Ceramic

[TitanBrews]

I posted something similar to this on the beer forum so I'm not sure if it will pop up on this one iur not but I was wondering what the general consensus was on using ceramic containers in brewing. My friend Honeycutt believes that because it had so many pores that you couldn't wash and sanitize the entire thing like it needed to be therefore would be only a one time use container. Any agreements or disagreements?

 

[nickwoo]

I believe rice wine is usually made in ceramic containers.

 

[Paul_F]

What kind of ceramic? If you're talking a glazed crock, there are no "pores" to worry about... if you're talking unglazed ceramic, then your friend is probably right.
I'm no expert though...

 

[Hello]

A porous container would be bad. If it is coated and sealed it probably will be fine.

 

[Paps]

You can ferment in anything.
Getting a product that tastes good and is repeatable is not however a garuntee.

 

[TitanBrews]

I guess we were generally speaking of unglazed ceramic. Who has actually used ceramic?

 

[nickwoo]

If you use porous you have to only make the same drink over and over because it takes on the flavor of the first drink that is made in it. Before bottles were invented the only way to ferment was to use clay.

 

[JRW1]

I guess we were generally speaking of unglazed ceramic. Who has actually used ceramic?

I just used a more than one gallon rice wine fermenter for a batch of BOMM, an earl grey tea mead. It came out perfectly clear. no sediment. It was unbelievable and will be done again. It wasnt even airtight, it just had a lid that went on top of the big mouth and over the edge down. Circular. EXPERIMENT

 

[WVMJ]

Sounds like you dont know what kind of ceramic you got? Old time country wines were made in glazed ceramic crocks, as is kraut, price a good ceramic American made crock, way more than a carboy. Oak barrels gots lots of pores so pores not necessarily a bad thing, just depends on what lives in them. In a barrel MLF can live in them pores and innoculate a wine each time it gets refilled, not sure what would live in a ceramic pore. If you were worried about your crock being contaminated just bake it in your oven for a while, of course that might set a bad flavor in there but at least it would be clean. WVMJ

I guess we were generally speaking of unglazed ceramic. Who has actually used ceramic?

 

[palantier]

mead was originally fermented in wooden buckets in Scandinavia by the Vikings, they'd have a particular bucket set aside for mead. the way they made mead though was to fill the bucket with warm water to get the last of the honey out of the comb, then they left it to ferment, sometimes adding other ingredients (like cloudberries). funny thing is I know this works because my granddad used to make mead this way (kind of a tradition) anyway if you can do it in a bucket they there should be no reason it shouldn't work in ceramic (correct me if I'm wrong but I'm thinking about a moonshine jar?)