Metal trash can as kettle?

[Clifton]

I wonder.....pickle beer

Surprisingly, no. I soaked it in baking soda but never got rid of the smell. I only made a couple of batches before I found a deal on Ebay for $11 6 gallon carboys.

My point is that you don't have to invest $80 to give homebrewing a try. If you like it, you'll spend the extra money later.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I wonder if fermenting small batches in condoms is a good idea?

 

[jusware]

The other side of that coin though is the guy giving his friends and family iron poisoning because he's turned a couple of carbon steel drums into a 1 barrel system. There's a definite line between innovation and stupidity

I should have stipulated that after the thought of whether the device could be used, research is always a necessity.

 

[jgerard]

Soon homeless people will be on the corner boiling wort over their barrel fire.

 

[bottlebomber]

Soon homeless people will be on the corner boiling wort over their barrel fire.

I would definitely give a homebrewing bum five bucks for grains!

 

[stanzela]

Soon homeless people will be on the corner boiling wort over their barrel fire.

I would definitely give a homebrewing bum five bucks for grains!

Yeah man, totally. The world would be a better place.

 

[dan09554]

how do you get the "pickle" aroma out of the bucket? I've tried PBW, bleach and baking soda......not at the same time. Still smells like pickles




nevermind. i just read you didnt get rid of the smell

 

[Clifton]

It never went away. But it didn't make it into the beer either. I hear other people haven't been as lucky. I only used it for a couple of batches before I upgraded. I still have some pickle buckets and still use them for other purposes, just not fermentation.

 

[deuceontap]

Just some FYI for the group. If u r looking for boil kettle on the cheap, try your local mexican grocery store. Here they have large aluminum "tamale" pots for next to nothing compared to most other places.

 

[bottlebomber]

Just some FYI for the group. If u r looking for boil kettle on the cheap, try your local mexican grocery store. Here they have large aluminum "tamale" pots for next to nothing compared to most other places.

Yep... just don't try to put a valve on one of 'em, and hopefully there is something that you can use underneath the pot as a heat sink. Those things are like glorified tin foil.

 

[shelly_belly]

I remember when I was kid and we would go visit the grandparents in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We would always go catch a bunch of Blue crabs, bring them home and boil them up in a galvanized washtub over a wood fire on the ground. Wait, what was I saying?

 

[stanzela]

While the crabs sound great, I think I definitely have my answer. In the end, I wasn't really even considering doing this, but as has been mentioned several times in this thread, I'm at the point where I can't walk past anything without thinking about using it in my setup (I never would have thought that rubbermaid coolers would look so appealing...).

The build-quality issue is really what would keep me from doing this. While losing a bunch of boil water for your crabs is kinda crappy, losing 5 gals of precious wort after hand-grinding 12lb of grain would simply break my heart. I'm glad this post sparked a bit of interesting discussion though. I'd certainly be interested to hear about other interesting boil-kettle ideas that have worked. Another thought I'd considered was using one of those antique, metal milk cans. I think those too might be galvanized though, and likely have a seam at the bottom.