Food grade buckets

[CoSkillet]

My wife just picked up 5 five gallon food grade buckets from a baker to use as fermentors. Does anyone else use these? The lid I bought from my lhbs doesn't fit. How did you fix your lids for an air lock?

 

[billl]

Just grab a grommet or drilled stopper/cork and then drill a hole in the top of the lid to accept it.
And of course, you need some headspace to ferment, so don't put much more than 3 gallons in them.

 

[CoSkillet]

I was thinking I could do 4 gallons in them

 

[kh54s10]

I was thinking I could do 4 gallons in them

Maybe, but use a blow off tube.

The lids at the LHBS are of different sizes. I have two 7 gallon fermenters one is tall and narrower, the other is short and wide. They may have lids that will fit your bucket. Take it with you and see if they have one that will fit.

You can get rubber grommets like the ones in the lids from your LHBS at any big box home improvement store or most any hardware store. You need to get the right size for the airlock though.

 

[CoSkillet]

I plan on using them for batches of cider and maybe small batches of beer. I have two lbk's also. So it gives me 7 potential fermentors

 

[naw114]

I use them for cider and lemonade, I've been able to do 4 gallon batches with no problems. I used the lid that came with it for the first batch, but it wasn't air tight. I switched to one that I got from the LHBS and it worked much better, just happened to fit pretty well.

 

[woo_pig]

You can buy food grade buckets at Lowe's with matchingl lids. $7 .

 

[madscientist451]

I get food grade bakery buckets for $1 and use them for all kinds of things. You never have enough buckets.

 

[CoSkillet]

For me it was a cheap way to get buckets as the bakery I get them from has 1 gallon all the way up to 5 gallons and for a dollar each. I can have 4 or 5 batches going that way. Less money on fermentors means more money on beer and cider.

 

[estricklin]

I use only 5 gallon buckets almost exclusively. I do about 4.75 gallons in each one, I just keep a clean airlock setting in sanitizer ready to swap out once a day for the first few days as/if needed.

I usually just buy the white buckets from Wal-Mart but a bakery bucket is great, and most bakeries practically give them away!

For the lids, I use ones that came with my 6.5s, or I buy some from Wal-Mart or the hardware store. I drill a hole, and I have a big store of grommets I bought at the hardware store. If the lid doesn't fit super air tight it's no biggie, may not see as much airlock activity, which is fine if your pushing the volume limits like I do. I've seriously been using these for a hundred batches, cheap and effective.

 

[CoSkillet]

I use only 5 gallon buckets almost exclusively. I do about 4.75 gallons in each one, I just keep a clean airlock setting in sanitizer ready to swap out once a day for the first few days as/if needed.

I usually just buy the white buckets from Wal-Mart but a bakery bucket is great, and most bakeries practically give them away!

For the lids, I use ones that came with my 6.5s, or I buy some from Wal-Mart or the hardware store. I drill a hole, and I have a big store of grommets I bought at the hardware store. If the lid doesn't fit super air tight it's no biggie, may not see as much airlock activity, which is fine if your pushing the volume limits like I do. I've seriously been using these for a hundred batches, cheap and effective.

I'm just getting started and thought the exact same thing. Cheap and cost effective. Allows me to learn and keep batches going. With all the equipment I've got I have less than 50 dollars invested and haven't had a bad batch yet. I still have a few things to invest in like a hydrometer and stuff like that.

 

[CoSkillet]

Definitely looking forward to finding 4 gallon recipes and developing my own.

 

[estricklin]

I'm just getting started and thought the exact same thing. Cheap and cost effective. Allows me to learn and keep batches going. With all the equipment I've got I have less than 50 dollars invested and haven't had a bad batch yet. I still have a few things to invest in like a hydrometer and stuff like that.

At times I've got a lot of different beers going, some I age for months and months, even store bought buckets the cost would add up quick, especially since I do anywhere from 5-25 gallon batches with 10-15 being the norm.

You really don't need to scale down much, you'll just have a bit stronger beer. In the future you may want to invest in Beersmith or ProMash. I do think you'll be surprised how much you can push the volume though.