Fermenting in a 55 gallon food grade plastic drum

I picked up a 55 gallon food drum - $15.00. It has a slight odor of like ceasar salad dressing.

If I can clear the odor, has anyone used one of these for fermenting? I think it's ploypropelene like a milk jug.

I plan on rigging a burp valve into the top. One of the guys at work suggested using vodka to act as a seal in the valve - it' naturally sterile, and if any gets abck into the beer.... Well it would be a tad stronger.

Thanks,
Bill

 

A few thoughts occur:

1) DUDE! Fifteen bucks?! Score!

2) You can clear the odor with a decent-strength soak of hot water and oxiclean.

3) It'll work just fine. I'm sure if it was used for food then there are no chemicals that could leak. Just to be sure check to see what number is on the bottom. I think "2" is HDPE, good stuff. I found some buckets previously used for feta cheese that are HDPE and they work spectacularly.

4) Yeah, vodka works well as an airlock liquid. I used to use an iodophor solution but over time it would become increasingly paler and I'm a worry-wort

 

It works like a dream!! I brewed 25 Gallons of my Belgian Dubbel and fermented in one of the 55 gallon plastic malt barrels you see at the HBS. Got mine for $30 from my HBS. I put a drain valve just above the rolled edge on the bottom and could drain fermented beer off the yeast cake no problem!!! Just careful when you go to look in to the barrel during fermentaion, that amound of CO2 will suck the air out of your lungs!!

 

i have a couple of these but have not fermented in them yet. I was curious to know how you were cleaning them?

 

I've never like any of my beers enough to want 40 gallons of it.

 

I HIGHLY doubt that!

I suck at brewing and I have never have enough.

 

We have brewed several pilot batches with a local brewery here using food grade 55 gallon drums. Works like a champ. We fill to the 45 gallon line, sometimes a bit lower if we have a yeast that likes to go gangbusters and rarely if ever have blowoffs.

 

No seriously. No matter how good I think a beer is when I start drinking it, I'm tired of it by the end of the 5 gallons. Even when I do 10 gallon batches, I seldom tap the second keg immediately following the first one.

There are way too many BJCP categories I haven't even approached and variety is the spice of life (along with hops).

 

I filled them with hot water and oxyclean for a day or so and then gave it an iodaphor soak followed by a rinse and then fermenting wort.

 

I used barrels from a fish industry and used normal 'dish soap' and water to clean them.
No fishy smell or taste.
So some ceasar salad dressing should be a walk in the park.

 

how do you move all that beer around (transfering)

 

DrKarma.

Ha! My Dogma got run over by my Karma - Cool nickname.

I can get more of these - or I'll PM the phone number to anyone interested - located in Central Wisconsin.

I'm thinking of starting with 40 gallons. I'l have to do multiple boils and cooling.

Thanks for the feedback on cleaning guys. I already hit it with dish soap, but I'll still want to deodorize and sanitize.

I want to do a lawnmower Ale. I have everything except the yeast , caps, and priming sugar. Now I'm getting a little excited.

 

You just need to get some friends over to help drink it up.

Seriously though. I've heard this stuff gets mellower with age. A guy I work with claims you should let it sit in a basememnt like atmosphere for a long time. Hence if you have more than a few different types on hand you could drink whatever you fancy. Don't drink your way through a batch. have more than one style brewed and on hand.

 

Place a tap in the side and bottle out of smaller container, or siphon out the top.

My guzzinta's tell me it would weigh in excess of 320 lbs with 40 gallons.

It is something to consider. You probably aren't moving it foe a week or two till you bottle.

 

caesar dressing = anchovies + egg yolk... exactly the kind of walk in the park I enjoy. Just make sure you get it really clean or you'll need more than just a "burp valve" in the top...

 

+1 This, and a number of other things. Brewing on that scale alters the entire logistical equation, makes the whole kegs + kegerators + etc. + etc. practically mandatory, etc. And that's just for starters.

 

rico567

Logistics. My wife enjoys helping bottle.

OK, I've ben trying to consider what might bite me in "butt t tocks". I have over 400 22oz bottles. I was going to move the fermented media to a smaller container for bottling where I could work on it more easily. (Another possible point for infection).

 

wow, your going to bottle a 40 gallon batch. i dont even like bottling a 12 pack from a 5 gallon batch

 

It'll be theraputic, kind of like basket weaving. I made a couple sets of snowshoes once. You concentrate so hard on getting the weave right that it blocks everything else for that period of time.

I get to think about drinking it also as I'm bottling. It's like wrapping Christmas presents.

 

Did this project ever happen? I'm wondering how you kept it cool while fermenting

 

No some friends advised me to try my first allgrain as a single batch. I made more of double - It's complicated. I am glad I started small. I learned alot. I also would have had 40 gallons of "just beer".

I was trying for pale ale and ended up not using enough hops because I didn't know about adding approx 50 percent when you use whole hops Vs pellets.

Now I still have lote of ingredients for more batches. I still plan on doing it someday. I'm out of work right now. My SO is getting nervous about my priorities as it is....

...all in good time.

I plan on using my root cellar. Stays cool all summer - winter might even be worthy of a lager...

http://www.bayareamashers.org/gadgets/Dave's Cheap n Easy fermentation chiller.pdf

 

hi nice thread, i too bought 15 dlls fda aproved 55 gal tanks, but i have a doubt, how are you going to keep the fermenting temp?....i made a fermentation chamber its 2.5 mts x 2.5 mts x 1.8 mts, sorry i use metric system lol, with a window AC, do you guys think this can keep my fermentin temp? the beer is going to come out of the therminator at 60F, and the ac is going to 60F, but im worried about the insulation that plastic tanks could have....

 

I have a nice cool basement and 68 degrees works for what I've brewed so far. If I get to lagering - I'll build a refridgerated closet. There are threads on this site describing that type of structure.

 

well yes ive build one, but this is for fermenting for me, here in mexicali we hit 122F, so i need an ac cabinet just for keeping my temps in the high 60´s

 

A big +1 on this....why I just have an array of plastic buckets.

 

Would anyone like this 55 gallon drum? I'm never going to get to this project.

My mash tun just isn't big enough etc.

I got it for $15.

I'll give it away if you come pick it up.

PM me please.

 

John, I'm not really a rules guy, BUT - seven posts and they pretty much push your barrels. I admire your sense of get-out-and-sell though.

Some people might consider this spam.

There is a classified section BTW.

Cheers!
Bill