Anvil Stainless Bucket Fermentor - thoughts?

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Ragman

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So after this past brew - my 1st solo attempt - I had a ton of problems with siphoning and I know I introduced O2 into my brew. Havent tasted it yet ( just 6 more days) and Ive heard it shouldnt be too bad but wont keep very long.
Anyway, I looked into all sorts of alternative siphon options and came across this Anvil Bucket Fermentor. This looks like it would take siphoning out of the picture entirely.

Wanted to know if anyone has used this as a primary fermentor and went straight from it to bottling bucket. If so how were the results?

Thanks.
 
I have one and love it. I keg, so I go directly into the purged keg. I had an NEIPA ruined by a partially clogged auto siphon, that and carrying carboys down the stairs made me go for the Anvil ss bucket. I normally dry hop loose in the fermenter and as long as I'm careful with the racking arm I don't get too much hop material into my keg.
 
I have the smaller version of the Anvil bucket and like it quite a bit. I will say that one thing that helps a lot is being able to cold crash. When I transferred to my bottling bucket the first time I used it, there was more trub/yeast than I was expecting based off of reviews. Once I started cold crashing, that issue almost disappeared entirely!
 
Still learning the terminology. How do you "cold Crash"
 
Cold Crashing is what you do when fermentation is complete and you drop the temperature of your carboy/bucket/whatever down to near freezing temps for a couple of days before bottling. It helps get any floating yeast or haze particles to drop out and also helps to compact the layer of trub/yeast at the bottom. There are lots of good discussions on why/how to cold crash on the forum.
 
I don't have the means to cold crash so I just leave my beer in the fermenter longer. Helps to have multiple fermenters so I don't feel rushed.
 
Great fermenters I have 4 of them. Fast and easy to clean, not too heavy, excellent seal, easy to take samples from, I have 0 complaints about my anvil fermenters.

Did you use an auto siphon? A auto siphon and a plastic bucket make good starter tools. When I siphon I start by letting my beer siphon into a large bowl and once it clears up I pinch the line and then I move the siphon into the keg so my keg is not getting that sludge (trub) in it. Dont worry about 02 making contact with your beer yet it's mostly a big deal with NEIPA outside of that dont sweat it so much until you get things down the way you like at that point you start making your improvements dont stress yourself making beer is very easy.
 
I've been using an Anvil fermenter for a couple of years now. I like it a lot. Beware that this is Blichman's cheaper Chinese-manufactured product so the finish on the interior may be less than perfect.
 
I have 2 of 7.5-gallon bucket fermentors and the cooling systems for both. I love them. I got some 1/2" tubing to run from the fermentor to the bottling bucket. I have noticed that it doesn't always get all of the beer if there isn't a lot of trub but overall it has been great.
 
Here is a video review.

If you are going to spend the money on a stainless fermenter that has a decent sealing lid, I would think about doing pressure transfers to a keg to avoid oxygen exposure completely. The difference in oxygenation between using a good auto siphon to an open bottling bucket versus draining from the anvil fermenter valve to an open bucket and then into bottles doesn't seem like it is hardly worth the expense.

 
I have the smaller version of the Anvil bucket and like it quite a bit. I will say that one thing that helps a lot is being able to cold crash. When I transferred to my bottling bucket the first time I used it, there was more trub/yeast than I was expecting based off of reviews. Once I started cold crashing, that issue almost disappeared entirely!
 
Agree with pretty much all of the posted comments. I also have the mini 4 gallon Anvil and its a great product, so much so that I will eventually bring big brother 7gal Avil into the fold. The great thing about anvils is the ability to adjust the spigot up and down when transferring /draining wort. Just eyeball the wort coming out and if you see floated coming up just adjust the spigot position up a bit more. Great product, I love the mini anvil it's perfect for 3 gallon batches for my 3gal keg. Fermenting a Hefe in it as we speak. I've been using two 7 gallon Chapman fermenters for about 5 years which are great but Anvil with its adjustable spigot arms makes it easier to keep as much grub out as possible vs a non adjustable spigot. Go for it! My little mini anvil I filled just 3 days ago:
20200901_131730.jpg
 
Buy one, you won't regret it. I have both the small and large size.

Another possibility with the bucket is you could bottle directly from it if you use the carbonation tabs. Just hook up the bottling wand straight to spigot. Skip the extra step of using a separate bottling bucket. You'd just have to make sure they yeast has dropped. The carbonation tabs are more expensive than regular dextrose but it's still pretty minimal.
 
