Glass V plastic fermenter

[Qs]

I just use a 3 piece airlock if I think there might be a need for an air lock then I throw a bit of tubing on to that if it needs to blow off, like this

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Very clever....

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Well feck it I tried anyway... About 15 hours into fermentation I opened the door of my cabinet to find a foamy mess

Stuck my syphon into the bunghole (teehee...) and tis bubbling away happily into a jug of sterile water

Just a word of warning with these PET carboys - get a blow-off tube!

[Qs]

Hehe nice mess.

What's your yeast and OG?

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Not sure what yeast - it's the HBC's Orgasm Pale Ale kit so tis whatever came with it. OG was 1050.

Yeah sure you live and learn - no harm done. Might have over-filled it anyway, just filled it to the shoulder, forgot to measure it beforehand. The big fella said i was being greedy! He might've been right

[biertourist]

I'm sold on plastic fermenters now, as long as they're not bucket-types (just too much oxygen exchange and I'm not great at transferring to kegs in a timely manner after primary fermentation stops).

Totally agree about the plastic Big Mouth Bubblers or Speidel fermenters where you can physically get your arm into them to clean them; that's a definite bonus, but with a "bonus" extra cost, too.

When plastic fermenters get old, just convert them into dedicated sour beer fermenters and get more.  I wait for good deals on new Better Bottles - you can get them 2 for $50 USD on a good sale around here.


I still want to replace my old stainless conical for lager brewing someday; getting the wort off of the trub is important for a nice neutral and mellow lager and nothing makes that easier than a stainless conical; but I want to have more fermentation capacity so having a small army of plastic fermenters is important; especially when I make wine and am occupying a fermenter for a year or so.  Lager brewing while minimizing trub is just really inefficient with small batches and takes a long time during fermentation so I really want a single large conical to keep some lagers in the pipeline.  I really don't like any husk-derived flavors so I generally only single batch sparge my lagers and only with acid-treated water so I get less efficiency; I also add PVPP (PolyClar) as an additional kettle fining with my lagers to REALLY bind and drop out any polyphenols (that grainy German pilsner malt flavor) -that just creates more trub losses for me so again I need to go big with my lager batches or its just not worth it. -I've now got a Kolsh that is, to me as good and honestly better than any Kolsh you can buy including in Cologne (I'm not afraid of hops); it is to Kolsch what Trumer Pils is to German Pils but it involves huge kettle losses and lots of time which again means I need at least one big, conical fermenter or else I need two large fermenters -one to use as a "settling tank" -then transfer off of the trub to the 2nd large fermenter).



I also like the 3 piece airlocks as you can use them with blowoff tubes very easily but I don't like that really hot water cracks them; if they'd make them with higher temp, less clear plastic they'd be even better, IMHO.


Adam

[dcalnan]

I'd love to get one of the fast ferment conicals, they seem really good from reviews I've read, but they're not as shiny as the stainless steel. I'm still using buckets and haven't had problems yet so it'll be another while before I upgrade.

[Beerbuddha]

What is max temp water that can be used on these plastic fermenters when cleaning ?

[molc]

About 60 I think. It's printed on the box they come in clearly, so of course I've already forgotten

[armedcor]

Just ordered another one of these on thursday...I kinda feel bad...I have two of these now and both are used for sours haha

[Qs]

About 60 I think. It's printed on the box they come in clearly, so of course I've already forgotten

I've one in a box here and it says nothing on it about temps. Is your one the Vintage Shop type? Did you get it from HBC or HBW?

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Mine is one of the 'vintage' ones and it came with a leaflet that says not to heat the water above 52 degrees

[molc]

Mine is one of the 'vintage' ones and it came with a leaflet that says not to heat the water above 52 degrees

What he said. Mine was from either HBC or HBW and was a vintage one also.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Got mine from HBC

[Qs]

Well I got no leaflet, though there is a good chance I threw it away without reading it.

There was a little rubbery sort of taste off my last brew though and my chiller had failed me so I drained the hot wort into the carboy and stuck it in an ice bath. Could be the source of my off flavours in that beer.