skraeling
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I like mine enough im buying a second one...
Brew Bucket by SS Brewing Technologies
- Thread starter Schumed
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I like mine enough im buying a second one...
Has anyone been using the mini 3.5G guy?
The size is perfect for me, but I don't know about the rubber base. I would love to hear more first hand experience reviews of it. I have read on here once that it's a little scketchy. Has anyone had other experience or solutions for it?
The size is perfect for me, but I don't know about the rubber base. I would love to hear more first hand experience reviews of it. I have read on here once that it's a little scketchy. Has anyone had other experience or solutions for it?
I've got two of those minis - I just bought an extra base as well so moving the thing around is a lot easier... just put the base where you intend to go. Granted it's not the nicest solution, but it works and the minis are otherwise as good as their big brother. They don't come with a thermowell, but SSB sell it as an accessory along with a drill bit for the correct sized hole.
Ahh, that's a good idea. Have your destination ready to receive the fermenter.
Can you bottle directly from it? If I small batch I usually use Domino sugar cubes to prime. Not transferring would be awesome.
If you put it on the edge of a table or something just like a bottling bucket, yup. Other than the base and size it's functionally equivalent to the bigger ones.
In your case it would be simple. Small piece of tubing connected to port and other end to racking cane and you'd be good.
The base does seem flimsy and w/o an extra you do have to plan your moves, but it can be done. Only 2nd time I'm using my 2 but I like splitting batches to test yeast profiles
acommonsoul
Active Member
Does anyone here use the brew bucket for wine? If so, do you do just a primary fermentation with it or do you still siphon to a secondary?
DVilleBrewing
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I actually just finished a primary fermentation of a mead in the mini brew bucket. Worked really well for my purpose....filled it to the 3.5 gallon mark, let it ferment, took my gravity, then just gravity fed into a 3 gallon Carboy. You still need to secondary or more with a mead or wine, and the Carboy is better suited as can fill with less air space.
acommonsoul
Active Member
Thanks! Haven't done a wine before, so I'm just starting to wrap my head around it.
acommonsoul
Active Member
Anybody else using brew bucket for wine? The 6 gallon kits recommend a minimum of 7.9 gallons primary, but the kit I'm doing doesn't contain grape skins, so I am assuming it will be ok with just 1 gallon of headspace?
crusader1612
Well-Known Member
anyone know the pressurethey're ratedto?
Was thinking about moddingthe top for a spunding valve to suit longer aged beers (saisons/ etc)
Was thinking about moddingthe top for a spunding valve to suit longer aged beers (saisons/ etc)
NervousDad
BFM
The conical is 5psi the buckets aren't rated.
I use mine frequently and utilize pressure to do transfers. At 1 psi on the regulator I find that the lid leaks CO2 so I wouldn't advise that they are pressure rated. I am actually conceiving some kind of part with screw down clamps that will allow me to lock down the lid with more distributed pressure to prevent the leaks.
Can the barb on the valve be removed or is it permanently attached to the valve?
They can be removed, at least if it's like the one on my chronical
They can be removed. See posts 809 and 813 in this thread.
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Book marking this thread. Been thinking of buying two of these.
Just thought I'd share my recent blog post here:
Blow off set up...
It's about a blow off set up my friend came up with that I use with my Brew Bucket. It can be used to transfer the beer with CO2 and also purge the head space of the fermentor.
Blow off set up...
It's about a blow off set up my friend came up with that I use with my Brew Bucket. It can be used to transfer the beer with CO2 and also purge the head space of the fermentor.
martingale
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I would be very careful with such a small diameter blow off set up. Hop debris could clog the set up and you'll have a time bomb ticking that could blast fermenting wort at a high velocity all about the place....
Just sayin...
It's a 1/2" blow off...not sure why your referring to clogging? It's worked fine. I don't get that much blow off with my set up but my friend who made this gets huge blow offs of big IPA's and hasn't had it clog yet.
I'm debating getting one of the minis for 2.5-3gal batches but haven't really seen mentioned anywhere the diameter of the base, is it the same 11" as the top of the brew bucket?
Does the 90* elbow use a locknut/o-ring under the lid to secure it? What PSI are you using to transfer, like 2-3psi?
EDIT: Nevermind, just went through the links on your post
EDIT: Nevermind, just went through the links on your post
The bottom of the rubber base is about 8.75 inches and the bottom of the fermentor before the cone is about 8 inches....
Morrey
Well-Known Member
I have two of the 7G Ss Brew Buckets with FTSs cooling systems and have been using frozen water bottles in a cooler. Recently I bought a glycol chiller to replace the water bottles...thank goodness!
Anyway, I had always racked to keg at fermentation temps, then cold crashed on gas in an ATC outfitted freezer. Now that I have this glycol chiller, why not go ahead and crash in the bucket and let some yeast and trub settle out prior to racking.
Problem is that a heck of a suction is formed when going from 65F down to 35F in an hour. I mean a WHOLE jug of starsan gets sucked up if not careful...live and learn. Glad I did an experimental test batch to learn on.
I need to apply positive CO2 pressure in the headspace to offset the negative pressure created in the fermenter. What if I apply light CO2 pressure thru the BO tube, then clamp off the tube while crashing? Or...fill a bread bag with CO2 (Mongoose33 good idea), tape it to the BO tube and use that for a bladder to draw from? Just concerned that O2 will get in the fermenter if this is not done carefully.
Are there other techniques I may be overlooking? Thanks!!
Anyway, I had always racked to keg at fermentation temps, then cold crashed on gas in an ATC outfitted freezer. Now that I have this glycol chiller, why not go ahead and crash in the bucket and let some yeast and trub settle out prior to racking.
