plastic fermenter lifespan

+1 on the K-Meta and carrying water in a bucket instead of a hose.

 

I switched to stainless steel after 2 batches in a row had off flavors. Havn't had any off flavors since. One of my buckets was 10 years old, the other was close to 2 years old. Both buckets were discolored and smelled like hops no matter what I cleaned them with or how long I soaked them for. For reference, I was mainly making neipas which sometimes had almost a pound of hops + yeast in the bucket.

 

I still have my original 6.5 gallon bucket from my first homebrewing kit I bought about 1990/1991. Those were the days you calculated mash efficiency with a paper, pencil and calculator. Made a LOT of good and some great beer with that bucket all without Beersmith, Mr. Malty, 35 malts and 17 types of hops per batch. There was ONLY dry yeast.

I don't use it because I'm only making 2.5 - 3 gallon batches anymore. It's been stored well. I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I decide to make a bigger batch of something.

All the Best,
D. White

 

Mosher (?) recommends putting a trashbag inside of an old smelly bucket, since they're relatively clean inside and can be thrown away once you're done. Never tried it myself but I think that could be an option if you're making something smelly like hefeweizen

 

I have a hefe in my bucket right now. So it’s gonna stink after it’s done?

 

No. It will smell really good.

 

A couple weeks ago it smelled really nice inside the fermenter chamber. This morning very very stinky. But I didn’t open the bucket lid. Having hefe concerns. Been in the primary almost 3 weeks. It’s at 1.010 right now. Not sure it should go down any more. Never done a hefe before

 

I have two plastic buckets and wash them immediately after bottling with stream of hot water and let them dry. If I do not use it for a long time then spray it with OXI and after that I wash again with hot water. No any scratch. The only problem I ever saw on a one bucket is that the lid no longer seals properly, but I solved it with stretch foil.

Brew near of 30 batch, mostly with one of them.

 

I have one bucket that I've used since I started brewing 7 years ago. The key is to clean them ASAP. I run hot water in them, do a good wipe down with my hand to get most of the gunk out. Then a little PBW and warm water and clean with a sponge. The only other time I replaced a bucket was when I did something stupid and scratched the inside of the bucket. For the cost of the bucket, I didn't think it was worth the chance. And spare buckets are always a luxury at my house.

Disclaimer: I recently switched to stainless though, because I think the residual smells in the plastic over these years was starting to bug me. After a few brews, no matter how hard you clean them, they will get stained and they will smell like beer. I never noticed any off flavors in my beer, but some gifted money came my way so I decided to splurge on a couple Anvil bucket fermenters.

 

I tend to have a bucket for 5ish years before I replace. I brew 5 gal 1x/mo., So rarely need other vessels. Even though I have 3 carboys and various other buckets ...

 

I had a Better Bottle develop a crack near the bottom of it. Sadly this happened during fermentation. I noticed it in time to transfer to another Better Bottle and the beer was fine but the experience still sucked.

Researching this, I found that prolonged soaks (prolonged can be just a few hours) in PBW or OxiClean solution can degrade the integrity of the plastic and promote cracking. The chance of this was a buzzkill since I found soaking to be the best way to clean stubborn krausen rings. I switched to Big Mouth Bubblers so that I could get my arm in for scrubbing but even those could be tough to really clean sometimes.

Now I ferment in stainless mainly. I'll still use the Big Mouth Bubblers if brewing a smaller batch but that's mainly because I have them and they do work great. That said, I'd really like a SS Brew Bucket!