Homemade primary fermentor

I am looking for a cheap and easy way to make a primary with pieces avalible at lowes, home dedpot, ect. I own a 6.5 gallon fermentor and currently want to expand from extract brewing to AG. Here are my questions

1. what size batches could I produce in a 5 gallon fermentor?
2. How would I make it?
3. Is it easy to size down AG recipes to fit this fermentor?

I will not be using this tank for all my brews since I do have a 6.5 gallon primary. I also know that there are nice fermentors out there to that are 6.5 gallons, but im in college and a cheap ass and brewing is expensive enough for me as it is. I would like to hear anyone's imput here on the idea. thanks!

Get the 5 gallon bucket, and use it as a secondary after primary is done. You don't need much head space in the secondary.

You can use the same fermenter you have now. Most AG recipes scale nicely and you should be able to use the same fermenter however you will need a mashtun of some sorts to mash with. Use a cheap or even older used cooler. Any will work great. That's how I started when 1st switched to AG. Look through the All Grain forums to get some ideas and go from there.

beerloaf

6.5 gallon bucket, including a lid and an airlock is < $15.00 at most LHBS. Don't know your exact financial situation but not sure how much cheaper you could do it with Lowes/HD sourced parts.

Just get a 7 gallon Aquatainer for about 13 bucks at any big box store and call it a day.



Tons of folks use the 5 gallon version for no chill brewing.

that looks fun to clean

JHawKS said:

that looks fun to clean

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It's called a hotwater and oxyclean soak followed by a rinse with a jet bottle rinser (or any hose)....No more difficult to clean than any other fermenter. And plenty of folks who no chill do it.

thughes said:

6.5 gallon bucket, including a lid and an airlock is < $15.00 at most LHBS. Don't know your exact financial situation but not sure how much cheaper you could do it with Lowes/HD sourced parts.

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personally I have a LHBS within 10 minutes of my house so I would have to agree with this.

thanks everyone, but my LHBS while im at school is pretty pitiful because it is mostly a booze store with a little section dedicated to HB. I will probably end up waiting Till I get home to get one or get a 5 gal bucket and use it as the pri.mary

that looks fun to clean

Click to expand...

I actually have three fermentors very similar to these. Mine don't have the small air valve/hole, and both the handle and the screw top are recessed. I drilled a bunghole (<--best word ever) in the middle of the screw tops.

To clean, I put about two gallons of water, add oxyclean, then shake the bejeezus out of it. On brew day, I'll soak in starsan solution until I'm ready to use.

Easy, breezy!

The best part of them is the shape makes them easy to carry and stack. I can fit three of them in my pretty compact fermentation fridge with room to spare for yeast/hops/grain on the top shelf.

Scarface - feeling a bit dense ATM... Are you after a mash tun, a kettle, a primary, or a secondary?

IMO, before making the step to AG, you need a kettle that can handle a full boil. Doing full-boil extracts is a step up. Since you already have a decent primary fermentor (6.5 gal), a budget kettle would be something like a 30+ qt turkey fryer (Craigslist?).

Next step is a mash tun. To do it cheap, go no-sparge. There's a 60-qt Igloo for sale at Sam's club for $30. Another $30-worth of hardware from Lowes and you have a mash tun for AG.

After that, use the money you save by buying AG instead of kits to buy yourself a 5 gal glass carboy for a secondary fermenter.

You could make a 5 gal batch and pour off the head space into a wine jug.

TopherM said:

I actually have three fermentors very similar to these. Mine don't have the small air valve/hole, and both the handle and the screw top are recessed. I drilled a bunghole (<--best word ever) in the middle of the screw tops.

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You are truly brave, using screw and bunghole in the same sentence.

You're not going to get much cheaper than a water container or ale pail. I sourced buckets from US Plastics (food grade) and lids and they come out about $2 cheaper than LHBS but then there's shipping.

If there were $5 fermenters of decent size, we'd all be using them. My LHBS charges $16 for ale pail, extra for lid and airlock. That's why I only have two.

william_shakes_beer said:

you are truly brave, using screw and bunghole in the same sentence.

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lol!!! :d

If it helps, I did just go to US Plastics website (usplastics.com) and you can get two 7gal. HDPE buckets and lids for $28 shipped. Compared to my LHBS, that's a savings of about $10. Airlocks are usually about $1 each, or use some tubing in a jar/bucket of star-san (all of which you may already have).

I couldn't find the aquatainers any cheaper than LHBS charges for ale pails, especially once you factored shipping. Locally they are similarly priced, so not saving much there.