What fermenter?

[Robdog289]

One obviously pricier than the other. I always have beer fermenting so it will be used as often as possible. Spend the extra money for the stainless and probably have it forever, or go for the plastic, which basically does exactly the same thing for half the price.....

http://shop.greatfermentations.com/product/7-gallon-ss-brewtech-chronical/ss-brewtech-fermenters?gclid=CK-dobDcodICFdhKDQodLAgLeg

or https://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-catalyst?gdffi=aa92829c2cf847b6a646261bd5b23c06&gdfms=48FCF1CB84EA4A11B12FF62665F9D694&gclid=COaSkMvcodICFU9WDQodA5UHZg

 

[kev211]

If youre leaning towards SS, why not try the SS 7 gal brew bucket. Much cheaper than the chronical, but performs the same tasks (mostly). I have 2 of them and love them. I dont harvest yeast, so dont really need the yeast dump port on the bottom of the chronical

 

[Timberline]

It's hard to go wrong with stainless if you're going to be in this for the long haul. At the same time, I really like being able to see what's going with my fermentation w/o opening it up.

 

[PADave]

I started with plastic, Speidel, Fermonster, and will soon be upgrading to SS brew buckets. Mainly for the ease of cleaning.

 

[RM-MN]

I started with plastic buckets about 10 years ago and still have and use the original bucket along with another 4 that I have added. Can you prove that the fermenters you have shown make enough better beer than my buckets to justify the expense or is this a case of see-want. I can brew a lot of beer by spending that money on ingredients instead of fancy fermenter. JMHO

 

[brewcat]

If you are going that route, go stainless.

The other thing though is temp control. Seems the stainless might be harder to fit somewhere.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Good ol' 6.5 gallon $15 dollar buckets have been working for me for years. Lightweight,easy to move,super easy to clean....the beer doesn't care what its in,only the guy looking at it. Buy whatever's going to make you happy they all do the same thing

 

[Sailingeric]

If you are new to the hobby, go cheap to make sure you like it, then you can up grade later. Easier to spend $20- $30 and not like the hobby than spend $200- $300 and use it once because you don't like brewing.

 

[Robdog289]

I have 6 batches under my belt. they all turned out good, surprisingly!!
I just want to buy once and have it last. i think the $200 one is pricey for what it is. but i would like to be able to see the fermentation without opening the lid. ( it does sit in a pitch black basement corner so light is not an issue)

can you actually bottle from the ss brewbucket? or do i need a plastic brewbucket with a spigot and bottle filler?

 

[kev211]

I have 6 batches under my belt. they all turned out good, surprisingly!!
I just want to buy once and have it last. i think the $200 one is pricey for what it is. but i would like to be able to see the fermentation without opening the lid. ( it does sit in a pitch black basement corner so light is not an issue)

can you actually bottle from the ss brewbucket? or do i need a plastic brewbucket with a spigot and bottle filler?

It has a ball valve on the bottom, so yes you can bottle from it. I moved from glass to plastic to now SS and tbh, I dont really miss watching the fermentation. I can still see the water bubble on my blowoff!

 

[Pappers_]

I wouldn't spend $200 on a plastic fermenter, but that's a personal decision, not a right-or-wrong decision.

 

[Robdog289]

I think i am going to go with the 7 gallon brewbucket brewmaster. That really is all i need. I am not going to harvest yeast so this should do nicely. I agree $200 for a plastic fermenter is alot of money, when i can get the nice SS brewbucket that does everything the same besides emptying the trub and catching yeast. I am sure the brewbucket will hold up much better over time and i will enjoy it. And i don't need to keep it in a dark corner so people can actually see it next to my bar in the basement!

 

[kev211]

I think i am going to go with the 7 gallon brewbucket brewmaster. That really is all i need. I am not going to harvest yeast so this should do nicely. I agree $200 for a plastic fermenter is alot of money, when i can get the nice SS brewbucket that does everything the same besides emptying the trub and catching yeast. I am sure the brewbucket will hold up much better over time and i will enjoy it. And i don't need to keep it in a dark corner so people can actually see it next to my bar in the basement!

I dont know if you use a blow off tube, but look into the blow-off tube assembly for it (like 15 bucks). Easy to install on the lid. The built in thermowell on the brewmast edition is awesome! I love mine!

 

[Robdog289]

I dont know if you use a blow off tube, but look into the blow-off tube assembly for it (like 15 bucks). Easy to install on the lid. The built in thermowell on the brewmast edition is awesome! I love mine!

i ordered that as well

 

[whovous]

I am fairly happy with the Catalyst. I especially like being able to open the door to my FC and see it bubbling away. I wish it had a better way to draw off wort for a hydrometer sample. A place for a Thermowell would be nice, too. Both would increase the price, of course.

