew kettle. I was thinking, since i've started, i've toned down to only use a sinlge fermentation technique. But i boil everything in the kettle and dump the entire contents into a plastic bucket.
why can't i just get the wort cool, and seal the container and add my burp valve. All in one neat SS vessel.
seems like a good idea? No? I'm pretty lazy and this would help me with my laziness.

Yes, the only reason I don't do it is that I brew in a converted keg in my non temp controlled garage and I wouldn't ferment in those types of conditions. If I timed it just right, I could do it a few times a season but it's just easier to set the controller on a fridge.

Any issue with leaving hop material or hot break in there? That would be the biggest reason I could think of to move to a secondary vessel to ferment.

I usually dump my entire boil into the fermenter and never had any problems. All the break and hop fall to the bottom in the cake anyway.

I thought of fermenting in my kettle. I'd just put the lid on and do a sort of open fermentation and I'd defiantly rack to secondary as soon as it's done. But lifting 11 gallons into and racking it out of my chest freezer would be a problem. I could do it but 6.5 gallon buckets are just better for my process.

The biggest problem I see, is giving up your brew kettle for several weeks. This practice would not allow you to make more than one batch, unless your a money bags with several sealable brew kettles. Plus you really need to get the wort off the boiled hops and aerate it, so better to transfer from the kettle.

I've read of others doing this on HBT. I'd probably keep my leaf hops in a nylon bag and remove after boiling if using this method. However I like my keg/CO2 transfer process so I will stick with that.

If you watch any of Lonny Mac's videos (Brutus 10) he just puts his lid on an places his entire kettle into a beverage fridge to ferment.

I agree w/sprocketmaker though, I primary for at least 3 weeks, and if I were to have the opportunity to brew within that time frame I'd like to have my kettle free. Having said that, I have a Belgian dark strong ale that will be in the primary for its 5th week this Sunday, I plan to rack it to a keg on Sunday.

very cool. confirms my theory it can be done, I am paying close attention to what Sprocketmaker says, it could severly impede my beer production. great input, thanks everyone.

Keith71 said:

very cool. confirms my theory it can be done, I am paying close attention to what Sprocketmaker says, it could severly impede my beer production. great input, thanks everyone.

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Sounds like a fine idea to me. You might consider racking to a secondary (maybe a corny keg) in order to free up your brewpot.

Thread from the dead...

I just did it with a English Brown ale. Pitched on Thursday. Krausen dropped on Saturday. Moved to keg on Saturday (today).

wow, old thread!

I've seen brewers do this to top crop yeast if you don't use buckets to ferment in. Open fermentation is a great thing and something not to be afraid of. (As long as you rack the beer into a closed vessel after initial fermentation has completed.)

I've done this a number of times........ I have a lid that really doesn't have a seal, and no port for a fermentation lock. When I do it I stretch a large rubber band around the joint (15" laid flat by 2" wide)...... Not a perfect seal, but it works quite well, and has caused me no trouble. My neighbor did this for his first brew, and his lid had a vent hole.... We just put a starsan soaked paper towel over the vent hole. Worked fine.

Thread Resurrection!

I'm giving this a ago, electric kettle (temp control) and saran wrapped the lid. Wheatwine, 1.1 OG, 5.5 gal batch. 2L starter (A20 yeast), and fermenting hot ~77F (long live the esters!). Should take off like a rocket, will monitor with a Tilt hydrometer and when fermentation nears FG transfer to a keg and allow whatever pressure fermentation happens let it run its course. Cold crash, dump first pour then.... we'll see if it's successful!