BEST FERMENTER TO BUY? (in 2023)

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#thehoppyhour #homebrew4life #craftbeer

[Enjoymentboy]

I got into brewing back in the mid 90's and almost got into buying a fancy fermenter but then I remembered my grandmother. She used to brew beer for my grampa (who was a raging alcoholic btw) because it was so much cheaper. She used to use those 45 gallon rubbermade garbage pails and would brew 5 at a time. 4 were locked in a room in the basement beside the laundry room and the 5th went into his workshop. I remember watching him puttering around and every once in a while he would grab his mug and dip it into the still bubbling mash and down a glass. She had to do this because he would constantly drink the beer before it was ready to bottle and often spoil the whole barrel. I can still remember his smell. He always smelled like a mix of tobacco, sawdust and yeast no matter how often he showered. Makes sense. But this story made me understand that the fermenter really wasn't important and I wasn't going to waste money on anything more than a plastic bucket. Never had a failed batch.

[willschmit]

I have been homebrewing for 40 years. My life changed when I got old, and weak. Lifting 7 gallons of wort wasn't good. I started brewing 2.5 gallon batches every Saturday (been doing it like that for more than 10 years). I ferment in a corney with 1.5 inches cut off the diptube. I use a spunding valve, and run everything at 14PSI - I don't screw around with refrigerators or temperature regulators -- REALLY, I brew lagers on the floor in my kitchen in Albuquerque at 85F all year long using normal (34/70) yeast. I have a whole shed full of gear, but I don't use any of it - the secret is smaller batches that will fit in a corney, then transfer to 2.5G ball lock kegs (under pressure) . I have a Kegland kegerator that will hold 4 corneys -- I use the short ones for serving. On a rare occasion, I'll make a strong batch, and water it down to 4.5 ABV and lager it in a 5 gallon corney keg...

[danielschneider]

I've been brewing since the late 80s, and I've *never* had a glass fermenter break. I *love* glass.

[ffwast]

I started fermenting in corny kegs to prevent oxidation and it's the perfect vessel. Stainless steel so they're infinitely reusable and easy to clean and sanitize, high pressure rated, floating dip tube compatible, reusable for serving, standard connectors, carry handles, the cheapest pressure rated SS fermenters I've found even at today's prices, they really do it all.

The only shortcomings I encountered were that they could be a little bigger. So I bought myself a 15 gallon torpedo keg for Christmas (cheaper than a kegmenter and with standard corny keg parts) and have all the fermentation and head space I could need for the foreseeable future.

[hackattack]

I've been using a plastic bucket fermenter for years. Never had any issues. Happy Birthday Braj

[TomSchlichting-fv]

Favorite brewing channel! I wanted to share a yeast strategy video idea that no one says anything about. Propagate your own yeast! I haven’t bought yeast in over a year and I brew about twice a month. I make a starter and reserve some for the next brew in a sanitized jar. I feed it for 4 days to build it up strong enough for 10 gallon batches.
Day 1-add reserved yeast to 15grams DME dissolved in 200ML water (boiled and cooled of course).
Day 2- repeat
Day 3- 20grams in 200ML
Day 4 (start of brew day)- one more feed of 20grams in 200ML (should look like a snow globe on the stir plate by now)
Note this uses only 70 grams DME in total.
Small batches of wort like this only take about 3 minutes to boil and 10 minutes to cool in the sink with cold water, so it’s not the time sucker that it sounds like.
Cheers to more H4L videos

[williamrodrigues]

I am a plastic guy. When I started I had both a glass carboy and a couple plastic buckets given to me. Before I brewed my first batch I saw your first video on fermenters. It was a done deal after that. I sold the glass carboy and haven't fermented in anything other than that bucket. I do have an extra corny keg, so I could ferment under pressure, but I like ales and my basement is pretty much on the money all year round as far as temperature goes. Oh and Happy New Year!

[Will-jdbr]

Corny keg with clear beer draught system is what I settled on. I have fermented and served in the same vessel. You don’t have to worry about yeast hanging around, because this happens when bottle conditioning/aging beer anyway.

[PartyTimeBrewing]

Holy crap, you're older than father time! Happy Birthday CH! And my go to fermenter is whatever is on sale or clean in front of me! I have stainless and a lot of plastic, but plastic is usually the easiest to clean and great as long as you have a spigot! Cheers!

[wade]

Well that was alot of info.. I think I need to pound back a few beers and rewatch it 10 times.. have not started the adventure of home brewing yet, but I'm glad to hear the plastic bucket is a viable way to go.

[TheWinkingPigBarBQ]

So much to say on the subject. I started brewing about '96 and everything I did was fermented in glass. These days, if you want to ferment in glass, make sure you get Italian made carboys, they're thicker glass. I sold all my carboys about a year ago and space was a big concern after I built a homemade chiller for my Spike Flex+ fermenter.

Yes, I dolled out the cash for a Spike Flex+ (SFP) fermenter and I've got mixed reviews. The thing I like least about the SFP revolves around yeast attenuation when trying to ferment under pressure. I've tried multiple times and I've never had a beer fermented under pressure reach the predicted final gravity. So, I've stopped even trying to ferment under pressure.

