Questions before starting single stage fermenting

[rhys333]

Hi All,
So far I've been doing a 2 stage fermentation process, but based on adice here I want to try single stage for simplicity and reduced risk of oxidation. I have a large plastic primary fermentor bucket and a 6 gal US glass carboy. The bucket is easy to use and clean, so my preference is to try single staging with it rather than messing around with the carboy (wanting to avoid blow off hoses, loss of beer, sucking in star san solution, yadda yadda).

I'm attaching a pic of my plastic primary. There's no rubber seal under the lid, but I was thinking I'd lock down the lid and add an airlock on top. There's a good 4 to 5 inches headroom, so plenty of room for krausen to form without blowing out the lock. Is it okay to single stage this way, or do I need to use the glass carboy instead, with blow off hose, star san bucket and all that fun stuff?

 

[unionrdr]

No,that'll be fine. But drilling a hole for an airlock & grommet would be better,in my opinion. Release the co2 pressure before a very active initial fermentation blows the lid off by allowing pressure to build without escaping. As an interesting aside,I see Craig of craigtube fame using that style of fermenter quite often now.

 

[jotakah]

That bucket will do just fine. Just keep everything sterile as per usual, I do almost all of my fermenting primary-only in buckets and no issues yet

 

[rhys333]

No,that'll be fine. But drilling a hole for an airlock & grommet would be better,in my opinion. Realease the co2 pressure before a very active initial fermentation blows the lid off by allowing pressure to build without escaping. As an interesting aside,I see Craig of craigtube fame using that style of fermenter quite often now.

Great, thanks unionrdr. I do plan to drill the lid and install an airlock. Glad to hear I can keep this simple

 

[unionrdr]

Yea,verilly. Simple is good.

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

I just started a red ale last night with one of these buckets. I decided this morning to switch to a blow off cause activity was real high after only 12 hours.

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[flars]

Hold your fermentation temperature to the low range of the yeast and blow offs may never happen. Beer may have better flavor also.

 

[unionrdr]

Fermenting at the low end of a particular yeast's sweet spot will def give a cleaner tasting beer. Not to mention,I haven't needed a blow off rig since keeping to the lower temps,especially during initial fermentation where most of the action occurs.

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

I never let mine above 63f

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[unionrdr]

64-69F has been working pretty good for me,using anything from Cooper's ale yeast to US-05 to WL029 kolsh yeast.

 

[Conan]

Excellent, another convert to easy fermentation! As others have said watch your temps. This isn't particular to single-vessel fermenting, though.
Two questions: 1, where'd you get that ferm bucket? I'm looking for a larger vessel for special projects but can't come across one.
2, What's the green band around your bucket? Looks like a heater of some kind. Kyle

 

[rhys333]

Excellent, another convert to easy fermentation! As others have said watch your temps. This isn't particular to single-vessel fermenting, though.
Two questions: 1, where'd you get that ferm bucket? I'm looking for a larger vessel for special projects but can't come across one.
2, What's the green band around your bucket? Looks like a heater of some kind. Kyle

It's a 30+ L (8 gal) bucket from my LHBS, Brew for Less in Edmonton. I'm in Canada, so assuming you're in the US it might be hard getting hold of this particular one. The green band is a brew belt. I ferment in the basement where it cools down quite a bit overnight. I use the belt with a timer, maintaining approx 65F temp.

 

[rhys333]

So i think i've decided to let my current batch ferment out with the bucket pictures in my original post... Loose lid with no airlock. I don't want to transfer to secondary, but i also don't want to remove the lid from my primary in order to drill/fit an airlock. Fingers crossed i'm not risking infection. My LHBS seems to think i'm perfectly fine even without the airlock.

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