So looking into this plastic fermenter Hoping I can get an easy 10.5 yield out of this fermenter. Any feedback on this. I am not ready to step up to a conical fermenter, and these seem to be the most recommended plastic fermenters out there… thoughts? pros? cons?
Yes. I have six of the 30L speidels. Full to the neck they hold 9 gallons. I brew 6 gallons with only one blowoff in probably >50 batches.
If you plan to put these in a chest freezer, I suggest you go view one put together and measure the height. Make sure you’d have room for the airlock to do it’s job. With the airlock dry you’ll probably need an additional 2-3 inches. If its too tight of a fit it may not work as well. Obviously if it won’t fit at all that’s a problem. I suppose you could build a collar around the lid… anyway, good luck. Oh, can you lift 10 gallons in and out of a cooler too.
I have one 30L and love it. Super easy to clean and the the spigot is very convenient for easy transferring.
I can still dead lift 150lbs, so hopefully I will be alright. As long as there are good handles that wont bend or crack on me. My current beer cooler depth is 32" with the collar. So hopefully that will be close… How big is the air lock? I have read it is huge and takes some getting used to… but I have always pushed the limits on my fermenter and limited the headspace to only use a blow off tube.
I heart these fermenters. I have 3 of the 30Ls and 2 of the 20Ls. I may even get some of the little 12L guys for some tiny batches.
The air locks are HUGE, I’d estimate about 7-8" all told. I would imagine that you could replace the orange bung (with the huge hole in it) with a 1 gallon jug bung and put a normal airlock in it though.
That’s the perfect size I need right now. I have a 30 gallon fermenter and a bunch of 7.5ish gallon fermenters and sometimes this size would be just the thing. I really dislike that they have spigots though. To me adding an unnecessary part to a fermenter that is hard to thoroughly clean is not a good idea and then add in the possibility that the spigot is accidently left open.
You can just put the screw cap on the bottom port if you like since they are the same threading.
Thanks, that’s good to know. Also, when I make mead with crystallized honey I add very hot water. I learned the hard way that some plastic fermenters can’t take hot water. This looks like the type of plastic that can take hot water, is that correct?
That’s an interesting question that I can’t definitively answer, but can give anecdotal evidence for. They are made of HDPE. HDPE is usually rated for 230F continuous contact. The manufacturer says they are good for up to 140F (which is the same as the Better Bottle type fermenters). When Free State did a wort giveaway, some people brought their Spiedels to fill. The wort was at 155F and nothing bad happened that I could see. So… maybe?
Hmmn. I think I’ll start with my original plan to see if I can get something that size at a restaurant supply store.
I currently use a Speidel 60l fermenter for my 10 gal batches and I love it! Tons of headspace for a 10 gal batch and no worries of blowoff. There is approximately 2.5 gal of dead storage (below the valve) so I usually tip it to get all the beer off of the yeast cake. You get a little yeast when you first open the valve but it flows clear after a liter or so. It is heavy (~85 lbs) when full but the handles are stout. I brew in the garage and fill it there then carry it down a flight of stairs and lift it on to a counter top, it is heavy but I take my time and lift with my legs. I have done probably 6 batches this way with no problem. It is a good fermenter and a good value. I might add, that if you are worried about lifting it out of a freezer, it would be pretty easy to rig up a system to transfer by CO2 with this thing too.
I wonder if the 140F rating is due to safety concerns of somebody moving around hot liquid and potentially burning themselves.
My 1 cent opinion…LOL
I have 2 of the 30 Speidels fermenters… and one regular ferment er bucket
PROS of Speidels 30l:
-
I can see the liquid/ wort levels easily through the plastic which is white opaque but still levels are easy
to see + HDPE is heavy duty -
The spigot is at a good height and can be interchanged with supplied cap or what ever would fit the threads
or as some have done drill out the cap and add a thermowell and sensor, etc… -
parts are super easy to clean and I run some boiled water with a tiny bit of PBW and everything comes
out sparking clean… I wouldn’t fill them with over 1 gallon of boiling water… I usually just add like .5
gallons of boiling water and swish it around it inside the sealed up ferment with the cap slightly open to
allow the steam to vent. .as always be safe! -
Have stowaway handles to carry around and a over sized vent / air lock… But because it is taller…bigger
need to make sure you have clearances at that height -
I don’t do secondary or a bottling bucket and I bottle right from the fermenter. I just attach my wand right to
the spigot and transfer away to bottles!!