Problem is that a heck of a suction is formed when going from 65F down to 35F in an hour. I mean a WHOLE jug of starsan gets sucked up if not careful...live and learn. Glad I did an experimental test batch to learn on.
I need to apply positive CO2 pressure in the headspace to offset the negative pressure created in the fermenter. What if I apply light CO2 pressure thru the BO tube, then clamp off the tube while crashing? Or...fill a bread bag with CO2 (Mongoose33 good idea), tape it to the BO tube and use that for a bladder to draw from? Just concerned that O2 will get in the fermenter if this is not done carefully.
Are there other techniques I may be overlooking? Thanks!!
dyqik
Well-Known Member
Jaybird/NorCalBrewingSolutions sells some lids for Mason jars that take hoses - you can use the to rig up Mason jars as blow-off vessels and/or as reservoirs for CO2 for cold crashing. Or you could probably come up with your own version using any air-tight jar.
I'm debating on getting one of the 7 gal models and adding a domed lid with the 3" TC blowoff/coupler/thermowell piece from NorCal. Does anyone have either the domed lid, the 3" piece, or both and can provide the height dimensions for them? I have a clearance restriction so I want to be sure I can stay within it. Thanks.
I don't cold crash but my buddy does and he uses the set up in the blog post below in order to push a small amount of co2 into his conical while cold crashing. Just hook up the gas to the gas post and close the blow off valve. I think he just sets it to about 2lbs of pressure but I think he also doesn't drop the temp that quick...I'd have to get back to you on that one. He's the one who came up with this blow off set up.
http://www.laundrybrewing.com/2017/05/blow-off-set-up.html
Morrey
Well-Known Member
I was thinking that slowly stepping the temps down as you suggested may be a better way to eliminate the suck-back action. Thanks for the confirmation!! I'll try 5 degrees at a time...is this how you do it?
Why would it matter how fast the cold crash is? That doesn't really make sense unless you have a slow leak in the seal of your bucket.
I can't tell you why it works, but it does. I've had suck back before but never when I slowly crash. I'd assume at the end of the 3-4 days (or so) the pressure inside would be the same as if doing over a few hours - - but that is for somebody smarter than me to speak to....
I can tell you that I have no leaks.
I started doing 5 degrees in the morning before I leave for work and another 5 degrees before going to bed. IIRC, I started this slower crash after hearing Jamil/Chris White talking about sudden and massive temp swings possibly causing yeast to basically regurgitate all the fermentation by-products they previously cleaned up.
I've been doing it this way since that time and the bonus is that I don't get suck back. After a few times, I then switched to an airlock after active fermentation slows down to save room/space. When I rack to a keg there is a definitive "pop" when the lid comes off as it "equalizes".
Morrey
Well-Known Member
Well Dan, this is what I originally was thinking myself. My original idea was so what about the speed but my wife actually suggested a slow crash may not draw in with the same "enthusiasm" we saw with a one hour crash. I said what difference does speed make...its the displacement that is the issue. She actually convinced me that a slow crash may be the answer...and I kinda bought into that. Sure...a slow leak will slowly over several days equalize a vacuum whereas a rapid crash wont give a slow leak time to equalize. Shoulda taken that physics course I opted out of.
But question remains...with a proper airtight seal, will slow crashing work so not to create a vacuum or suck-back?
Morrey
Well-Known Member
Do you think if I do a "Test" with water in the fermenter instead of fermented beer, will this be conclusive about step crashing not to create a vacuum?
If the reaction is yeast dependent as has been reported, my water tests would not be accurate.
I wish I could tell. But yeah, I'm not a physics guy either 
My *thinking* is that water wouldn't create the same pressure in the vessel that fermentation does. I *think* it's the CO2 that causes the pressure inside during/after fermentation.
Hopefully, I caveated that enough. Sorry, I just know what works for me. I ferment typically at 68 (yeast dependent) and crash down to 35.
My *thinking* is that water wouldn't create the same pressure in the vessel that fermentation does. I *think* it's the CO2 that causes the pressure inside during/after fermentation.
Hopefully, I caveated that enough. Sorry, I just know what works for me. I ferment typically at 68 (yeast dependent) and crash down to 35.
I would think that a water solution maybe mixed with the electrolytes you would add to your brewing water and a diluted grain alcohol to normal levels would be a more adequate blank, but the whole phenomena of cold crashing is simply an application of solubility and partial pressures. This would simply ensure that your freezing point would be similar.
For all intensive purposes I believe water would be adequate.
I haven't read that it is yeast dependent, but to be fair I haven't read up on this, or can I see how there is causality to creation of a vacuum from yeast being in solution.
Edit: the yeast creating the carbon dioxide is the only variable that isn't controlled but I highly that with a normal airlock bubbler anything more than a few PSI is withheld
No. Thermal expansion will create the same change in volume regardless of how much time that change takes.
Not that this really proves anything, but a better test would be an empty fermenter. Water does not expand and contract with temperature as much as air does.
No kidding? Interesting. I always thought it was the beer contracting, not the air. You learn something new every day.
dyqik
Well-Known Member
What should/may happen is that as the pressure reduces and lifts the sanitizer in the blow off, some of the CO2 in solution will come out of solution.
Added a small amount of warm water to a better bottle to warm up the air inside it. Then put on an airlock and "cold crashed" it. Within a few minutes I had this:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1500332429.931643.jpg
This demonstrates that a three piece airlock will hold some negative pressure on a sealed fermenter and that there is substantial thermal expansion of air.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1500332429.931643.jpg
This demonstrates that a three piece airlock will hold some negative pressure on a sealed fermenter and that there is substantial thermal expansion of air.
Very nice demonstration of thermal compression, daisy chain with a very large Mason jar will solve just about any issue. Throughout fermentation there will be residual CO2 that'll be sucked from the first jar and not the Star San in the second.
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