Speidel Plastic Tanks

yesterday i went to my LHBS and saw this in the middle of the store with all of the clearance items for $10. it holds 15+ gallons and originally held LME from Breiss. during the summer i won't be able to ferment in it but during the winter it stays cool enough to ferment big batches in. a #5 stopper fits in the the small hole for an airlock and my auto siphon will be able to drain this if i tie a lifeline to it and drop it in just short of the bottom a inch or two. it would be nice if i could put a spigot near the bottom, maybe i can find someone with a long skinny arm....

No way!!! My LHBS guy gave me one of those the other day. I used Oxy on it and got most of the LME out, now it's soaking again. I'm thinking about picking up an old full-size fridge on CL so I can ferment these in temp controlled environment.

I've been thinking about how to make this more user friendly... Any ideas?

"All your home brew are belong to us!"

Piratwolf said:

No way!!! My LHBS guy gave me one of those the other day. I used Oxy on it and got most of the LME out, now it's soaking again. I'm thinking about picking up an old full-size fridge on CL so I can ferment these in temp controlled environment.

I've been thinking about how to make this more user friendly... Any ideas?

"All your home brew are belong to us!"

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other than temperature control i don't see any impediment to fermenting a 12 gallon batch in this, in fact, i'm going to do just that since it's nice and cool around here right now.

Finally got some brew in these. Here is what 5G looks like. PLENTY of headspace for fermentation. The screw on cap made it very easy to shake/aerate.

The only "cons" I see is not being able to use a thermowell (unless you use a different stopper and airlock) or a heating wrap. These would only be cons depending on your brewing setup.

Plus, would you still have to put a T-shirt or bag on this thing to keep light out? Or, would that plastic keep enought light out? Depending on your storage location of course.

An interesting question....but I can see the level of the beer in my white plastic bucket fermenters, and the beer evidently suffers no untoward effects. The real question here is: does HDPE (the material used in bucket fermenters and also the Speidels fermenter) block those components of light that will react unfavorably with beer?

triangulum33 said:

Finally got some brew in these. Here is what 5G looks like. PLENTY of headspace for fermentation. The screw on cap made it very easy to shake/aerate.

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That's interesting, I wonder how much headroom you'd have if you filled it to the full "7.9 gals" when you get done with this batch, how about if you fill it up to 8 gals and take a pic..

Chaffin said:

The only "cons" I see is not being able to use a thermowell (unless you use a different stopper and airlock) or a heating wrap. These would only be cons depending on your brewing setup.

Plus, would you still have to put a T-shirt or bag on this thing to keep light out? Or, would that plastic keep enought light out? Depending on your storage location of course.

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I just got a couple of these guys and love them thus far. Has anyone found a stopper that will fit and allow for a thermowell? This is one downside I have found.

bthedlin said:

I just got a couple of these guys and love them thus far. Has anyone found a stopper that will fit and allow for a thermowell? This is one downside I have found.

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if you have the thermowell you can drill a stopper that fits the tank.

Chaffin said:

The only "cons" I see is not being able to use a thermowell (unless you use a different stopper and airlock) or a heating wrap. These would only be cons depending on your brewing setup.

Plus, would you still have to put a T-shirt or bag on this thing to keep light out? Or, would that plastic keep enought light out? Depending on your storage location of course.

Click to expand...

whatever kind of heating element you have should work with this just like a regular bucket, my brew belt fits around this thing.

this is my second batch in this fermentor, a 1055 blonde with 6.5 oz of hops. with about 2 minutes left in the boil UPS showed up with the 1/2 lb of zythos hops i ordered so i dumped an oz in at flameout. it was a spur of the moment decision to brew yesterday so i forgot to fill this thing a gallon at a time with water to see exactly what 8 gallons would look like, i think this is 7.5 gallons but i'm not sure. i pitched an entire yeast cake (wyeast 1728) with pure O2 as an experiment to see if the beer would ferment out quicker in my cold garage. i pitched last night at around 8pm and this morning at 8am it was going strong at 60 degrees, the garage was in the high 40's or low 50's i think. the two little squares of plywood are to keep the trub from settling down around the spigot by keeping the tank tilted back, i bottled the last batch right out of the fermentor and i did have a bit of trub that i cleared by opening the tap into a glass. this time i left most of the trub and hops in the kettle.

I have fermenter envy.

I hesitated on the purchase and now have to settle in for the long wait.

Looks good......I have a friend who ferments in a half dozen plastic buckets with spigots, and he's got a wedge for each he cut out of 2 x 6s that perform the same function.

Thanks for the heads-up on these.

I have a bunch of Ale Pails plus just one Minibrew 6.5 Plastic Conical... I had planned to eventually, funds permitting, replace all of my pails with more Minibrews. However they've gone up since the last time I ordered one, they're about $200 ea. unit right now.

These Speidel's look like a much cheaper alternative that still keeps most of the benefits of the Minibrew (durable plastic, OK carryability, easily cleaned, has a spigot), minus the conical bottom and the dump valve.

Otherwise perhaps I'll just use my Minibrew as a primary and continue using Ale Pails for secondary-only. It's not like I'm brewing often enough (right now) to need multiple primaries (until I get obsessed again).

maybe someone else who has one of these tanks that's currently empty could fill it up a gallon and a time and post a picture with the 1-8 gallon marks?