These I ordered I've never tried before. I used carb drops drops once and didn't like them. So for 8 years I've only done corn sugar. These drops I ordered are from Europe designed by I think a brewery in Belgium. I'll find out how they are.
 
Anvil fermenter is a good affordable steel option. I’ve had 12 brews through mine and love it. Used the cooling kit the past two years, just switched to glycol. Still going great. On the cheap you could simply drill a hole in your bucket and add a spigot to avoid the siphon
 
The stainless fermenters look great, but I find that I need 2-3 fermenters. So I use buckets for now. You can get a 6-gal bucket and lid from uline for $10, provided you buy at least 5 of them. You can probably get 5 spouts from amazon for another $15-20. So you can have 5 fermenters with spouts for about $75 all said and done.
 
I used plastic buckets for a couple years and lost 2 or 3 batches turning sour. That was what led me to stainless steel and I have not lost a batch since. I'm sure it was due to me scratching the plastic during cleaning, but I'm much happier with the stainless. To each his or her own as long as we accomplish our mission of brewing good beer!
 
I bought 2 of the 7.5 gallon fermenters after an infection got one of my plastic big mouth bubblers and ruined a couple of batches. I will never go back to plastic. I like these fermenters because they are lightweight and easy to carry with their fixed handles, and fairly inexpensive. Also no light gets to them, they are easy to clean, they seal nicely, and the flat bottom plastic fitting works great. They are fairly compact so I can fit 2 in my freezer easily. On the downside, if I need to dryhop I either have to go loose through the stopper hole or open the whole lid which lets in a fair amount of oxygen. One other minor complaint is there in a small indent in the top of the lid where the stopper goes. If gunk sits In there, it could drop in if you remove the stopper and don’t clean it first. I know, minor. Overall I like them and will probably get one or two more.
 
I bought 2 of the 7.5 gallon fermenters after an infection got one of my plastic big mouth bubblers and ruined a couple of batches. I will never go back to plastic. I like these fermenters because they are lightweight and easy to carry with their fixed handles, and fairly inexpensive. Also no light gets to them, they are easy to clean, they seal nicely, and the flat bottom plastic fitting works great. They are fairly compact so I can fit 2 in my freezer easily. On the downside, if I need to dryhop I either have to go loose through the stopper hole or open the whole lid which lets in a fair amount of oxygen. One other minor complaint is there in a small indent in the top of the lid where the stopper goes. If gunk sits In there, it could drop in if you remove the stopper and don’t clean it first. I know, minor. Overall I like them and will probably get one or two more.
Even if you do open it, there's a fair amount of a CO2 blanket to protect it. I wouldn't leave it off for too long. A few seconds is not gonna hurt anything.
 
I experimented with closed-transferring ale into my keg this last batch. I attached the CO2 line to the bubble lock in the top of the Anvil and turned it on slow (1-2 PSI) with a hose going from the tap to the CO2 purged keg. It pushed the beer out and no O2 touched the beer. Not sure if it will actually make a difference with my ales, but it's worth a shot. The dry hops were already in the keg blanketed in CO2.
 
I have two of the 7.5 gallon anvil fermenters, and really like them for all of the reasons stated above. They're a lot safer than hauling glass carboys around, easy to clean, easy to bottle from, etc. I can fit two in my "fermentation chamber" (fridge from craigslist with a temp controller) allowing me to brew two batches at a time. I know there are fancier options, and plastic works fine too, but I like these as a middle of the road option. A fancy conical or two would be nice to have, but not in my budget right now, so until then, these work well.

If I were to have a complaint, it would be that the included strip thermometer is useless, but that's kind of petty on my part.
 
I used them with the cooling system, and a heat pad under the jacket for about 2 years. I am still keeping 1 as a spare, but they were great, I just wish they made one for at least a 10 gallon batch.
 

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I used them with the cooling system, and a heat pad under the jacket for. About 2 years. I am still keeping 1 as a spare, but they were great, I just wish they made one for at least a 10 gallon batch.
I too would have bought a 10 gallon batch version. I needed something stainless for my double batches so I just got a kegmenter 13gallon.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies.
I like the idea of being able to remove the top to completely clean the fermenter but I suppose the bottom valve is what entices me the most about this. Never having to siphon my beer into my bottling bucket alone makes this worth it.
I do believe I will purchase at least one of these. If I decide on larger batches I guess I will just buy 2.
Maybe I can sell off my carboys to make up some of the cost.

Thanks again.
 
If you're anywhere near Detroit, I have 2 of the above pictured for sale.
 
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