Fermenter Vessel

Glad I found this neat forum. I am a 5.5G batch kind of guy and looking to upgrade my fermenter pails to possibly SS??? I use 7.8G plastic pails now and looked at a Speidel which is just a fancy plastic. But still plastic.

I have space constraints in that I use a 7cf chest freezer with a temp controller as a ferm chamber. I measured and the max height I can go including airlock/blowoff is 27".

I have heard that the stainless fermenters don't seal well. I am just kicking tires and looking for advice before jumping on something that may not be wise. Thanks!!

 

I use 60L Speidels. Love them, don't be scared away by it being plastic.

 

Stainless steel is nice bling! If you can afford it!?!

I will most likely never own any because of the cost. I have 8 plastic fermenters (buckets and Better Bottles) I cannot imagine spending the $$ to have ss... I read a lot of people that fear chemical leaching. Look in your refrigerator... Look at all the plastic in there. Others worry about oxygen permeability. I have left beer and wines in fermenters for up 9 months and did not detect any oxidation.

 

Totally understand. I see one SS fermenter on More Beer that is $200. Just a glorified pail so to speak. The reason I am discouraged with plastic is I just finished a nice Hefe using a 1/2" blowoff tube. I used the center stem of a 3 way airlock with the cross piece cut off for the post and the tubing fit right on snugly. Ran tube into a 1/2G milk jug with a cup or two of star san allow max expansion with little chance of drawback.

Fermentation was vigorous with Hefe yeast from a nice starter. Was almost a constant stream of bubbles 3 days. HOWEVER, when I took the lid off the rack out beer, the BRAND NEW lid on the 7.8G bucket was busted in 3 places along the outside edge. I really don't think air got in, no signs of issues. But this is making me want stronger materials. Maybe the 30L Speidel is ok? I heard the spigots leak like a sieve on them. I may just seal it off and rack with a cane as always.

 

I am not a fan of spigots on fermenters. Maybe good ones on conicals, but the cheap plastic ones scare me. Leaking, breaking or just harboring contaminates that get foul during the fermentation. None of my fermenters have spigots.

For your lid, if the cracks did not pass the rubber O-ring in there you should be fine. The nasties just fall, unless pushed by wind etc. They cannot navigate up and over the lip of a bucket inside the lid. A lot of brewers just set the lid on top without pushing it down tight.

 

I have the same chest freezer you have for fermenting. I am looking into using 1/4 barrel slim sanke kegs (7.75 gallons) for fermenting and using this http://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/sankefermenterkit_pressure.htm
it will be a little tall with the pressure xfer parts but i am going to use some cam locks to attach at detach it and swap in a blowoff tube when fermenting. (Thanks for the idea Bobby)

I am looking at this rig to limit my o2 exposure for my super hoppy ales.

 

Like you, I am not a fan of spigots as this just gives us one more place to leak. I think, but I may be wrong, that Speidel includes a blank cap to use in the place of the spigot if you choose. I'd definitely use the blank cap and rack with cane as normal. I swirl the yeast cake for harvesting, so I am real particular about how much beer I leave on top of my cake.