Cleaning these things is really really easy. For some reason, the krauzen did not stick like it does in better bottles. I just spayed with a garden hose, with bottom bung off so everything just flows out the bottom, and that visibly got all of the gunk out. Then just gave it a once over with a sponge - you can reach every part of the inside with your hand.

eastoak said:

.. and i did have a bit of trub that i cleared by opening the tap into a glass.

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I did not do this and ended up with a fair amount of trub in the keg. I had a lot of hops and a big yeast cake in there, though. I think most low to medium gravity beers without a big hop addition will not have to worry too much about trub making it thru the spigot.

Approximate volume markers:

triangulum33 said:

Approximate volume markers:

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great, thanks! looks like i have 7 gallons and not the 7.5 i thought i had.

thanks for the pic.. on the waiting list..

Is the bottom of that tank flat? With that shape it almost looks like you could put it in a stand and and put a dump valve on the bottom. Just thinking out loud here. One of these will certainly be my next purchase because I can do my wines in them too.

helibrewer said:

Is the bottom of that tank flat? With that shape it almost looks like you could put it in a stand and and put a dump valve on the bottom. Just thinking out loud here. One of these will certainly be my next purchase because I can do my wines in them too.

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it is flat on the bottom.

eastoak said:

i bottled the last batch right out of the fermentor and i did have a bit of trub that i cleared by opening the tap into a glass. this time i left most of the trub and hops in the kettle.

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How does one go about sanitizing the valve when it already connected to a full fermentor? Thanks

avid said:

How does one go about sanitizing the valve when it already connected to a full fermentor? Thanks

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I fretted over that a little. In a perfect world, you could ferment with the cap over the bottom bung and somehow get the spigot on when it was time to transfer.
I ended up turning the spigot up 90* when I first filled it with wort so the tip would not touch the ground/floor when I moved it around. Then when it was time to transfer to keg, I just sprayed the **** out of it with SS and let it soak in the little spigot tube. Twice.

avid said:

How does one go about sanitizing the valve when it already connected to a full fermentor? Thanks

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i sprayed it with star san and bottled as usual. if there was any contaminant lurking in there it will rear it's ugly head in the coming weeks. this morning i tried a week old beer and it was carbonated and tasty, huge head and lacing for days.

I wiggled the spigot open close slightly over and over to try to get the SS everywhere in there.

The last batch in these tanks was a 1.080 Winter Warmer with a 2L starter and the krautzen made it up to about the 7 gallon mark.

Sure is nice having the headspace!

triangulum33 said:

I fretted over that a little. In a perfect world, you could ferment with the cap over the bottom bung and somehow get the spigot on when it was time to transfer.

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That is what had crossed my mind as a MO. Seems fraught with its own set of possible problems.

I tried ordering one the first day that someone posted about it here. MoreBeer misfired and sent me a sulfur stick instead. That was interesting. Almost as epic fail as the time Muscian's Friend sent me an overnight shipment with nothing in the box.

I checked with morebeer on these, they responded:

"Thanks for the inquiry. We hope to get those back in during next wine season around August-Septemeber. We may get more if during the spring if we can organize an earlier freight shipment from Germany. Cheers!"

I was hoping to get a 30 liter for doing wine.

triangulum33 said:

The last batch in these tanks was a 1.080 Winter Warmer with a 2L starter and the krautzen made it up to about the 7 gallon mark.

Sure is nice having the headspace!

Click to expand...

+1


waiting till next august / sept... -10

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my snotty nosed toddler expressing concern at this little blow out. I decided to test the limits a bit and put about 8 gallons of pale ale in here. instead of star san, i put vodka in the air lock because i think it make less of a mess. had i used a regular sized airlock it would have blown out. with ferm cap, which i did not use, 9 gallons will fit in this tank.

2 weeks ago I brewed 5G of 1.09 RIS. Again, krautzen filled up to around the 7 G mark.
Set it and forget it.

Nice. Definitely think I'll upgrade to these late this summer as well.

Add me to the list of vodka-in-the-airlock folks. :fro:

i love this thing. putting it up on the counter and bottling right out of the spigot warms my heart.

eastoak said:

i love this thing. putting it up on the counter and bottling right out of the spigot warms my heart.

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Yeah, they have been well worth the extra cost.

I got a little trub into the keg last time. I think I will try fermenting with the spigot side of the fermentor elevated so the cake compacts away from the hole.

Good idea - One or two thin wooden shims (like for door installation) would be perfect for this.

Chriso said:

Good idea - One or two thin wooden shims (like for door installation) would be perfect for this.

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i did that the first 2 times but now i just open the spigot full blast into a glass for a bit that clears out the trub and start bottling.

for the price its a good buy! even more for people who collect 10 gal+ batches. looks easy to clean also

I wanted a couple of these in the worst way but they're still out of stock. I did find these today for a reasonable price. You can get a 2-60L HDPE carboys from this place for $80.

http://www.freundcontainer.com/kaut...d-leak-proof-plastic-carboys-hdpe/p/v3817B03/

smokinghole said:

I wanted a couple of these in the worst way but they're still out of stock. I did find these today for a reasonable price. You can get a 2-60L HDPE carboys from this place for $80.

http://www.freundcontainer.com/kaut...d-leak-proof-plastic-carboys-hdpe/p/v3817B03/

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Interesting. I like how they are graduated.
I guess a brewer would use a drilled stopper to put the airlock in...
Is a stopcock a spigot?

http://www.kautex.de/fileadmin/user...ardverpackung/Standardverpackung_englisch.pdf

There's the company brochure. Yes a stopcock is a spigot.