Fermenter for 2.5 gallon batches

Or make 1.9 gallon batches in 2 gallon paint buckets from HD for a few bucks each. Each brew will give you 3 six packs once you work out your volumes.

 

Brewdemon has a conical 3 gallon fermenter.

 

I have a 5-gallon bucket with a screw-lid that was filled with salt for a salt-water aquarium. The lid is not quite as deep/tall as those in the photo, but a screw-lid nonetheless. It is a pain in the wrasse (that's a salt-water fish joke). Unscrewing that thing is a two-hand job plus both thighs to keep the bucket still while you are gripping and spinning. I don't use it for anything but storage and cleaning, although I might turn it into my bottling bucket.

 

I ferment in my brew kettle. You can get 20 qt stainless steel pots from Boscov's for $12 and they will last a long time.

People will tell you it's a bad idea because it's not completely sealed but it's bull. Don't listen to them. Saves space, time and it's self sanitizing.

 

I just brewed a 2.5 gallon batch and used my 5 gallon carboy (the secondary in my BB kit) as the primary and I think it worked out great. As an aside I enjoyed having a see-through vessel to watch fermentation going on since my usual practice was to use the 6.5G/"paint" bucket. I was thinking about getting a 3 gallon carboy but I might just stick with the carboy in case I want to brew a bit more than 2.5G to keep the trub from my keg.

 

That's a great idea! Did you punch a hole in the top to fit an airlock? Anyone think of any reasons the aluminum lid might cause any problems?

This would be great for mead making... start in a 3 gallon carboy and then after racking it would fit almost perfectly in one of these (Especially if you add fruit)

 

Care to elaborate?

 

I guess you could say I disagree with your advice, I think it's very important to reduce oxygen exposure to your beer. Attention to reducing potential sources of off flavors makes the difference between "good" beer and "world class" beer IMO. However it was mostly meant as a bit of a joke

 

As long as you package the beer shortly after fermentation I don't see it as a risk, I've fermented in unsealed buckets quite a bit and of course many breweries and brewers do open fermentation technique. I do worry once active fermentation is done and I agree it's good to get it out of there and either packaged or into something with reduced headspace. It seems like many are falsely reassured by the CO2 blanket myth and the incorrect assumption that airlocks don't let any oxygen back in, I pretty much tend to get everything out of the primary and packaged shortly after it's done, regardless of what kind of vessel it is.

 

I hear you. I should go through the numbers and get the cold hard facts, but from what I've heard from Jamil Zainasheff and based on my own experience, there isn't a big oxygenation risk in an unsealed fermenter. I guess I have convinced myself, without hard numbers on the matter, that the diffusion rate of O2 into water/beer is just too low to be a problem during fermentation. Now, aging/storing beer for months/years is a different story.

I mean think about how hard we work to get plenty of oxygen into the wort before fermentation... it involves turning the surface over repeatedly so we force it in and don't have to rely on diffusion. So when it's sitting still in the fermenter I feel like it just isn't a problem. But again, I really should go through some numbers.

 

Yeah, knocked a hole in it. Worked for two batches so far. Alot of pickling fermenters out there

 

Do you have a problem with lid always smelling like pickles? I tried to use an empty pickle jar to store hops, but I could not get the smell out so I decided it wouldn't be good for storing hops. Maybe not a big deal for fermenting though?

 

A friend of mine knows somebody that works at Walmart in the bakery. They apparently by frosting/icing in 2 or 3 gallon buckets and just throw the buckets away afterwards. Maybe you could ask for some from there.

 

These are new from amazon brother, brand new glass never used!

 

I don't disagree that reducing oxygen exposure to beer is important. My position is that its not a big issue with the methods we employ to make beer and so it doesn't rank in the list of things I worry about. It is a non-issue, especially when compared to things like sanitation, temperature control and the like.

 

Oxidation is a pretty commonly sited off flavor in BJCP judged competitions. If you're wanting to make world class beer, oxidation can't be written off as a "non-issue". IMO there's a huge difference between "pretty good" beer and "great" beer - in order to make "great" beer you really have to pay attention to minor details.

I always set out to make the best beer possible, so I consider issues like oxidation quite important. YMMV.

 

I guess the question is: To what extent does exposure to oxygen mean that oxidation can be tasted in the resulting beer?

 

I don't think oxygen matters at all in the primary fermenter -- the yeast will use it up.

 

It would depend on the style as well as the taster but you would also have to consider other factors like the age of the beer, carbonation level, etc.

 

That would only be true during fermentation, and in particular the lag & log phase which happen's relatively quickly (maybe 48 hours after a good pitch).

 

I wish there was a disclaimer before every discussion about "Does X matter?" telling you if the OP was trying to brew "good" beer or "world-class" beer. People who have differing opinions on whether or not X matters often have different goals with respect to the kind of beer they're trying to brew.

 

it can be written off if you don't have an issue with it. Just because someone else has a problem with oxidation doesn't mean that I will have it.

I mean if I worried about all the things that could go wrong with my beer, I'd probably not bother brewing in the first place.