Brewing in an aquarium

alaktheman · Feb 22, 2015

So I've been pondering this idea for a while now and was wondering if anyone has either tried to do this or knows someone who has. If I were to do this I would of course make a air tight cover for the tank.

This just seems like it would be easier since if someone is looking to make a large quantity at once you can find an aquarium for about $1 per gallon.

Just curious here

Yooper · Feb 22, 2015

If you could find an aquarium shaped like a carboy or demijohn, that would work.

It's not the cover that is important- it's the reduction of headspace. A carboy has a very narrow neck- maybe an inch across at most- so that the mead or wine isn't exposed to oxygen. The carboy is topped up with mead to within an inch of the bung.

A bucket/aquarium/etc has a wide headspace- sometimes over a foot across. That is why it wouldn't be used.

HawleyFarms · Feb 23, 2015

I have to agree with yooper. It seems like it would be a huge waste of time with the amount of headspace you are leaving your mead open to. Plus the amount of cost that would go into trying to design and build an airtight lid would be crazy. Especially when you can get a 1 gallon glass carboy with screw-top lid and 3 piece bubbler for less than $10.

alaktheman · Feb 23, 2015

I was just thinking about taping some plastic to the top but I'm not really planning on doing this just a thought.

OleBrewing · Feb 23, 2015

I would say for for primary fermenting when co2 is at max production there wouldn't be any worries but once that dies down the co2 blanket will be slowly dissapating getting replaced with oxygen. Thatswhen you would need to transfer to a secondary with less headspace. There are breweries that still practice open vat fermentation or semi open with a loose cover. If you have a free tank and secondary vessel you could give it a shot.
But as stated above this not the norm any more. Open fermentation can give different results compared to closed. Wheat beers come to mind from experiments I have read, open to semi open primary fermentation gives a more pronounced banana flavor.

frettfreak · Feb 23, 2015

alaktheman said:
So I've been pondering this idea for a while now and was wondering if anyone has either tried to do this or knows someone who has. If I were to do this I would of course make a air tight cover for the tank.

This just seems like it would be easier since if someone is looking to make a large quantity at once you can find an aquarium for about $1 per gallon.

Just curious here

If you were trying to make a LARGE batch (more than the usual 5 or 10) it probably COULD be done. But as yooper said, its about head space. However, if you have the equipment to support that larger batch, do yourself a favor and buy either some carboys OR you can get a 30 - 85 gallon plastic conical for anywhere between 100 and 200. You dont want 30 gallons of off flavored beer because you didn't ferment right (which from what i have experienced is where the majority of issue can come in). And if you are only doing 5 and 10 gallon batches, no reason not to use either buckets (less than $1 per gallon) or carboys (more expensive, but tired and true method)