Best Fermentation Vessel

I’ve really only used glass car boys and plastic buckets.

I don’t mind the buckets, but I don’t like that you have to open the lid to see what’s going on. I like the transparency of the glass, but they’re heavy and can be safety hazards.

I was wondering what fermenting vessels folks on here primarily use?

I was looking at a big mouth bubbler and I was also looking at the Speidels, but I can get two bubblers for the price of one Speidel.

Personally, I think stainless is the way to go.

I switch between a 10 gallon corny keg with a trimmed liquid dip tube and a 7 gallon SS Brew Bucket.  The SS Bucket is easier to clean but the corny can hold a lot more pressure, and I never have to worry about blowoff.

I also use a 10 gallon corny with a trimmed spear tube.  Agree with narcout that some stainless option is the way to go.  I have used a Speidel, but I really do not like plastic.  Beyond the obvious sanitation challenges,  it pemanently retains smells, and has such high insulating value that temperature control becomes more difficult,  and temperature must be monitored in a thermowell,  stick-on fermometers or external probes are useless.

I have come to really appreciate Stainless fermenters, too, but I appreciate the plastic ones, too - I have 2-7 gallon SS Brewmaster Buckets, 2-15 gallon Chapman SS tanks; 2-60L Speidel plastic fermenters and 2 Big Mouth Bubblers without ports.  I brew 10 gallon batches, typically, but I can use the BrewBuckets, BMB’s and regular 6.5 gallon buckets I have laying around on 5 gallon batches when in the process of ramping up some yeast to a 10 gallon batch pitch size…At any given time, I may have a couple fermenters full or all of them!

I don’t typically worry about watching the fermentation, other than some airlock activity, if it happens to be in process.  Pitching a load of healthy yeast means, it usually finishes pretty darn quick, so the show is over before I get back to checking, sometimes.

I really like PET plastic. I use the Fermonster. Huge fan of this fermenter, got 8 of them in my fleet. It’s all I’ll ever use, for many reasons–one of them being I can buy ~10 of them for one SS fermenter. Don’t use steel wool to clean the inside (duh) and you won’t have any atypical sanitation challenges with any plastic fermenter. The perceived disadvantages of plastic are, IMO, hugely overblown, and the advantages are many. That said, a problem with the big mouth bubbler is the textured, bubbled walls, which are a pain to clean. The Fermonster is basically the same but uses smooth plastic throughout, much easier to clean.

Do you use the corny for your primary fermentation?

Nice! I’ll look into that one as well as SS options.

Yes - primary in corny and then rack under CO2 pressure to the serving keg

^^^^
I do the same.

Interesting. I never thought to do that. I normally rack to serving keg for the secondary, but I’ve never done that with the primary.

How do you deal with the CO2 build up during primary fermentation?

I make an “airlock” by putting a QD on the gas post with a tube into a jar of Star  San.  With 6 gallons or so of fermenting wort in the 10 gallon corny there’s no chance of clogging it with blow off.  Pic:  20180812_165027.jpg - Google Drive
I take the QD off and pressurize to a few psig before crashing so suckback isn’t an issue.

Of course if you wanted you could use this essentially like a unitank and carbonate before racking under counterpressure to a serving keg.  But I never have.

Definitely interesting…but that might be a little out of my wheelhouse.

To me maybe the greatest appeal of the 10 gal corny is that it is physically/ mechanically the simplest stainless option.  No moving parts, no valves, it’s just a big keg.  Sealed, sanitary,  easy to clean, move around, etc. and uses the same fittings, tubing and such I already have for kegging.

I still love my plastic buckets. They’re cheap and easy to clean. When I’m ready to retire them, they either go to sour/brett fermentation or to the shop/garage/garden.

Here’s a vote for the Speidel. I finally gave up my glass habit and recently purchased some 30-liter fermentation tanks. Fiddled with the airlock situation – swapped the screw-on for a drilled rubber stopper – and it was off to the races. Super light and easy to clean, though I do miss spacing out in the basement watching yeast eat.

Rob, how do you clean it, CIP with a pump or use a brush to get to the stuff on the bottom?  I would worry about getting my elbow stuck in the opening since It is roughly the same size as the 5 gallon version.

I mentioned this as I had a friend in the Mansfield Brew Club who wanted to remove beer stone from his 5 gallon corny.  I told him to mix up 1 oz per gallon of Star San and use that to remove the stone.  He put his arm in to clean the bottom and was afraid that it would get his elbow stuck in the opening and would have to go to either the ER of the local EMT’s to get it out of there.  Obviously, he did not get it stuck in the keg.  The mental picture it painted had me rolling on the floor laughing!

Yep, same here.

Goose, I use Craftmeister Alkaline on mine.  Cold water, no scrubbing needed.

I use essentially the same procedure as for 5 gallon kegs. I remove the lid, posts, and gas tube for separate cleaning. I fill the tank with PBW or whatever to soak and toss in the spear tube. Since I can’t pick it up and dump it like a 5 gallon corny, I use one of these and can rapidly direct most of the liquid to my adjacent floor drain, then dump the rest:

Rinsing is easy with a hose.

If I have to get in and scrub, I picked up a floor drain brush (like a giant bottle brush on a mop handle) from a janitorial supply store.  Scrubbing is not normally needed, but might be with a beer stone remover (like 5 Star BSR or, better  yet, a dairy milkstone remover,) these products just loosen the beer stone and some mechanical action is usually needed to remove it. (They are more effective  than Star San IME.)

For sanitizing I fill with iodophor and drain with the siphon.  I see no need to waste gas pushing it out, I need air in there to start fermentation anyway.

All in all, minimal lifting and no extractions by the fire department!

How far up do you cut the dip tube when using the 10 gallon cornie keg for fermenting?  Also, how much does the 10 gallon cornie keg weigh when empty?  I am considering one now, too.

Cheers.