Now the things I like about my SFP. Temperature control tops the list. I have the ability (with my homemade chiller and Inkbird controller) to ferment at true lager fermentation temperatures. With the use of an electric heating element, Inkbird controller, and a rheostat control, I have the ability to keep the fermenter heated for Kveik yeasts if that's what I want to do. The other positive is, it's easy to clean and sanitize.

Then there's plastic. I haven't done a lot of plastic fermentations because of the reasons you mentioned in the video and when I got started that fear factor was what was being espoused by all the homebrew shops and even Charlie Papazian I think in his books which may actually be the root of the issue. Today, if I were to advise somebody wanting to get into the hobby, I would steer them to plastic fermenters. I've both brewed and encountered many a great beer brewed in plastic and in the end, most people, unless you tell them will never know or care that your great beer was brewed in a $15 plastic fermenter or a $1, 200 temperature controlled unitank in your basement.

I've been reading a lot about the recent decline in homebrewing participation and I'm wondering if all the people showing off their $5-$10k homebrew systems may not be partially at the root of it by making people feel like brewing in coolers and fermenting in buckets is inadequate? Another issue may be the availibility of all the great craft beers being brewed across the country these days? I probably don't know all the answers there, I'm not connected into the homebrew business side of things.

Keep up the good work! Cheers!

[zombieallen]

I'm glad I learned the faces on those spigots rotate before cutting mine.

[GREEENZO]

Plastic bucket for the win. I add floating dip tubes and triclamp bulkheads to mine for the hop bong and haven't looked back. Easy to clean, cheap as hell, and when they've run their course you have a new bucket for other household stuff

[jeremyallen]

I got a 9 gallon Bucket Buddy from More Beer and I LOVE it! Also use the Speidel 60 Liter plastic ones. I like to make 7 gallons at a time. That's my magic number. Great videos! Great channel! Thank you for the awesomely funny and informative videos! Keep it up. (That's what she said)
'

[timlinked]

man, thanxx that was fun!! I´m using the allrounder for years and I still luv it

[MrFancyFingers]

I started brewing in ‘85 and glass and plastic buckets were all I used. I got a bunch of carboys from garage sales and I still use them to age big beers and wine.
I mostly use plastic now because I can dry hop or flavor beers easier.

[ownrhythm]

Just tempted by a used Ss 1/2bbl conical with a temperature controlled box for sale and watched your video to mull it over. I am thinking my plastic buckets are still the way to go. I have a 10 gallon thermos style mash ton, 60 litre boil kettle and I run them full to the brim. One batch will usually boil down to about 50 litres and fits nicely into two 6.7 gallon buckets for fermentation. Each bucket fills a corny keg with about 3-4 litres left to put in bottles. I did have issues with fermenting in the hot summer but a window banger air conditioner in the basement seems to work well at keeping around 72. I mainly use safe ale -05 and find it works great until room temperature is above 75. I do rack to secondary buckets to finish for no more than 2 days as I find it clears the beer better. I will usually do two batches on a brew day, mashing batch two while batch one is in the boil, thus ending up with 4 buckets fermenting after a long 10+ hour brew day. My beer tastes great and kegs will disappear very quickly when friends come over, plus I supply my Dad and another guy with kegs too.
In the end I can't see my life being any easier with the conical, not easy to move when full, certainly not easier to clean than buckets, and would limit my quantities. Also ads a lot more equipment to the mix with connectors and pumps, which means some sort of filtering. Plus the two bucket system allows me to do one dry hopped and one not for the same batch. Oh yeah, and saves a pretty substantial amount of coin too. Yes, the fermenting box and conical would give me more temp control to try different yeasts and ferment temperatures, but the safale -05 seems fine to me and comes in a brick, much cheaper than individual packs of dry and the liquid stuff. Plus, I'm an ale guy and don't want to venture into brewing lagers anyway. As for oxygen exposure, not sure it's as much of a risk as people say. My hazy IPAs taste great and never had a beer turn, even after 3 plus months in the keg fridge, although the hazies do turn clear after a month or two, but it's a pretty rare occasion that they aren't finished in 30 days anyway.  
Did I miss anything in my considerations?

[loveGODlikebeerlivetoserve]

Happy birthday sir and hello from Colorado. Knox is a great town. Uncle Dave has a cigar shop, Smoky’s, there in Knox. Totally with you on fermenters. Glass when I started in 2013, and now I’m selling all 9 of my carboys, expanding my stainless vessels and maintaining my plastic buckets. 2 Big Mouth Bubblers glass vessels shattered on me. That’s it. Cheers mate!

[bobbob-zezo]

The Fastfermenter - this is my go to for all the reasons it was made.

[mikeshelton]

I'd have to say the FerMonster 7gal: Cheap to buy, easy to clean, you can watch the ferment in action, this should cover everything except pressure ferments. Perfect for the beginning homebrewer!