explosivebeer
Well-Known Member
I've recently stepped up my production capacity from 5-gallon batches to about 13-gallon batches, thanks to the addition of a keggle and an outdoor burner. Since I don't have a giant fermentation vessel, my last batch is split into three carboys. It's cool that I can play with different yeast strains and see a direct side-by-side comparison but ultimately I'd like to do single-vessel fermenting again.
I was recently at a manufacturing trade show and came across several suppliers of large food-grade HDPE containers - basically over-sized ale pails. Obviously it is more ideal to ferment in glass or better bottles, but as I have yet to find a 15-20-gallon option of those two, how detrimental would it be to use a large HDPE drum? I can get 15-gallon drums for $22 and 20-gallon drums for $25.
Or the other option is that I have some sanke kegs laying around that I was going to convert to a three-tiered system, but I might be able to use those for fermentation.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the first person to come across this quandary but I haven't found any good solutions so I was curious what other people with experience have done. Thanks for your input.
I was recently at a manufacturing trade show and came across several suppliers of large food-grade HDPE containers - basically over-sized ale pails. Obviously it is more ideal to ferment in glass or better bottles, but as I have yet to find a 15-20-gallon option of those two, how detrimental would it be to use a large HDPE drum? I can get 15-gallon drums for $22 and 20-gallon drums for $25.
Or the other option is that I have some sanke kegs laying around that I was going to convert to a three-tiered system, but I might be able to use those for fermentation.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the first person to come across this quandary but I haven't found any good solutions so I was curious what other people with experience have done. Thanks for your input.