60lt Fermenter Pros/cons

[Carboy]

Hi, and Happy New Year!

I'll going to move to double batches soon, and I was wondering if there's any Pros/Cons for using a 60lt fermenter? other than needing a bloody BIG fridge. *** I did try searching the forum, but found nothing.

Cheers
Carboy :icon_cheers:

 

[Smashin]

Hi, and Happy New Year!

I'll going to move to double batches soon, and I was wondering if there's any Pros/Cons for using a 60lt fermenter? other than needing a bloody BIG fridge. *** I did try searching the forum, but found nothing.

Cheers
Carboy :icon_cheers:

Pro's
- hold more beer
- Beer atenuates better in larger volumes

Con's
- F(*&N heavy to move about.
- Check calibration (min was 2L out)
- Strength of tap threads (mine stripped without much effort-not nessesserally 60L related i know)

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I was just about to walk into the nearest supplier of such things and buy one, but decided it was a bad idea in my situation.

I can fit four Coopers/Bunnings style fermenters in my fermenting fridge (F&P 520litre up-side-down fridge), but I would be able to fit maybe one 60litre fermenter in there. If I could lift it in there. Which I certainly will not be able to do in a few years time.

And I've already got all the fermenters I need (even want). And I can still ferment a double batch, or multiple single batches, or a quad batch. If I get around to brewing it.

 

[troopa]

Spills... i want your fridge

Pros.. if you have a fridge like Spills then really then there is none
I do have 3 60L fermenters and really the only time they get used is if im doing a Saison or brewing during winter

Negatives... you get an infection and you just lost a double batch. But that never happens does it
Convincing SWMBO that YET another fermenting fridge is a good thing and remind her at how much money you are saving the family through your brewing ROFL

Theres nothing stopping you from doing double batches atm .. get yourself a few (at least 4) 17-20L cubes and just cube everything

Tom

 

[glaab]

as they said, probably depends on your fridge. my pissy little fridge holds 1 30L or 1 60L so I only use the 60L in summer. Its up on a stand so I can rack str8 into kegs. In winter I have a couple of heat pads so then I use my 2 30L jobs. Cheers & happy new yr! :beerbang:

 

[Gout]

never used a 60Lt fermenter, however i bought a 120 i think conical thinking of brewing huge batches - and have the fridge for it ( need to weld up the frame) but its a pain as you cant lift it in my case- so need to pump wort in via a clean food grade hose, pain to clean and if its a bad beer ( i never brew bad beer ) its a lot to drink.

that said, i will get the bugger working before the end of feb! some year

 

[MHB]

Not really a negative Just something to bear in mind.
As fermenters get bigger its harder to keep the contents cool, the more I brew the more Im convinced that temperature control is critical.
Heres a quick explanation of what Im talking about (linke)
A fan in the brew-fridge would be a must for me.
MHB
View attachment 34273

 

[Gout]

A fan in the brew-fridge would be a must for me.
MHB

I agree - i have 2 fermenters in the fridge and one starts much quicker than the other - i need to swap them to keep the beer even. a fan would do this for me. temp difference was large enough for me to think of a fan, i dont recall how much however. (i had a solid shelf to hold the fermenter making this worse)

 

[GTS350]

+1 for the fan and temp control..
During summer we tend to move through a lot of lager/pils, a 60litre fermenter in a large fridge is the way to go.

I use a 12v computer fan in the fridge that runs continuously during a fermenting and chilling period. My fridge has a tempmate controller, with the probe in a diptube(thermowell) down into the wort. The 60litre lager wort stays at 11deg +/- 0.5deg for two weeks, and the 450l fridge turns on for about 2hrs each day.

60l fermenters are great for 3 K&K "tri-can" and then steep grain/add hops however you want.
And if you want to try a different brew, just do a normal 23l batch - does it really matter if there is a large airgap at the top of the 60l fermenter?

I like that brewing 60l at a time forces me to be careful, and not waste a brew with poor sanitation or pathetic ingredient choices.
Most fridges that can fit a 60litre fermenter will have the grunt to keep the temp down (for lagers or a crash chill).

Also you fill 3 x 19l kegs in one hit, which means one cleaning/sanitising session versus three.

 

[kuzzy]

Been thinking of this myself - thanks guys mind now made up - I'm off to spend some money!

 

[Hodgo71]

Just got a 60lt guys and decided to give it a good clean first up. Obviously the amount of water is now going to be a drama as it's bloody heavy!!!
Has anyone got any tips on the best/most efficient method to clean one of these???

Cheers,
Hodgo.

 

[Bribie G]

Same as a 30L, get in there with some Sodium Percarbonate (or Napisan which is 30% Perc) and hot water with a new yellow kitchen cloth - but nothing scratchy - and give it a good wipe around inside till no more spots or visible marks, Rinse it out a couple of times with hot water. Then get back in there with dishwashing detergent and the yellow cloth and give it another go. Swish it out with hot water two or three times.
At some stage take the tap out and give that a good stiff talking to.

