Fermenting in a SS brewtech 1/2 bbl chronical

[Johan Dingler]

Has anyone any experience fermenting in one of these? I'm worried that it says it's a 1/2 bbl fermenter (15.5 gal) but its capacity is 17 gal. You get like 1.5 gals more of capacity or so with the domed lid, unless u want to use the coil chiller for temp control which leaves you with a flat lid (and minus the volume that the coil occupies). I want to buy it but i'm worried that there's only about 9% of headspace or even less taking into account the volume of the coil. Will I be able to ferment 15.5 gals of wort in this thing? I've read 20% of headspace is usually recomended.

Thoughts??

Cheers!!

 

[VikeMan]

I haven't used that fermenter, but I'd recommend a total volume of 130% of batch size. 20% headspace is often not enough, IMO.

I do have a little experience with shoehorning batches into less than ideally sized fermenters. (They weren't mine, and I had no choice.) Blowoff hoses (by default, not just for high gravity batches) and Fermcap in the fermenter were helpful.

But you do have a choice (assuming you haven't bought the fermenter yet). Personally, I'd either make slightly smaller batches or buy a different (bigger) fermenter.

 

[30_Ounce]

I have one and do 15 gallon batches all the time without a problem. I usually do 13 gallon batches in that one because some yeasts can develop a large krausen and cause problems but even the 15 gallon batches have been fine. Knock on wood...

 

[eric19312]

Not sure about price difference exactly but the Spike CF15 is not much more and has 18 gallon capacity. I use one and even with a decent dry hop load manage to get 14.5 to 15 gallons kegged every batch.

it’s also a unitank and doesn’t have any threaded fittings.