30 gallon food grade barrels for fermentation

[Vanderfell]

I am not sure if this belongs in this section or in fermentation. I brew 15 gallons at a time and spliting fermentation into three vessels is getting tiresome. I was looking at these 30 gallon food grade barrels from Uline. They seem like they would be easy to clean.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if 15 extra gallons of headspace would be to much, or would the fermenting brew just form a giant co2 blanket?


https://www.uline.com/Product/Detai...TjNb9wPO4JmhStECnQkPTXC-D5xssyZRoCiwwQAvD_BwE

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I have one similar the only issue is on mine the bottom has hills and valleys and kind of hard to clean, but otherwise the plastic is fine and cleans easy

 

[eric19312]

I’ve seen pics in here with guys brewing in conicals with 50% headspace.

I’m also brewing 15 gallon batches...actually aiming for closer to 15.75 to get 3 full kegs packaged. I’m doing it in Speidel 60L so have opposite issue. Just about no headspace. I use blow off tube and a couple drops foam control from 5 star. Works out fine and they seal well enough for closed transfers. Minimal headspace means I can cold crash without sucking in O2...I just close the blow off and let the beer release dissolved CO2 into headspace while crashing. You can get lots of cool accessories for these things from NorCal Brewing. Finally the thing fits in my fermentation fridge. Not sure that barrel would be as easy to fit.

 

[cactusgarrett]

I think they work pretty good and are easy to work with. I've fashioned mine to be used for a sour solera, so I added some ports (for transferring and trub dump). As such, I wouldn't recommend having that much headspace for a sour, but provided you get a good, healthy ferment and you fit an airlock to the lid, you should be able to maintain the CO2 barrier to prevent oxidation.

36952656_10156684071347975_5910021354601578496_o

• cactusgarrett
• Nov 5, 2018

37352177_10156707598147975_8127418394346520576_o

• cactusgarrett
• Nov 5, 2018

 

[Vanderfell]

I think they work pretty good and are easy to work with. I've fashioned mine to be used for a sour solera, so I added some ports (for transferring and trub dump). As such, I wouldn't recommend having that much headspace for a sour, but provided you get a good, healthy ferment and you fit an airlock to the lid, you should be able to maintain the CO2 barrier to prevent oxidation.

36952656_10156684071347975_5910021354601578496_o

• cactusgarrett
• Nov 5, 2018

37352177_10156707598147975_8127418394346520576_o

• cactusgarrett
• Nov 5, 2018

Thanks! My sour stuff is in carboys. I am looking for a clean, bright fermentation with low mess. I figured extra headspace is pretty optimal here. What barch size are you brewing?

 

[cactusgarrett]

I wouldn't say extra headspace is optimal, but I would say enough to prevent needing a blowoff would be better. The initial fill of this was ~29gal, and we plan on removing & replacing 15gal every year. We've only filled this once, and despite this being a sour with a more subdued ferment, the krausen was still significant enough to need a blowoff tube instead of the airlock for a day or two.

 

[gnef]

When I do my big batches, I use the larger HDPE barrels. I have used the 55 gallon blue barrels, and I also have a 30 gallon blue HDPE barrel from amazon that I like. I also recommend using a silicone waterless airlock, as they are so much more convenient than monitoring the water level of a standard airlock. Do know that they can be blown off though during strong fermentations.

I don't think having 15 gallons of headspace will be detrimental (unless you are an LODO brewer...) for most beers, as fermenting 15 gallons of any beer will push out enough of the O2 that I wouldn't worry about it. I will say that the idea of a blanket of CO2 can be a bit deceptive. It can definitely displace the O2 through dilution during fermentation as the pressure causes all headspace to exhaust. Initially it will also stay above the beer, but given enough time, any gas will mix.