How to age 500 liter batches

[digits]

Hello,

Up until this point I've been using plastic buckets as fermenters, and then carboys for secondary and aging. While this works, I'm thinking about expanding and making bigger batches, a few hundred liters / hundred gallons at a time.

A replacement for the plastic bucket fermenters seems fairly easy, it just boils down to finding a big enough container. There's quite a few stainless steel options out there. Basically big stainless steels pots with a lid on top, which works fine, as the mead needs to be oxygenated anyways.

I'm more curious as to how people deal with the secondary and long term aging in big containers. I'm having limited success finding bigger containers. There's the huge commercial stainless steel fermenters mainly aimed towards beer brewing, which I think is overkill for what I'm trying to do. There are lots of stainless steel containers, but they can't be made air tight. I found some variable capacity tanks: https://musca.com/shop/winemaking-supplies/stainless-steel-tanks/variable-capacity-tanks/ , but I'm wondering how reliable those are for long term aging. Other research suggests using carboys or kegs. But that's a bunch of smaller containers again, which is what I'm trying to get away from.

Has anyone encountered the same issue before?

Kind regards,
digits

 

[Rish]

Might look for something like this food grade barrel. There was a brewery I visited that used them as fermenters, should be able to age also. Good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Drums-55-Gallons/s?k=Plastic+Drums+55+Gallons

 

[fluketamer]

im just curious why do you need or what do you do with a hundred of gallons of mead?

 

[MaxStout]

Ren Fest?

 

[digits]

Might look for something like this food grade barrel. There was a brewery I visited that used them as fermenters, should be able to age also. Good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Drums-55-Gallons/s?k=Plastic+Drums+55+Gallons

Not sure I'm brave enough to age in plastic, but it is an intriguing idea.... It looks quite practical.

 

[digits]

im just curious why do you need or what do you do with a hundred of gallons of mead?

A combination of being popular with the neighbours and wanting to make sure I have enough so that I'm not tempted to keep drinking it all. I'd like to age a significant amount for a few years, to see how that actually tastes.

 

[MightyMosin]

If you have any wineries near you, you can check to see if they sell their used oak barrels if you don't mind it going into that. There are two sort of near me that sell there's at a steep discount.

If you are in the US, don't run afoul of the legal limit on quantity that is allowed on an annual basis. I believe most States are 100 gallon or 200 if there are 2 or more adults.