Then squirt neat Starsan into the tap hole so that it dribbles through into the body of the fermenter. Screw the tap in using the Starsan as lubricant - nothing will live in that tap or thread now.

Half a litre of water, put lid on fermenter and swoosh it around to coat the inside with Starsan solution and foam and leave until next needed.

 

[Hodgo71]

Same as a 30L, get in there with some Sodium Percarbonate (or Napisan which is 30% Perc) and hot water with a new yellow kitchen cloth - but nothing scratchy - and give it a good wipe around inside till no more spots or visible marks, Rinse it out a couple of times with hot water. Then get back in there with dishwashing detergent and the yellow cloth and give it another go. Swish it out with hot water two or three times.
At some stage take the tap out and give that a good stiff talking to.

Then squirt neat Starsan into the tap hole so that it dribbles through into the body of the fermenter. Screw the tap in using the Starsan as lubricant - nothing will live in that tap or thread now.

Half a litre of water, put lid on fermenter and swoosh it around to coat the inside with Starsan solution and foam and leave until next needed.

Cheers Bribie G,

Just one thing....what is starstan mate???????

Had my 60lt overflow through the airlock last night! After reading on here I've put it down to two things;
1. Too warm 26 degrees
2. I put 63 litres in

I just attached a hose the airlock and ran it into the laundry sink and it seems to be working fine. One bloke on here said he used starstan when he attached his hose?? I just used 100 miles an hour tape...I thought from what you said that starstan was a spray cleaning bizzo??

Cheers,
Hodgo.

 

[citizensnips]

Starsan is an American brand sanitiser, the guy would have been referring to what he put in the blow of tube to act as the airlock....that being starsan because its a smart choice. And yeah filling 63 in a 60L fermenter is going to do that, especially at 23 degrees.

 

[Bribie G]

Without Starsan I wouldn't be able to brew - - or at least I would brew with far less confidence.

It's a brilliant sanitiser, used by breweries and also a lot of food processing and preparation companies.

The small amount you see in the "dosage" chamber in the photo is more than enough to sanitise a fermenter.
A bottle lasts me for up to a year, I ordered a bottle before Xmas but it's still in the packaging as my current bottle will last till July the way it's looking.

It's not a cleaner, you need to clean first with PBW or Perc etc. Starsan solution then zaps anything left and you don't rinse it, the ingredients are food safe (in fact it has one chemical in common with Coke, where it's added as flavouring) :unsure:

 

[Aces High]

To move the full fermenter around l have an old bench with wheels on it in my brewshed. It only stands about 2 feet high, but its very solid. I lift the fermenter out of the fridge onto the bench, then wheel it over to the old kitchen bench set up. I stand on the wheelie bench and lift the fermenter onto the kitchen bench.

This means that I only have to do two short lifts to get the fermenter up to keg filling height, which is doable.

I found out the hard way i was certainly not going to be able to dead lift this thing onto the kitchen bench from the fridge, thankfully i didn't spill any beer, but I gave it a hell of a swirl around and looked pretty silly in the process.

 

[Hodgo71]

Cheers guys,

I'll def be getting some Starsan!!! And next time I will have to add some fridged water to the fermenter as its still on 26!
I know a fermenting fridge is the go but I can't afford that at present.

Hopefully this brew works out. It's the first one I've done since getting back into it...so probably 4 years or so.
I don't know if the overflow through the airlock will affect as, as there was obviously no water left in the airlock.
I'm thinking due to the constant overflow before it came to my attention that this hopefully would have prevented anything getting inside the wort.

Definite downside of the 60lt if it doesn't work out...!

 

[Bribie G]

I go the double or triple lift. With a double batch I lift once onto a rigid plastic storage cube, then again onto a solid wooden chair to fill the first keg.
Then final lift of just the remaining single batch onto the work bench.

Also to move the fermenter around - depending on how close your fridge opening is to the floor (mine's a kegmate fridge so right on the floor) get yourself unto a nursery and grab a pot trolley for around $10

 

[woodwormm]

Ok maybe getting a bit OT...

I've just done my first brew into a 60L and i'm a full extract kinda guy at the moment.

I did my mini boil approx 15L after all the LME was added then i dumped into fermenter and filled it in the brew fridge from the hose (food grade) in my brew room.

Aside from missing my pitch temp, which i'm usually so fussy about, obviously all the added water hasnt mixed with the wort effectively as the OG is through the roof... now i have no way to shake a full 60L fermenter, so the question is

Will it mix over time by itself? or do i just keep giving it a wriggle everytime i go near it?

cheers

 

[cdbrown]

I only do double batches and thankfully my fridge is the right dimensions to fit a 60L fermenter in it - but won't fit 2 x 30L ones. They are definitely heavy to move around and hard lifting it up for keg transfer.