…saves me the time of
transferring the wort into a bottling bucket
Cons: Kind a expensive compared to a simple bucket but sooooooo WORTH IT!
7 gallon brew bucket fermenetr with lid, spigot and gasket
Pros:
1. is very simple to clean as well except it cant handle thew boiling water treatment… I’ve distorted my lid adding .25 Gallons of boiling water and swishing it around
2. cheap $ compared to Speidels $$$
Cons:
-
see: 1
-
hard to see the levels of worth through the solid plastic
For me id buy another speidel in a heart beat over a bucket… but both will ferment your Kool aid :) to same quality… But one in my onion has some pretty good advantages that justify the cost too me
Lol you can always get really cheap and get 6 gallon milk jugs and fermnet in that…
tahts about as cheap as you gonna get… LOL
I have three 30L and I love them, especially the spigot, it makes kegging (I would guess bottling too) a dream. You can use either 3/8" or 1/2" ID silicone tubing, the 3/8" fits over the spigot itself and the 1/2" goes a little further over the part holding the spigot, use a tool-less hose clamp for a little extra security.
The spigot itself can be disassembled and cleaned, I do it after every batch. It will snap out of the main body and snaps back in, there is definitely a locked in position for it. I’m sure over time this will eventually wear, but new ones are <$5.
I have never used the stock airlock. I take a #8 1/2 stopper freeze it and drill two holes, one for my thermowell and one for a standard S-lock. You could also buy a spare spigot and use that on the lid with a piece of tubing into a bucket like a typical blow-off setup.
They are a very sturdy plastic and I would guess they could handle very hot water, but I’ve never used anything hotter than what comes out of my tap with them.
Something that trips people up is that they ship with the lid installed inverted, the threaded part of the lid goes outside the fermenter.
The one thing that is subpar are the o-rings for the lid, they will wear out and stretch in short order. I replaced mine with buna-n rings from McMaster. The buna rings have slightly less thickness and are a bit harder durometer than the stock rings so a little more care is required when positioning and sealing the lid, but it’s certainly not a big deal and the buna rings should last a long, long, time.
FWIW, I’ve fermented at least 40 batches with the Spiedels without incident, except the one time I did leave the spigot open, fortunately it was only sanitizer and you only do that once 
What is your routine for sanitizing the spigot? I have one of the 30s and have been a bit paranoid about using it as it hangs around the bottom of the fermenter and is likely somewhat nasty.
I have 6 brand new never used spigots. I don’t like the idea. I use an auto siphon
I run star san through the spigot. As long as I am putting star san in the fermenter, it’s easy to run some through the spigot.
This is why I don’t like the idea of spigots on a fermenter. The wort/beer is sitting in the spigot with all that weight of its own forcing it to get as far into the gaskets and valve as possible then people just run star San through it. The stars an will just coat the outer surface of what’s in there for a little while and bofore evaporating leaving behind all that organic material. The physical activity of it passing through will get most off but it won’t touch what’s in the crevices. I always take apart and clean the spigot from my bottling bucket after rinsing it and there is stuff in there that would have been left there if I merely rinsed with Sanitizer. You need to take the spigot apart and soak in cleaner each time before sanitizing.
That last sentence…
Even if you take it apart and clean it, sanitize it, put back together, then what? Fill with beer, right. Then you wait a couple weeks to a month. Its time to rack. How do you clean it before you rack?
Anyway, im not trying to start an anti-spigot revolution. I’m just a clean freak and spigots give me the willies.
I still like my carboys, but if I used a spigot I’d be putting a sandwich bag or plastic wrap over it after cleaning/sanitizing that would stay on until racking time. But then I still need to sanitize the tubing I’m going to rack with so at that point I don’t see any advantage over an auto-siphon.