12 Gallon batch in bucket/Demi

Hi HBTer's
Im going to brew a double batch of my favourate local beer as an experiment.

Usually I just follow the instructions and the beer turns out well in a single 6 gallon batch. Brewing 2 batches a week is a bit time consuming.

I looked around to see if I could find a big Brew pale (12 Gallons + Head Space)
I think I found it...suppose to be 50 litres / 13 Gallons


I poured two 6 Gallon Carboys for a total of 12 Gallons into the pale just to check if there would be enough head space..

Looks good. I figured it would only have 1 Galoon of head space.

The Bucket has a hdpe rating of 2.
What intrigued me was the brewer that sold it suggested purchasing some 26" X 36 " clear extra strong bags to line the interior of the bucket for better seal/easy cleaning

Probably brew a batch this way this weekend..

Just curious if anyone else brews this way?


BeerCanuck

Excuse my ignorance but where is your airlock ?????

BeerCanuck said:

Usually I just follow the instructions and the beer turns out well in a single 6 gallon batch. Brewing 2 batches a week is a bit time consuming.

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You drink 12 gallons of beer a week? Your liver must love you.

Blaine: airlock hasnt been installed yet....probably install a gromet for blowoff/airlock

paulthenurse: I have a brew buddy that gets half (6 Gal)
I think a gallon/day for friends/me is reasonable in my experience

A little denial and error is what makes this hobby fun

BeerCanuck

I brewed my first 12 Gallon batch of beer this Saturday.
Worked out very well I think.


The airlock started burping ~4/5 hrs after innoculation.
Airlock is burping a mile a minute now

Just debating using a demi for the secondary

Cheers
BeerCanuck

I started brewing 7.5 gal batches a while back. No problems so far with a 8 gal fermenter. Only problems I can see with a 12 gal batch is lugging that much around,( I'm sure your buddy helps you). Keeping a cool fermenting temp. in summer.( I'm sure you can put that big boy in a garbage can or something with water and ice with help). You will figure out what's easiest.

I looked at the temperature gauge that I attached to my brew bucket last night 78 F ..basement usually hovers at 73 to 74 F. I opened a window in the brew room and it seemed the 12 G batch cooled down to 75F when I checked it in the morning. When I got home from work this evening the blowoff bottle was burping kraussen . I did a slight adjustment on the blowoff tube so that the tip was above the kraussen - the 1 gallon blowoff jug seemed to catch everything

The extra volume 12 gallon bucket does definitely increase the fermentation temperature. It would be nice to keep the brew room a solid 68F <shrug>


Cheers
BeerCanuck

There was little action on my blowoff after one week in the bucket.
I decided to rack the beer to a demijon for its secondary ferment.
I was try to figure a good way of doing this when I remember reading this thread;
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2910

That gave me the idea after finding an air mattress pump I had sitting around. I drilled an extra hole in the beer bucket so that I could force air to start my rack.

The starting of the siphoning was a snap this way

Cheers
BeerCanuck

I was reading over a thread;
We no need no stinking beer gun...
and thought an autosiphon would be a better approach to racking ...I bought a autosiphon and drilled out the hole in my bucket to a standard #7 bung hole size.

I can easily insert the autosiphon into this hole and has simplified the racking process immensely.
I have also decided to forgo the racking into a secondary as an experiment. I have heard that you can leave ales for up to a month in primary. The demijon that I was using as a secondary fermenter had alot of headspace and if I can avoid an extra racking without sacrificing quality...that would be skippy

BeerCanuck

I missed this the first time around.

This is what i've been using for a while now. Works awesome. I've had beer for a few weeks with no ill issues.

I've got a bottling bucket spigot in the center of the lid that I use as a blow off style tube, not that it needs it with that much head space.

It's amazing how much the lid bows out one fermentation gets going.

Just racked out my second 12 Gallon batch from bucket directly to kegs / bottles.

The last batch I used one 53 litre/14 gallon demijohn as a secondary fermentation vessel. I didn't really like the extra two gallons of head space along with racking to and cleaning of the demijohn. The first batch using the demijohn turned out well though.

On the my second batch I racked from primary directly to kegs/ bottles after two weeks. I was a bit worried on how clear the beer would get using this method. I decided to prime and bottle the last two gallons of beer to bottles for longer conditioning / fining. I plan on shortening the dip tubes in my corni kegs so that the last rack to the glass acts as a fining/conditioning stage.

My current third batch I thought I had an issue with my inoculation. My cellar was hovering around 68 F and I didn't see any burping action on my blow off jug after 12 hours?

I decided to pitch more yeast to be on the safe side but as I was doing so I notice a decent krausen.

I rechecked for blowoff after a couple of hours and with a slight adjustment to the blowoff hose it's burping like a happy kitten (to much resistance with the blow off hose at the bottom of a one gallon jug )

Cheers
BeerCanuck

Hey,

I was wondering if the guy that sold it to you told you where he put his hands on such a huge bucket? I have basically the same thing but about 26L total (3L headspace).

Looks like it's working pretty good for you.

mrfocus said:

I was wondering if the guy that sold it to you told you where he put his hands on such a huge bucket?

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The name of the company listed on the bucket is IPL

I tried checking there web site but I didn't find the larger bucket I have.
You might want to call them up directly since they are located in your neck of the woods

Cheers
BeerCanuck

I got 36 Gallons of beer sitting in 3 12 Gallons Buckets;

I want to keep the beer in primary for 3 weeks then rack to kegs/bottles ( 2 five gallon kegs +~ 8 one litre pet bottles for a total of 12 G).
I decided to do 3 weeks in primary/rotation and forgo the secondary mainly due to the above mentioned factors and the Demijohn breaking while cleaning ( that was scary..luckily i suffered no damage


Happy Brew Year
BeerCanuck