I have good news for my fellow home brewers. If you have always wanted a stainless steel fermentor for your home brewing setup but have been scared away from making the purchase by either the cost or the size than this might be the fermentor for you.
Last month MoreBeer.com released these new 7 gallon stainless steel conical fermentors and I picked up 2 of them. They currently retail for $225. There are several things that I like about these stainless steel fermentation buckets. First off is that they are small enough where the still fit in the chest freezer that I use as a fermentation chamber. Secondly, they have strong handles on the side that permit you to carry and move them around when they are full. Something that would be far more tricky with a larger 14 gallon conical stainless steel fermentor. Another thing that is great is that they have volume markers engraved into the side of the fermentor which is awesome!
Perhaps the best thing about this stainless steel fermentor is that it wont crack, chip, break or possibly shatter if you drop it and embed large shards of glass into your leg! In most cases this will also make the need for a racking cane obsolete. It is also larger than standard carboys! With its plus sized 6.95 gallon capacity you wont have to worry much about head space during high krausen on a 5 gallon batch. Lastly what I like about it is that it is far easier to scrub than a carboy since the large lid comes off so that you have full access to the inside of the fermentor. Honestly about the only thing about a carboy that I miss is being able to watch the fermentation take place. It would also have been nice to have another valve on the very bottom so that you could remove trub or harvest yeast from the fermentor. Those two points aside, if you are looking to purchase a reasonably priced, high quality stainless steel fermentor or stainless steel brew bucket as they call this, than this is a great choice.
You can purchase this stainless steel fermentor here:
Those look great! I am a big fan of stainless steel, I think I am going to pick one up. My plastic buckets are getting a bit old, I think it is time for me to upgrade to stainless steel fermenters.
Their conical fermenters are super nice.
Just a comment on a comment. There is a description of volume markers as being ‘awesome’.
‘Another thing that is great is that they have volume markers engraved into the side of the fermenter which is awesome!’
I’m thinking that this might be slightly over the top. I would say volume markers are definitely convenient, useful (if accurate) and undoubtedly better than not having volume markers, but not awesome. I expect the big bang was awesome so i’m using that as a comparison.
I am considering buying one anyway.
You make a good point Mike, awesome might be a bit of a stretch but it is certainly helpful. I often times brew 10 gallon batches and it makes it is very handy having volume markers when I am trying to split my batches evenly in two fermenters.
I have one of these stainless steel brewing buckets and I really like mine. It has been holding up great so far.
There is also a pretty good resource for conical fermentors \ conical fermenters here: Conical Fermentors . They have allot of availability and size options.
I’m currently building 100 gall. s/s fermenter and i need to buy valves….where do i buy them ?
Sounds Awesome. Are you looking for something like this?
1 1/2 Butterfly Valaves