What Is The Fermentor Of Choice?

[onescooter]

Wondering what the fermentor of choice is for everybody. I think my plastic fermentor has seen one to many brews and needs a replacement.
Obviously the plastic job is by far the most used, but I would like to know whether it is worth the extra money for a glass carboy.
Also wondering if the better-bottle's are handy. Have heard off-hand that they are good for wine, but I am unsure whether that means they are not ideal for beer.
Size of fermentor is not really an issue.
Would really appreciate some input as to the pro's and con's of your favourite vessel.
Cheers
Scott.

 

[raven19]

Plastic for me, yet to use glass, stainless steel conical for ultimate brew p0rn...

Glass is good for longer term ferments (many months) as I understand.

Id like a glass carboy, but much more care is required, broken glass!

Plastic is light, and easy to move around, which works for me a treat.

2c...

 

[pdilley]

For beer brewing, as you have found plastic wears out. The benefits are you can reach your arm in it when cleaning. It costs a little more than half the price of glass. You can get by without racking cane. It doubles as a bottling bucket.

For any long term fermentations, glass can not be beat. Its not as gas permeable. You can brew beer in glass if you want to. Cleaning you use a carboy brush. Glass in Oz are Demijohns and not Carboys - benfit of demijohns is you get a plastic basket with handles you can lift with one to two people, carboys need special lift gear. You can not reach your arm inside glass, you use that carboy brush. Cleaning is no more difficult if you clean right away, if left sitting its still not an issue, fill with warm water and napisan and soak then use the brush. Takes not much time to work out brush technique as its just a glorified large bottle brush with a bend. Cost is not quite double that of plastic. If work out your replacement schedule for plastic you find its cheaper in the long run with glass and possibly the enironment if you think that way, and can pass them down to kids provided you dont drop it off the top of the bench You need a racking cane, no biggie. You can bottle from them just as easy with cane and spring loaded tipped bottle filler on the end of the hose, its actually quite easy -- see palmers book or website how to brew to see gear and technique shown.

I use both, although I have 2 plastic and 20 glass so my brewing style favours glass.

I just cleaned 30 and 60 litre plastic today along with 34 litre glass. I sanitised a 5 litre glass and another 34 litre glass to rack into. I dont see issue with either as I am adept at cleaning and using each type of fermenter.

Its up to you but if you were just making beer you can stick to plastic if glass gives you the willies but if you want to branch into fruit wines, meads, sakes, etc., then you got to think more on what you want in a fermenter and get a mix if thats what you want. I have not made up my mind what to do when the plastic wears out, but with all the glass I have I'll probably end up not getting any replacement plastic fermenters.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Plastic is light, and easy to move around, which works for me a treat.

If you get glass one day you'll find that empty, for size, some glass ends up
lighter than plastic! And very easy to move around.

Both are light when empty and buggars when full. The 60 litre plastic fermenter with Mead almost gave me a hernia to lift Id say glass is easier to lift as you have those handles compared to dents in the side of plasic to put your finger in and find out plastic is slippery, demijohns win out on positive grip on the handles for lifting. 30 litres is manageable for plastic but 60 is pushing it

Mead now racked into glass demijohns for bulk aging.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[onescooter]

Just wondering what your definition of long term fermentation is? How long would you leave a brew in plastic before you start to worry?
Cheers
Scott.

 

[rysa555]

i've recently purchased one of these and am very happy with it ... http://www.better-bottle.com/

 

[raven19]

Just wondering what your definition of long term fermentation is? How long would you leave a brew in plastic before you start to worry?
Cheers
Scott.

I personally have never had issues with beer going bad using plastic, but in saying that I have never left any beer in primary or secondary fermentor for more than 3 - 4 weeks.

You can rack from primary to seconday after 2 - 4 weeks, anything more than 4 weeks on the yeast cake is not ideal.

Lagering in cubes in the fridge could be a few months.

Long fermentation to me would be 2+ months, but that is only my thoughts on it.

Others may have differing thoughts on this...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I just ferm in 30lt plastic cubes

 

[pdilley]

Scott,

When talking about longest fermentation time I'm talking 9 months. When talking bulk aging I'm talking one to two years. With beer there are only two styles that could touch the aging time or perhaps aging time so I say go for plastic HDPE - those being Barley Wine and a long Belgian wild fermentation technique that has seqenced fermentation of 9 months to a year. Most beer brewers here wont do many of these so your ok. Longest fermentation of beer in HDPE for primary fermentation has been just under one month and one week. All primaries longer than that have not been beers and have been done in glass fermeters.

Dont stress it if you make beer. Only if you branch out into wine, fruit wine, Meads, etc. do you start to think more about what type to use for what stage of brewing.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[RdeVjun]

I just ferm in 30lt plastic cubes

I second that stu- after no chilling (put the tap on beforehand and don't fill it completely), I just open it up, give it a bit of a shake at pitching to oxygenate the wort, clingfilm over the filler cap with a rubber band, into the fridge and then sit back and watch. Happy days. Same goes for conventionally- chilled AG, extracts or even kits or - into either a cube or a plastic fermenter, which ever happens to be free. My batches usually ferment for two to three weeks, and I have hit no problems with plastic.

Cleaning a grubby cube that has had a batch ferment in it can sometimes be a struggle with recalcitrant trub, but a napisan soak, popping in a clean dishcloth and a good shake gets it spotless along with giving you some healthy aerobic exercise with a half- decent upper body workout. If you were physically challenged or just lazy, you could put the cap back on and kick/ roll the cube across the floor/ take it for a drive to achieve the same end.

Also I ferment in the smaller 15 litre cubes for 2/3- sized AG BIABs done up in my 19 litre stockpot. A simple way to increase production and get into AG without much extra kit, in fact just the pot and the bag was all I needed. Works a treat, am seriously doubting I'll need that fancy esky mash tun so soon after all, but its still on the list. The 15 litre ones can be handy if you're cramped for space in your fermenting fridge, by using clingfilm instead of an airlock, they will actually stack, but you have to be careful with the tap protruding and it can be self defeating- this only works in my 400 litre fridge.

Anyway, to answer OP's question- cubes or the more- usual purpose built plastic fermenters, either way, no problems to report. Glass is a little less forgiving if you're rough with your kit though, I've seen a lovely 25 litre number shatter from being put down carelessly, plastic just won't do that.

 

[Thunderlips]

I use 30L plastic pails.
Easy to clean, seals nicely and I can fit two side by side in my fermenting fridge.

 

[Bubba Q]

i have 4 fermentors at the moment
25lt pail style fermentor
25lt tooheys fermentor
2x30lt fermentors from Grain & Grape

since i have moved to AG brewing the 30lt fermentors have been used the most as i usually brew 20 to 25lt bacthes and the extra headspace means i dont have any krausen trying to crawl out through the airlock

 

[Cocko]

my plastic fermentor has seen one to many brews and needs a replacement.

Why?

 

[altone]

i've recently purchased one of these and am very happy with it ... http://www.better-bottle.com/

Any others using these things?

Wondering if they have any advantages over the trusty plastic pail fermentors, as I'm due to replace one of mine.

Seems a lot of money to pay for what looks like an empty water bottle :unsure:

 

[onescooter]

The reason I think that I need to replace my plastic pail is that I inherited it from a friend 4-5 years ago and don't know how long he had it for. Starting to get paranoid that it may start to harbour baddies that will be difficult to remove, and that I should turn over my fermentor for good measure.
Cheers
Scott.