Brewing in Bargo

[kirok]

I've recently become a 'gentleman of independent means' (because there are no other means coming in) so, with time on my hands, bills to keep down, an old plastic brewing fermenter and a thirst you could photograph with high speed film I've decided to lay down some beer.

I haven't searched fully yet but the cap where the fermentation lock used to fit seems to have gone walkabout - is that available online as a spare part still? Otherwise I'll just start from scratch with a kit

Cheers

Kirok of L'Stok

 

[BJB]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. My first tip would be use that thing for something else (not making beer)
New fermenter from Bunnies with a new tap and you'd get change from $30.00.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/icon-pl...e-mouth-water-storage-drum-with-bung_p3240534

Enjoy brewing.

 

[Grott]

Good on you kirok, get you brews fermenting but as BJB says, recommend you don't use that fermenter. If you have to make sure you pull the tap apart and throughly clean everything including the tap thread in the barrel, remove the rubber ring in the lid and throughly clean both. Then sanitise everything.
But for cost at Bunnings I'd go for new.

 

[razz]

Get a kit.

 

[SBOB]

if you have to use that fermenter, I would be removing the lid and using glad wrap + the o-ring from the lid

 

[kirok]

LOL! Looks like I've been moving that fermenter from house to house for forty years for nothing! It'll make a good water barrel.

I wanted to get some practise in on Google Sketchup the other night, so I made up the following design for a 750ml beer crate made from wood that you can get from the standard Australian pallet. The two 150mm pieces on the bottom are probably overkill although I might play around with making them into interlocking pieces to make it stackable...

Cheers

K​

 

[kirok]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. My first tip would be use that thing for something else (not making beer)
New fermenter from Bunnies with a new tap and you'd get change from $30.00.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/icon-pl...e-mouth-water-storage-drum-with-bung_p3240534

Enjoy brewing.

Thanks. Looks good although I might look at kits to get all the bits and pieces at the same time. In case I want to have more than one brew going, how would you fit an airlock to a drum like this?

K

 

[Hermies]

Thanks. Looks good although I might look at kits to get all the bits and pieces at the same time. In case I want to have more than one brew going, how would you fit an airlock to a drum like this?

K

As SBOB said take the rubber o-ring off from under the lid . Now you have a giant elastic ( Rubber ) band now cover the hole with glad wrap and hold the glad wrap on by stretching the rubber band over the rim .

 

[SBOB]

As SBOB said take the rubber o-ring off from under the lid . Now you have a giant elastic ( Rubber ) band now cover the hole with glad wrap and hold the glad wrap on by stretching the rubber band over the rim .

He may also require a kitten or multiple kittens, but I'm not that advanced a brewer to describe how they work...

 

[Judanero]

Welcome aboard Kirok,

As others have said get to Bunnings and buy a new water drum and tap, remove the lid and use the o-ring to secure glad wrap or just drill a hole in the lid just large enough to fit an airlock. There's a brew shop at Bowral that has a fairly decent stock of kits and bits that's probably closest to you (have family in Bargo and Picton, and I lived in Tahmoor for a bit).
Or I'm pretty sure there's Coopers kits at the Woolies in Tahmoor.

 

[Weizguy]

Oh my gosh, an old Fowlers Vacola fermentor. I have one of those and it NEVER gets used for brewing.
I think it keeps boxes of bottle off the floor for when it floods here.
I bet yours has developed a "house character"over the years that would not be considered a good flavour. Are there a kajillion scratches inside the vessel, available to house a squillion bacteria.
Maybe the inside is smooth as a baby's bottom and you only need to change the tap and scrub the tap socket until it gleams.
Welcome back to brewing, brother. Lots of info here and you may even connect with similar-minded locals...

 

[WoopWoopYank]

I love your fermenter. I personally don't know anyone that has died of galvanized metal poisoning and I'm sure country folk here in the states paid no mind to the shellack on their butter churns after all...the cheesecloth kept the bugs out.
Welcome brother- I'm new as well.

 

[AJS2154]

I love your fermenter. I personally don't know anyone that has died of galvanized metal poisoning and I'm sure country folk here in the states paid no mind to the shellack on their butter churns after all...the cheesecloth kept the bugs out.
Welcome brother- I'm new as well.

I am not worried about him dying from galvanised metal poising either......its a plastic fermenter!