 

[skraeling]

First dont buy stuff from midwest. They are horrifically overpriced on everything they sell.

Second. Ill also seconding the SS bucket. I just got one and i love it.

 

[Braufessor]

I think i am going to go with the 7 gallon brewbucket brewmaster. That really is all i need. I am not going to harvest yeast so this should do nicely. I agree $200 for a plastic fermenter is alot of money, when i can get the nice SS brewbucket that does everything the same besides emptying the trub and catching yeast. I am sure the brewbucket will hold up much better over time and i will enjoy it. And i don't need to keep it in a dark corner so people can actually see it next to my bar in the basement!

I agree on the brew bucket recommendation. I would never recommend that much money for plastic. And, the conical is probably over kill.

Also - you can EASILY harvest yeast from the SS brew bucket when you get to that point in your brewing. I have 4 brew buckets and I harvest yeast all the time for reuse. I have been extremely happy with them as fermenters.

 

[kh54s10]

http://www.better-bottle.com/

I often have a couple of beers and a couple of wines fermenting at the same time. So any of those conicals are out of the question for me for monetary reasons.... I got most of my Better Bottles on sales. Some were buy one get one sales. I find them very easy to clean. Soak with Oxyclean or generic, rinse, swirl a washcloth, inside with a couple cups of hot water, rinse again and store away. The longest part of cleaning is filling with water and Oxy.

 

[kev211]

I agree on the brew bucket recommendation. I would never recommend that much money for plastic. And, the conical is probably over kill.

Also - you can EASILY harvest yeast from the SS brew bucket when you get to that point in your brewing. I have 4 brew buckets and I harvest yeast all the time for reuse. I have been extremely happy with them as fermenters.

Ive been thinking about trying my hand at harvesting yeast. How do you do it from the brew bucket? Just dump it out the top? Or fill with water and go out the bottom port?

 

[hezagenius]

Is there an easy/cheap way to keep a stainless fermenter temp controlled?

With my Fermonster, I can do a swamp cooler which is not elegant but certainly cheap. One of the things holding me back from getting a stainless fermenter is that it seems like it would require either a glycol setup or a fridge to do temp control. And can you do heating and cooling with a glycol setup?

 

[skraeling]

Is there an easy/cheap way to keep a stainless fermenter temp controlled?

With my Fermonster, I can do a swamp cooler which is not elegant but certainly cheap. One of the things holding me back from getting a stainless fermenter is that it seems like it would require either a glycol setup or a fridge to do temp control. And can you do heating and cooling with a glycol setup?

glycol does not do heating at least for the setups we use anyway.

how cheap? I picked up a full size fridge on craigslist for 50.00 Itll fit two brew buckets side by side in it.

I just use a seed germination mat to heat, works really well.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I'll vote stainless, with a twist, get a slim quarter keg, I ferment in corny's and a half barrel (depending on if I'm doing something else with 1/3 or 1/2 of the batch) Easy to clean, you can ferment under pressure, transfer with CO2, and they're just generally pretty sturdy.

 

[Braufessor]

Ive been thinking about trying my hand at harvesting yeast. How do you do it from the brew bucket? Just dump it out the top? Or fill with water and go out the bottom port?

I generally brew a low ABV/Low hop beer first generation with any yeast I use .... Blonde ale, kolsch, helles, Dark Mild, etc.

I DO NOT use the little racking arm at all in a beer I want to harvest yeast from.... don't use it in most other beers either, but definitely not in this beer.

I transfer clean wort ( low trub, low hop, etc) to fermenter. Pitch yeast. Ferment as normal for about 2 weeks to let yeast finish and really drop out into cone.

1-2 days before transferring beer to keg, I put fermenter up on counter so it can settle out again from any movement.

Transfer beer to keg.

Leave a quart or so of beer behind in fermenter (basically don't tip the fermenter forward to get every drop out).

Have 6 mason jars/lids cleaned and in star san.

Swirl up the remaining beer/yeast in the fermenter very well (lid is still on fermenter).

Pouring through the spigot on the fermenter, fill a jar at a time with yeast slurry/beer and put lid on. You can get about 6 jars (1/2 pint to pint size). Use each jar as needed. I generally make a 1L starter from each for each new beer. I will use one of the last jars to make another low ABV/low hop beer to harvest from. I don't harvest from heavily dry hopped beers, or beers that have other additions, etc.

I do not add water, or rinse yeast - most of what I have read on that suggests you are just simply way better off leaving the yeast in the beer (lower pH, alcohol wards off nasties better than water does.)

 

[frozengator]

I have the conical fermintor, I did one batch so far. It went well and I have some awesome beer. Next one I am going to try and collect yeast.