Help me upgrade fermenters

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

Like the title says, I’m looking to upgrade fermenters, but don’t know which direction I should go. I’ve been using a plastic bucket for primary fermentation, then transferring to a glass carboy to do my lagering. This has served me well, however, I have now realized that I HATE transferring from the glass carboy to the keg with a siphon. I either leave too much beer behind or suck up too much trub into the keg. I would like to upgrade to something better. Here are a list of my requirements:

1. It absolutely has to fit in my chest freezer fermentation chamber.

2. I would like to be able to do forced CO2 transfers and eliminate the use of a siphon.

3. I want to be able to move the clearest beer possible from the fermenter into the keg.

4. Not really a necessity, but it would be nice to be able to harvest the yeast, or at a minimum, get rid of the trub. Most of the time I overbuild starters, so this really isn’t all that important.

I would love to buy a conical, but that won’t fit in the freezer and would require a glycol chiller and I really don’t want to break the bank. Is there anything out there that fits bill?

 

[mongoose33]

You might look at the plastic fermenters with a spigot. They aren't perfect for what you want, but they're close.

I don't do forced CO2 transfers, I just drain into a CO2-purged keg, returning the displaced CO2 into the top of the fermenter as it drains. Takes a little longer (20 minutes or even more sometimes) but I just do something else while it drains. Easy peasy.

With a spigot there is no siphon, none of that nonsense.

Here's a pic showing the closed-loop transfer; it's a older pic, now I feed the CO2 back into the fermenter using a piece of rigid plastic tubing through a stopper.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I wholeheartedly recommend the ported fermonster made in Canada by the Vintage Shop. I have 4 of them I ordered from morebeer.com, the spigot is so much easier to use than a siphon and the large opening makes cleaning a breeze. The screw-on lid with o-ring is super secure, and if you order a blank lid without the holes you can drill for fittings to do pressurized transfers. I also have brew haulers for each one, makes it easy to move the fermenter when full.

 

[Nokt]

Is there a risk of doing a pressure transfer with a plastic container?

 

[STMF]

Is there a risk of doing a pressure transfer with a plastic container?

Yes, ofcourse there is.

 

[beermanpete]

I have been looking for a replacement for my plastic fermentor as well. I started a thread about it and got great suggestions.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/s-s-fermentor-question.646696/

@Nokt Yes there is some risk. The gas pressure must be kept very low, about 2 PSI.

 

[Nokt]

I have been looking for a replacement for my plastic fermentor as well. I started a thread about it and got great suggestions.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/s-s-fermentor-question.646696/

@Nokt Yes there is some risk. The gas pressure must be kept very low, about 2 PSI.

That's where I was heading. I would think that a SS brew Bucket or something similar would be a better option. However, you would need some way have a way to convert the airlock port to a gas post.

Edit: What about a corny keg?

 

[beermanpete]

If you use a three piece air lock you can take the cap and floating piece off and put the gas hose on the tube in the center of the lower piece.

 

[thehaze]

I recommend Speidel: https://www.morebeer.com/products/speidel-plastic-fermenter-30l-79-gal.html

I have 5 of those and they are really great. Plenty of space for 5-7 gallons, have a spigot, a large opening on top for dry hopping and easy cleaning and an oversized airlock. They are sturdy, so are the handles and can withstand a bit more pressure than regular thin walled plastic and glass fermenters.

 

[Blackdirt_cowboy]

I have looked at some of the plastic fermenters y’all have recommended. My current plastic bucket has a valve at the bottom and I have tried using it instead of the siphon. The trouble is that the layer of yeast and trub is always higher than the valve, making it useless to move the beer to the fermenter. I guess something with a rotating racking arm would be better, that way it would be efficient at whatever level the trub may be.

 

[mongoose33]

Is there a risk of doing a pressure transfer with a plastic container?

Yes. I've tried pressure transfers with my BMBs using the spigot. What tends to happen is the lid pops off. It's exciting when it does.

You could avoid that with the screw-on lid on the Fermonster but then...you're risking over-pressurizing and rupturing the fermenter with all the attendant mess and such that would result.

I tried a few times to see if pressure transfers would significantly accelerate racking into a keg. In my experience, not really. Not worth the hassle, not worth the risk of rupturing the fermenter. I just let them drain.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

+1 on fermonsters. I have three of them now. If you don't disturb the trub layer when you move it, the spigot port is high enough that it will avoid pulling in any of the compacted trub after cold-crashing. The lid size is big enough that top-cropping yeast is easy. They will hold a reasonable amount of pressure.

I built a closed loop transfer rig - a brass 1/4" tee, with shut-off valves on either end, with the bottom of the tee shoved into a #10 stopper. One side of the tee goes to a flare fitting, so I can hook it up to a CO2 tank, and the other goes to a blow-off tube. If the pressure gets too high, the stopper will pop out of the lid. In theory (this beer is the first test), it will let me ferment, then I can cold crash on 1 psi to prevent suck-back issues, then closed transfer to a keg (brewing an NEIPA, so going a little crazy on oxidation precautions).

They are a little tall, but I can fit them in my mini-fridge using a little platform I built to make the bottom of the fridge even with the compressor hump.

 

[hezagenius]

You can try fermenting in a corny keg and cut the diptube a little shorter to get it above the trub layer. You can also put a SS mesh filter around the diptube. This would probably require not doing a full 5 gallon batch.

Depending on your height clearance, you can ferment in a 1/4 barrel sanke keg if you want a full 5 gallons. There are many options to connect triclover fittings to sankes for fermenting. I use a pony keg for fermenting and use a kegerator as my ferm chamber. No clearance issues with this set up.

Pressure transfers from corny and sanke kegs are a breeze.