After five years or so of using a plastic lidded fermentation bucket and brewing highly hopped NEIPAs on a regular basis I decided to replace my old bucket fermenter with something a bit better. The new fermenter had to:
Found a 40 ltr cubic plastic storage keg, air and water tight with a gaping 282mm diameter opening that fits nicely into my brew fridge.
The flat sides allowed the fitting of a push-fit bulkhead fitting to connect a dip tube on the inside and a corny beer post on the outside for transferring the finished beer.
The large diameter lid has a concave surface so I had to design a new dry hopper to fit. Needed stronger magnets as the lid was seriously thick.
The finished item has more than a passing resemblance to the Star wars robot, R2D2
This shows it strapped to a truck I used for my bucket fermenter. The black disc on top of the lid houses the magnets that keep the dry hopper trapdoors shut. A 90 degree twist to release.
This shows the underside of the lid with the dry hopper.
Trapdoors open. I used a JG bulkhead fitting in the lid centre to vent the gas to an external bubbler.
The whole thing fits snuggly into my brew fridge..
Showing the pipe connection to the bubbler outside the fridge..
The large opening provides plenty of access for cleaning etc. but also helped in the fitting of the dip tube and my magnetic float.
This shows the dip tube held clear of the fermenting brew (hopefully) held by an external magnet..
When this is removed the float drops so the brew can be transferred by connecting to the beer post on the front.
A "handy" bonus with the magnetic float is you can slide the dip tube down to take a sample and return it to it's raised position prior to cold crash, keeping it clear of dross/trub.
I've tested it with water and the plumbing seems to work fine. First proper test will be next brew day in a couple of weeks.
- Have an airtight lid
- Have a large opening to facilitate cleaning
- Have a lid large enough to be fitted with my trapdoor design of dry hopper with a 300g capacity
- Have a sufficiently large capacity to take a 5 gallon brew and leave adequate headspace to allow the dry hopper to stay clear of a rising krausen
- Be fitted with a dip tube with a magnetic float to allow the dip tube inlet to be held clear of the fermenting beer and only released when transferring or taking samples.
- Fit in a “standard” fridge.
Found a 40 ltr cubic plastic storage keg, air and water tight with a gaping 282mm diameter opening that fits nicely into my brew fridge.
The flat sides allowed the fitting of a push-fit bulkhead fitting to connect a dip tube on the inside and a corny beer post on the outside for transferring the finished beer.
The large diameter lid has a concave surface so I had to design a new dry hopper to fit. Needed stronger magnets as the lid was seriously thick.
The finished item has more than a passing resemblance to the Star wars robot, R2D2
This shows it strapped to a truck I used for my bucket fermenter. The black disc on top of the lid houses the magnets that keep the dry hopper trapdoors shut. A 90 degree twist to release.
This shows the underside of the lid with the dry hopper.
Trapdoors open. I used a JG bulkhead fitting in the lid centre to vent the gas to an external bubbler.
The whole thing fits snuggly into my brew fridge..
Showing the pipe connection to the bubbler outside the fridge..
The large opening provides plenty of access for cleaning etc. but also helped in the fitting of the dip tube and my magnetic float.
This shows the dip tube held clear of the fermenting brew (hopefully) held by an external magnet..
When this is removed the float drops so the brew can be transferred by connecting to the beer post on the front.
A "handy" bonus with the magnetic float is you can slide the dip tube down to take a sample and return it to it's raised position prior to cold crash, keeping it clear of dross/trub.
I've tested it with water and the plumbing seems to work fine. First proper test will be next brew day in a couple of weeks.
do you take commissions? 
the float gently settles on the trub (after cold crash) and the inlet is 6-7mm above the trub. I’ll see how successful (or not) this is after next brew day.
