Big conical for my little fridge?

[luckybeagle]

I'm trying to come up with a solution to my fermentation annoyances.

I brew 10 gallon batches and keg most of what I brew. I hate glass carboys--they're hard to clean, they don't have a spout for easy racking/gravity checks, and their shape makes them inefficient for my mini fridge-converted-fermentation chamber.

I found this conical fermenter on the interwebs and thought it might be a good solution. The whole thing should fit in my mini fridge.

It just seems cheaper than anything else I've come across. Thoughts on this? And/or would PET food grade plastic fermenters work just as well--or do they tend to degrade over a few dozen batches?

https://www.vevor.com/products/14-g...6Y33BWbg6tTFrHOZOk6yQE9gcKr_FCvwaAikGEALw_wcB
Anyone else out there doing 10g batches and fermenting the whole thing in a single vessel? Sadly glycol jacketed this-and-thats are outside of my budget.

 

[luckybeagle]

Alternatively I could pick up another 15 gallon GasOne Kettle and just rig up some sort of silicone clamping lid with airlock...? I would miss out on the conical bottom, but it's not like the one pictured above has a yeast collection valve anyway. That'd be $100 cheaper. Thoughts?

 

[Deadalus]

When I see a company with multiple diverse product lines, awkward phrasing, no physical address I begin to wonder what company I am dealing with. Automotive and restaurant food service?

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/vevor.com
https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/rch-cucamonga/profile/online-retailer/vevor-1066-850056466/complaints

 

[luckybeagle]

When I see a company with multiple diverse product lines, awkward phrasing, no physical address I begin to wonder what company I am dealing with. Automotive and restaurant food service?

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/vevor.com
https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/rch-cucamonga/profile/online-retailer/vevor-1066-850056466/complaints

Thanks for sleuthing! I noticed the phrasing, too. Looks like they're based out of Pasadena, CA (area code) but that could also just be a google voice number. I'm definitely leaning more heavily in the direction of boil kettle with some sort of airtight lid configuration. It's half the price and can be repurposed later if I wanted.

 

[Deadalus]

I think some people ferment in 10 gallon kegs, could be something to look for if it appeals to you. They are usually $100-$200 used. Once in a while less, depends on what you find.

 

[apache_brew]

I'm an advocate for 1/2 bbl sankey kegs. I ferment 13 gallon batches in mine. Ferment under pressure, dry hop, floating dip tube for samples/racking, carbonate, serve, etc... I have about $125 into the fermenting parts in my sig. That being said, I anticipate the parts will last a very long time and be able ferment 100's of batches.

The only downsides to them is cleaning and not being able to dump yeast. For this, I would take the money you were planning on throwing down on a foreign "conical" and build/buy a keg washer that had a spray ball and washed the keg inverted. Set and forget a hot cycle of PBW and you're done. I suppose you still could harvest yeast after racking if you really wanted to by pouring it out and rinsing it in another vessel (I don't because it's extra cleaning steps and I regularly dry hop heavily).

 

[Vale71]

1 - It's not a conical
2 - welding on a TC port and then using it to attach a brass faucet and ball valve is beyond asinine