I discovered the other night that my veteran BetterBottle 6 gallon primary fermenter has developed some sort of stress crack/dimple on the inside. Don’t know how that happened but doesn’t really matter - it’s done.
So, I am in the market for a new fermenter. While I liked the BetterBottle, I think I want to go back to a more durable material. Actually thought about going old school with a 6.5 gallon glass carboy. I would love to get a stainless steel conical, but my dogs blatantly refuse to crap gold nuggets to fund my brewery upgrades ;D
IMO, for small scale fermentation, buckets win. Unless you want to go for a conical, I find them a far better solution than carboys. Not only do I hate glass, but I find the carboy form factor impractical. Buckets are easier to clean and take up less room to store.
Denny, I assume that you nest your buckets for storage. Do you do anything to prevent a nested bucket from scratching the interior of the other bucket I try to avoid nesting to avoid scratches which give a place for bacteria to hide.
Nope, I do nothing and it’s not a problem. I don’t think the idea of scratches harboring bacteria that can ruin your beer has ever been tested. I’ve certainly never found it to be a problem. I have buckets that have been in use for a couple hundred batches and have minor scratches…no problem.
I use the Fermonster 7 gallon and 6 1/2 gallon Bigmouth Bubblers. I like the large openings in both when it comes time to clean or remove hop bags.
The Bigmouth Bubbler has some dimpled areas which make it a little harder to clean, but a microfiber cloth helps. It also has a 2 piece lid, which some have problems with.
I like the fact that the Fermonster is much smoother and has a single piece closure. Personally, I prefer both to BetterBottles, if for nothing else the larger capacity. I find no need to use a blowoff on the Fermonster and seldom on the Bigmouth Bubblers. I ferment 5.5 gallons.
I’m with Denny on minor scratches in plastic fermenters. Good cleaning and sanitizing practices all but assure no problems.
I used glass until hearing some horror stories about injuries. I also am getting to an age where every pound counts when lifting.
I’ve used the 6.5 gal. plastic Bigmouth Bubblers for two years now and 30 batches. I’d buy again but they look like they will last a good deal longer. They have improved the lid design. Get the valve option.
I know that lots of folks like buckets but I enjoy seeing the beer churning away while the little yeast beasties make alcohol and bubbles. It’s part of the fun of home brewing.
Another vote for buckets. I have tons of these 7.9 gallon wine fermenter buckets. Plenty of headspace for 5.5 gallon batches. I rarely if ever need to use a blowoff hose using these.
Well, it’s not like I sit and look at it all day like I was a stoner staring at a Lava Lamp. ;D It’s more like checking your tropical fish twice a day. Maybe someday I’ll be tired of it, but not yet.
I used buckets 30 some years ago when I first got into this addiction, when I got back into it this spring I upgraded most of my equipment and that included switching to plastic conicals. At this point you couldn’t force me to go back to buckets. I would prefer to have stainless conicals but like you I haven’t found any gold turds in my yard lately, and haven’t yet seen any significant downside to plastic ones, except that the 1st one does have sealing problems. I think a new gasket will cure that, and even at it’s worst it seals many times better than my best bucket ever did.
Stevie’s point is very valid if you need to fit your fermenter into a fridge, the Fast Ferment conicals are 32 1/2" high from the base of the stand to the top of the lid, not including ferm loc or blowoff tube. I had to put a 90 degree barbed close nipple in the loc-hole to get it to just barely squeeze into my keg old fridge.
One of the many advantages to using conicals is the elimination of racking from your fermenter, simply dump your trub ball when primary fermentation is done [or whenever you get around to it] and then bottle or keg right from the fermenter. I still bottle and it is a cake walk from a conical compared to goofing around with siphoning from a carboy or a bucket.
These other guys all have much more experience and knowledge than me, but you might at least give a thought to conicals.
I also have a fast ferment conical and I actually stopped using it and went back to carboys. I wasn’t really very happy with it and I had problems with it getting clogged on the main port on the bottom. On a few occasions I ended up racking out of the top of it because the bottom was just a brick and wouldn’t flow out. I did make some fine beer in it, but the valve situation was annoying and the fact that it is so big made it hard to move, and I had to build a new chamber for it.
I had some sealing issue with it, but I didn’t care much about that. Half the time I just put some foil over my carboy openings anyway, just don’t let dust and bugs get in and it will be fine.
All that said, lot of people like it and I think some people are adding a racking port near the bottom to get around the plugging issue.
There is a new one out there called the catalyst. I think it is a kickstarter thing at this point. It is similar in concept to the fast ferment but a little different in implementation.