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Hey fellas, just curious are ya using glass,plastic or old soda kegs to ferment in.if you are using plastic how many batches are you getting out of a bucket? I think eventually I would like to use a keg and be able to transfer under pressure,but for know I use plastic buckets.

How you doing JB?

I hope I am understanding your question okay - you are asking about fermenters right?

If so, most Aussies use plastic fermenters. A few use glass and I have never heard of anyone using kegs to ferment in though I remember thinking on this a few years back and making all sorts of weird and wonderful designs of fermenting in a soda keg - one of my designs even had the soda keg upside down though I can't remember why!!! (I think it was so it would act like a conical fermenter). For some reason I gave up on the idea but again, I can't remember why???

I'll have to dig up some old emails because I did discuss the plan with several other brewers. (I think hashie was one of them.) Now, off the top of my head, I can't see any problems with fermenting in a soda keg (right way up). Over here, they cost double what a plastic fermenter costs but that is only an extra $35.

I hope I interpreted your post correctly. If not, it at least has started me thinking again. My initial thoughts are all very positive. What am I not seeing?

Thanks JB,
PP

I prefer better bottles. http://www.better-bottle.com/

I like being able to see my delicious fermentation, glass is awkward to handle. The big buckets are pretty bulky, too.

I also use a better bottle for my secondary. Still use my siphonless bucket primary though.

Hey PP sorry about that you got the question right it was late and that was the fourth attempt to post (keep losing signal)
there's a guy in town who ferments in a soda keg,looks really cool.
I like the better bottles don't have to worry about them breaking.
I am now using a small freezer for temp. control that a plastic bucket fits in perfect so i don't think i will be changing anytime soon

Hello JB how are you?

When trying to compare between plastic to carboy fermentors, there are the main issues such as:

1. Cleanning - as plastic bucket are wayyyy easier to clean rather than the carboys.
2. Odors - Plastic buckets tend to to hold the smell of previous batch.
3. Scratches - in plastic buckets, allowing a great home for sorts of germs.
4. Visabillity - using carboys will allow you to follow the process of fermentation.


Check this URL, as it summerize it all (quite minimal though..):
http://www.brewersfriend.com/2008/12/28/metal-vs-plastic-for-brewing-equipment/

I hope this helps.

I really like the better bottles simply because they are lighter and easier to handle. I do closed system tranfers by using a carboy cap outfitted with quick disconnect that I attach to the gas and a racking cane in the center hole of the carboy cap. This works great.

That sounds like a top way to transfer from a carboy mike. When I was using a carboy, I always used an auto siphon to transfer.

OT; I have used plastic buckets, glass carboys and now use a stainless conical fermenter.

The plastic buckets are fine, so long as they don't get scratched up and the tap and tap hole are cleaned and sanitised regularly.

The glass carboy was brilliant, easy to clean, so long as you don't let the crap go hard. I could see what was going on. But being glass, it broke around the neck one day while I was cleaning it.

The stainless conical is the best of the 3, sure it would take a lot of plastic buckets to pay for it, but for ease of use, cleaning, sanitising and harvesting yeast, it wins hands down.

PP; I do recall that topic of fermenting in a corny. From memory, you had it upside down to use the gas post as a trub/yeast dump and the beer out as a gas release/bubbler. I can't recall what the outcome of the topic was, too many beers...

For a two worlds enjoyment, go for the V-Vessel. Man, that's a serious fermentor (available only in 20L ).

It has so many advantages, mainly, as the "ball" does the entire tasks.

http://newstore.vvessel.com/

Just a question about the conical hashie, how do you go about temp control for your fermentation? I have considered one of these myself but was unsure about the whole temp thing.

That looks brilliant and it's a little bit cheaper than a standard conical. It is going on my wish list.

I don't have any temp control, other than brewing in a fairly stable (temp wise) room.

This time of year the temp is around 10C and in Summer it is around 20C.

When I eventually get a chest freezer with temp control for my kegs, I will use my beer fridge with a temp control for fermenting.

Hope that helps.

Hi Timos everything is great thanks for asking .Think i might have a go at a local beer competition.Fiqure i've been brewing long enough, time to throw the hat in the competition ring.
Op was more out of curiosity as to which fermentation utensil was more popular
I really like the look of the V-Vessel looks cool, no room for that thou or a nice shiny conical.
fermenting in an old keg is in the future thou not near future. I think that process looks simple and I can buy soda kegs local fairly cheap.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/primary ... eg-138178/

LOL! But hold on, it's all coming back to me now

The idea was to be able to ferment, carbonate and condition in a single vessel with the vessel being a corny keg.

I think you could do it fairly well even with the keg the right way up as you could get rid of most of the slurry through the normal liquid tube. The biggest problems would be...

1. Slurry - You'd have to make sure your dip tube went right to the bottom.
2. Headspace - The other big problem with this was the 19 L size of a corny leaving you the choice of no headspace or much smaller batches. (This small size is also something that turned me off the V-Vessel that jb has mentioned.)

I think my thinking on the above stopped due to the small headspace. I ended up trying to add a plastic type funnel blow-off system but this becomes too complex and all simplicity is lost. (I still have the prototypes )

Just had a search on the net yesterday and you can get 30L kegs though. See here or here for example. I think these could work quite well.

Minimum order is 30 kegs. Bulk buy anyone?


PP

Hi there jb,

I just read through the link above. I hadn't realised that anyone had tried this before. Also had never heard of Fermcap. Thanks for the great read.

I'm wondering how many of those guys are not even bothering to transfer to a serving keg?

Cheers to you,
PP

P.S. Also enjoyed the links to the keg/carboy washers.

I use Fermcap (or something like it) for each boil and in the primary. I read up on it and thought I would give it a try. My LHBS store was out! The craft brewery next store bought there whole supply! I went next door and asked why he bought out the fermcap? He said "Did you ever have to cleanup after a 80 gallon boil over?"



http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/fermcap-s-1-oz.html

Looks like the goods, Bob. I'd order some but I'm not in the "contiguous USA" so postage would be a killer. I really would like some anti foam as my stouts in particular can go berserk through the airlock - I ferment some yeasts such as Ringwood and Irish Ale at 22 degrees Celsius and although they produce good beers they also produce the occasional volcano. I'll check out the local mail order scene.

Thanks for the link Bob.

Beachbum, after reading Bob's link, I know that MHB in Newcastle stocks it or something similiar. It works in both the boil and the ferment. I remember he said it is brilliant in the boil too. His number is 02 49696696.

Cheers!