Brew Bucket by SS Brewing Technologies

Was able to get a conical in the last free-for-all sale thanks to my wife watching the website for me. A question: does the conical bottom lose a lot of wort when draining to a secondary, or is it sized to catch mosttly trub?

 

I think even with the 50 dollar mark up it is still a very good product for what your are getting. It's still cheaper than a true conical. The cone bottom along with the valve makes it worth it to me. Even though I got one at the lower price, I would still buy one today. Plus who doesn't love stainless!


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They're really nothing more than a cheap kettle with a pointy bottom. You can pickup a 8 gallon kettle for ~$75, so @ $225 they're a bit high.

I do think they're great, but $225 makes me not want to buy another one.

 

I think they were practically giving these away at the original price just to get them out in the market. Its simple economics..supply and demand...high demand low supply equals higher prices...$225 is still a good price for a stainless vessel...but makes you consider just buying the concial

I'm planning on buying another

 

come on now its better than a cheap kettle

 

functionality wise, sure, but process and tooling to produce these, no.

Not to mention as I'm looking at mine they are frigging rusting.

 

Wait, what? it's rusting?


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The legs, latches and welds on the legs are rusting. I'm assuming that it's because I didn't passivate it enough on the outside. It's less than a week old and I haven't even used it yet.

 

Well said! I love having all stainless gear for my beers. The only thing I don't use them for is my meads. I use glass for those


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Have you contacted them about this? That doesn't seem right, and I don't think you should have had to passivate the outside of a new piece of equipment.

 

This is alarming!

 

I was thinking the same thing, I've haven't had to passivate any stainless I've purchased in the past, but now I'm wondering if that is a best practice I should be doing to my other equipment.


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I sent them an email. Looks like it's just one that is rusting so far.

I never had to passivate any of my equipment either, so I don't know what the deal is. Maybe they used something that wasn't stainless during the process.

 

My bet is that yours missed a finishing step. Guess that justifies a lower "introductory" price, you have to accept that their processes might not be fully nailed down yet.

 

They got back to me already, which is a great sign, and assured me that they have not seen any rust on any buckets. Since it's only on on one bucket I trust them. They'll send me an RMA and should be fine after that.

 

Their customer service is probably the best I have ever had to deal with. They are super fast to respond and very willing to do whatever they have to do to make the situation right.

 

I feel a little better now, thanks for the follow up!

 

Wow

That sucks

No problems with mine

When did you get yours


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I received it last week.

 

You sure you didn't use anything with bleach on it? That looks like what happened to a new keg that I bought after I wiped the outside with disinfectant wipes before I found out you shouldn't clean anything stainless with a chlorine-based product. Luckily the inside of that keg is fine because I only used Star-San in it.

 

Nope, I literally pasivated with star san put it in my basement for this weeks brew, which would be the first time using it.

I have a all stainless brew setup so I'm very aware of the pit falls of using the wrong cleaning methods.

I would guess that those parts were buffed during a process that used a different type of metal, maybe it was the first in line after they switched processes. It's just the latches and legs.

 

Only really two options with the rust that I know of:

1) Some sort of iron containing contaminate has gotten onto the stainless. Something from a buffing pad, dust from the production facility stuck to it, etc.

2) It is poor quality stainless

I'm betting on #1

A few other things of note:

The welds on the legs of the "rusty" pictures looks like crap compared to what is on the two buckets that I have. Mine aren't works of art, but they are way more stack-o-dimes that those.

The legs on mine aren't completely welded around (only on two sides) and have rubber plugs in the bottom. Guess what happens if you soak the whole thing in a tub of PWB/StarSan? They fill up with liquid. I noticed a little rusty water running out of one of them while cleaning it from my last brew. Popped the feet out and everything rinsed clean. Makes me think it was some sort of junk left over from polishing or manufacturing.

 

Hmm I've been using them since the beginning of the summer with no issues like that.


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One thing that occured to me: Has anyone who has one of these used them for bottling? I imagine that you could just add your priming solution, give it a little careful stir (also being careful not to kick up the trub) and bottle right out of the fermentor. Up until now, I've used a racking cane to siphon the beer off of the trub into a bottling bucket, and then bottled straight from the bucket spigot. Has anyone tried this? Thoughts?

 

if you use the carb drops you can most likely bottle from this. but adding sugar won't work, you'll stir up a ton of junk.

 

This sounds more like the design blichmann uses for their dip tubs in the kettles. My brew bucket came with the orings on the racking arm, and they seem pretty delicate. Hopefully this newer design will be implemented on all the upcoming models.

 

can you post a pick of the whole bucket?

 

Not sure it will show up but here it is. I have to say that they've handled this great and already sent me a new bucket out with a return label. They sound genuinely concerned about what happened. They are even sending it to get tested.

 

weird you have been the only one to report it....hopefully its just a random mistake....good for them for sending you another one....

I've seen rusting like that before when I accidentally cleaned some stainless with bleach.

 

Well, they've got an extra $50 a bucket now. They can afford it.

 

What makes you say that? More Beer has instituted the price increase not Ss.


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Yeah a $50 increase in price is hardly worth the disdain associated with multi-billion dollar companies or overpaid CEOs. These guys are just starting out and deserve some latitude, especially given their customer service trend. You certainly don't get that kind of service from the likes of Apple, Bank of America, or Verizon.


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I get "that kind"
Of service from Apple all the time!


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Sorry, Just being grumpy... but you do realize Apple, Verizon, etc would be lambasted if they overnight bumped their price of the same exact product by 28%. If Apple did it, it'd be on GMA the next morning.

 

Please... Apple products have a 400% margin and you get good customer service if you overpay for an AppleCare plan on top of your purchase. I'm an IT Manager with responsibility over a graphic artist division, so I deal with them everyday. Better than Dell and Microsoft yes. Better than your average multi-billion dollar company, not so much. Antenna-gate, failing screens/graphic cards, over-priced data plans, any of those ring a bell?! Google them.


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Their site has clearly said "low introductory price". I can't understand why you're all acting so surprised..

 

I can only assume that now that SS Brewing has it out in the retail market, they can't sell it for $50 cheaper and expect their retailers to ever sell them for $50 more so if they want to continue to sell these both themselves and thru More Beer, they've had to agree to keep the price the same.
It's that way with many, many wholesalers who then let 'street retailers' sell their products.

 

Supply and demand says that if you can sell 300 of these in five minutes your price is too low.

 

Agreed, give the posts in this thread alone. If you build it, they will buy it I have mine and am glad I was fortunate enough to get them. Will I need more probably and that puts me in the same que as everyone else. $50 more


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In the short term, yes, but long term I'm not sure $225 will maximize profits. It's funny, MBA schools teach taking the opposite pricing approach; price high at the start because the fanatic early adopters would pay it, then once the enthusiasts have bought in (and production costs come down) then lower the price to appeal to a wider base. So perhaps an error by them, but those of us who got in early can't complain!