Big mouth plastic fermenter

Ahhhh...thinking about switching to that new plastic bigmouth, that doesnt scratch....anyone using?

 

I have a fermonster and love it. It comes in a 6 and 7 gal size. I got the 7 but make sure it fit where you plan on fermenting.

The opening is big enough to get my arm in up to my sholder and the lid seals fine. The bung hole is also quite big #10 so for dry hopping i leave the lid on and remove the bung.

 

Same as TimDillon. I've used the Fermonster for two batches and it gets the job done. I have the 7 gallon with the spigot and haven't had any issues with leaks or anything like that. I do the same thing for dry hopping.

 

I use 1/4 barrel slim sanke kegs. Love them, just soak to clean, no light, no o2, and they are indestructible.

 

I've got 6 of the big mouth bubblers (6.5g version). Wonderful, love them, so easy to clean.

 

I have a 6.5 gallon glass BBB that I'd gladly trade for plastic. Still in the box. I doubt I'll ever use it.

 

Not quite as far along as passedpawn, I only have five of them.

They're incredibly light, easy to reach inside to clean, and of course you can see what's going on in there. I've attached a pic below showing how I manage fermentation temps; I just hold the temp probe against the fermenter w/ a piece of foam and a bungee cord.

My original BMB had no spigot; I bought a second one w/ a spigot to see if it's better. IMO, it is--I bought a spigot and retrofitted the first one, and the last three have come w/ the spigot.

BTW, I think the fermonster is good too.

 

I have 2 Fermonsters and love them, both 7 gallons. Easy to clean, easy to make additions to.

 

I use a big mouth bubbler that I got as a hand-me-down from my BIL. I use a thermowell, inkbird and chest freezer/heat belt for fermentation temp control.

I also picked up a two port lid that I used for pressurized transfer to the keg. SS racking cane through a cork into one port, connected to my keg. barbed fitting in another cork in the other opening connected to spare CO2 tank. Dial up a little pressure the flow begins, no O2 exposure, no hassles with starting a siphon (or an autsiphon that gets clogged with trub).

I'm happy with my setup, but I want to get a smaller BMB for secondary pseudo-barrel aging of stouts.

 

Here's a "big mouthed" fermenter that won't scratch:

https://www.chapmanequipment.com/products/7-gallon-steeltank-fermenter

I have a 14 and a 7 gallon. Couldn't be happier, and they'll last forever!

 

+1 for the Chapman fermenter. I have the 7 gallon one and love it so far. I bought a Big Mouth bubbler when it first came out and it was crap. The top screw cap wouldn't seal no matter what I did. I ended up just giving it away. Hated it and the thin plastic was crap. I also have the Speidel and that's another fermenter that I highly recommend. Top notch quality and it comes with a spigot. Spend the extra money.

 

I have two 6.5 gallon plastic ones. They are awesome. Light. Easy to reach in and clean. I have a glass carboy that I haven't used since purchasing a couple.

 

Mongoose what is happening with the tubing from the air lock to the keg? I'm a newbee...wouldn't gravity just flow that beer into the keg?...THANKS

 

I'm racking--draining--the fermenter into the keg. I fill the keg w/ the beer going into the OUT post, and the CO2 gas that's displaced by the beer filling the keg is pushed back into the fermenter from the IN post. I'm using that CO2 to reduce or prevent oxygen exposure. Once the beer is fermented you don't want it to come into contact with oxygen or, as is the case with everyone, you want as little exposure as you can.

I should note this too--when I first did this, the only thing I could find to fit the vinyl tubing I had was to cut off the top of an airlock and connect it that way. A straight plastic tube would work as well, a ballpoint pen body, whatever. I just went with what I had.

Here's a newer pic:

 

^^ he purges the empty keg with CO2 first. Probably obvious from context.

 

I thought it was already noted earlier in the thread, but I was wrong; it 's in another BMB thread ongoing. So here's what I do:

I want my keg, before racking beer into it, to be completely devoid of oxygen. While this doesn't do it 100 percent, it comes darned close. I fill the keg first with Star-San. I then purge the headspace a number of times to eliminate as much O2 as I can from that headspace.

Then I connect up CO2 to the IN post and push out the Star-San into another clean keg using a jumper (such as this, though I made my own).



The result is a keg that is now full of CO2, and one full of Star-San ready for the next time. I remove the jumpers, attach the CO2 line that will go from keg to top of fermenter, and blow out any air in the line. Remove, and prepare to attach the tubing that goes from the QD OUT post to the spigot--but I don't connect it to the spigot just yet.

I take the keg over to the sink, attach the QD, and the pressure in the keg blows out any residual Star-San in the bottom. You have to remember to release this pressure in some way or it'll blow into the spigot, roiling the beer and stirring up the trub. Don't ask me how I know.

Then I take the keg over to the fermenter, spray Star-San on the spigot and inside it, and connect the tubing. I open the spigot, then connect the gas side from keg to fermenter, and the beer drains (racks!) by gravity. By using the OUT side, the beer fills from the bottom, minimizing any splashing. I don't want bubbles, I don't want anything (except CO2) going out of the gas side and screwing up the poppet.

Takes about 15 minutes for this to happen, during which time I'm cleaning up or doing some other chore--or just as likely sampling prior batches to ensure quality control.

I know this looks tremendously complicated to someone who perhaps hasn't kegged beer, but it's really not. And if you want to really minimize how much O2 with which your beer comes into contact, this is one way to do that.

 

Man, my most disliked part of the brewing process is racking to my kegs. I need to look more into this transfer process @mongoose33

 

I got the "siphon-less" BMB (V2? the one with the silicone seal around the lid that friction fits), only used it once so far and I like it but did have the issue that if the seal and neck aren't bone dry the lid creeps its way up (fairly quickly too), nothing a bit of packing tape or a weight can't fix but it is certainly a design flaw there. I've never had much of an issue with transferring using a siphon though but i figured it would make life a little easier so why not for a few extra. Now my 2 primaries are bottling buckets, and my 2 secondaries are siphon-less BMBs so now what to do with those auto siphons I've got laying around...
I like the ease of cleaning and all but I wouldn't recommend them unless you're ok with the lid issue, if not I'd go fermonster or some other solution

 

Not saying you're wrong, not at all--but I've had an interesting alternative experience with the lids.

I was keeping them in a bucket of Star-San and I don't know if the solution softened the silicone gasket or what happened, but they work great for me. I put them on the opening wet with Star-San, and they stick down just fine.

I have two new BMB's still in boxes; I might pull out the lids and try them just to see. The inconsistency in people's experiences with these things has been maddening.

 

Interesting... i use a spray bottle so it was washed then dried then sprayed with sanitizer, where as the second one i got (that i haven't used yet) is bone dry and hasn't even been washed yet and that lid stays on no problem. Maybe it's either soak or dry and it's fine but a bit wet and it creeps off? Either way i agree with you, some people have no problem with their lids staying down in seemingly any situation, others are fine if it's dry or if it's wet or something else, and other people have to tape/weigh it down regardless. The worst part to me is it seems like such an easy thing to fix at the pre-production faze, combine the new lid type with the tapered silicone seal with the old design and just use the lock ring part of it to keep the lid down, the threads are still on the outside of the bottle anyway... Oh well, it isn't a big enough con for me to stop using them and it's still better than the alternative better bottles and the pain it is to clean them and sometimes dry hop in them and stuff like that so i'll deal with it.