Square fermentor idea/experiment.

[wide eyed and legless]

http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2010/10/27/3048695.htm

A bit of plastic info mje, I like Not For Horses idea with the laundry trough.

 

[mje1980]

Cheers mate.

 

[mje1980]

I ended up grabbing a rectangular 18l willow storage container. This was the biggest that would fit in my small ferm fridge. Might have to do smaller batches than I normally do but I guess it's no big deal. I've got some 1318, and an auto siphon on the way and I'll be brewing a porter this week sometime to go in it. I plan on brewing beers for the bottle in the square/rectangle, or for the beer engine, not kegged beers. Might try a pale ale next if it works out ok.

 

[mje1980]

Brewing tomorrow, yeast should be here by weeks end, so hopefully by next week I'll have a tub full of yummy beer with a few inches of super healthy yeast on top. Will update whether it works as planned, or it goes bad and I end up with a storage tub full of sour mouldy puss

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I agree with Les, the West Yorkshire 1469 would be a good yeast to try in an open ferment, don't know if you have to keep giving it a stir to wake it up though.

 

[mje1980]

Yeah it's a renowned top cropper. I dare say a lot of the uk strains would be suited to it. London ale 3, and West Yorkshire from wyeast are listed as both being top croppers, so I just picked one of those.

 

[mje1980]

So, my London ale 3 is on the stir plate, and by tomorrow it should be ready to go. Sanitising the container will be fun, I'll need to do it outside as it's not watertight by any means. Pretty excited, I'll take pics as I go.

 

[Not For Horses]

What do you mean it's not watertight? How does the beer stay in there then?!?

 

[headfreak]

What do you mean it's not watertight? How does the beer stay in there then?!?

As long as it's "wort tight" I guess...

 

[mje1980]

What do you mean it's not watertight? How does the beer stay in there then?!?

The lid, it's basically a rectangle storage tub, so when I put the iodophor in to sanitise I'll need to shake it around. With the lid not being watertight it'll probably be messy.

 

[mje1980]

The London ale 3 has been in the starter on the stir plate for maybe 3 hrs and is starting to show signs of life . I love the stir plate!

 

[mje1980]

So, its started. I've just put it in the fridge. I'm going to wait til tomorrow night and have a peak. Allowing 3" for krausen, I ended up putting around 10 litres in. Perfect for my real ale cube . The other 6 or so was still in the cube. Didn't want to waste it, so I raided the keg fridge and found a MJ Newcastle dark ale and a fresh vial of brett c. Pitched it all into my 10 litre funky cube to sit for a few months.

 

[Bribie G]

I take it you nuked the fridge to ensure it's a clean room? Some of my fridges smell like a teenage boys' soccer change room.

 

[mje1980]

My fridge has always smelt pretty good. To be honest I didn't think of it at the time. Tell you tomorrow night if its ok

 

[mje1980]

If it tastes funny I'll just say it's the terroir of my fridge .

 

[mje1980]

Snuck a peek this morning, and there is a tan layer covering the surface of the whole tub. It's not thick like the pics of the uk squares, but I'm hoping by tonight or tomorrow it'll be nice and thick and creamy. The irony is I have 4 full cubes but none of them are uk ales haha, so I have nothing waiting to be fermented that would suit London ale yeast. I've got a beire de garde brune I suppose might suit but next time I'll make sure I've got something English waiting in a cube.

I suppose in the future I could rack to 2ndary, clean and sanitise the tub, whack it straight back in the fridge with the fresh top cropped yeast and a new cube of ale, back to back. Maybe a bitter, then a pale ale, or a mild, then brown ale, then porter. As long as it kept throwing up a good crop.

Probably getting ahead of myself at this stage haha. Will report back tonight.

 

[mje1980]

The MJ dark ale and brett c batch is going nuts as well.

 

[mje1980]

 

[Robbo2234]

Is that suspended my the handels in the shelf slots? If so that's a freaking good idea! I could ferment so much more beers that way!

 

[mje1980]

Nah mate it's just a tight fit!. Not sure the tub would be strong enough to hold the weight ?