SS Brew Bucket Pressure Transfer Modification

[user 18729]

I thought I would put this together for anyone looking to modify their SS Brewtech Brew Bucket to allow pressure transfers.

A quick disclaimer: The Brew Buckets are only rated to around 3psi and are not designed for pressure fermenting. Please use extreme caution when pressurising your fermenter!

A bit of background: So I picked up a grubby second hand larder fridge (my previous fridge was stollen by my other half for storing cheese for our new business). My previous fridge was a fridge freezer, with the fridge compartment a good 4 feet above ground level which meant I could just use gravity to transfer when kegging or bottling. This thing is only a couple of feet above the ground so gravity transfers are out of the window. I've always wanted to improve my set up and reduce oxygen when transferring, but could never justify buying a Chronical or Unitank. This was the excuse needed to fiddle about and see what I could come up with. I'm actually really pleased with the results, and as I had some of the bits and pieces lying around anyway this modification only set me back about £40.

I think there are other examples of this sort of mod on other forums. Basically you will need the following:

- Blow off barb for the SS Brew Bucket £17.49 (Brewing Equipment - Ss Brewing Technologies Stainless Eqp. - Ss Brewtech Accessories - Blow-off Barb for FTSs Lids and Brew Bucket Lids - The Malt Miller | The Malt Miller)
-1/2'' BSP Stainless Tee £4.50 (1/2"BSP Stainless Steel Tee)
-1/2'' to 1/4'' BSP reducing bush (Brew Builder)
-Gas Ball Lock Post with 1/4'' BSP bulkhead fitting £9.50 (Beer Storage and Dispense - New and Used KEGS and Fittings - GAS BALL LOCK POST WITH 1/4"BSP BULKHEAD ASSEMBLY - The Malt Miller | The Malt Miller)
-1/2'' BSP nipple (any length really) £2.50 (Brew Builder)
-2x 1/2'' hose barbs £3.99 each (Brewing Equipment - Stainless Steel Hosebarb Male - The Malt Miller | The Malt Miller)
-1/2'' ball valve (female to female) you could use a mini one here as they are cheaper but I had this two piece lying around eg (Brew Builder)
-about a meter of silicone tubing for the blow off, £5 (Brewing Equipment - Platinum Cured Silicone Tubing 12mm ID - The Malt Miller | The Malt Miller)
You can find the parts cheaper elsewhere, the links are just to help you piece everything together.

So whilst you are actively fermenting, ensure the ball valve on the blow off assembly is open and use it as a standard blow off tube by placing the end of the tubing into a jar of starsan.

Once fermentation has finished and you are ready to pressure transfer into a keg, bottles or cans you connect your transfer tubing (from brew bucket into keg etc) like normal, close the ball valve on the blow off assembly, hook up your CO2 tank via the gas in post, slowly pressurise (do not exceed 3 psi) until your beer begins to flow our of the fermenter!

I hope this helps as it took me a while to work out what I needed when designing this set up!

 

[Buffers brewery]

I’d suggest having a look at these people for stainless steel fittings. You might save a quid or two.

https://www.pipedreamfittings.com/p...ings/150lb-bsp-stainless-steel-pipe-fittings/

 

[user 18729]

I’d suggest having a look at these people for stainless steel fittings. You might save a quid or two.

https://www.pipedreamfittings.com/p...ings/150lb-bsp-stainless-steel-pipe-fittings/

Nice definitely worth shopping around

 

[Honk]

I would be worried about forgetting to open the valve and damaging the fermenter with this set up.

the way I do closed transfers with the brewbucket is gravity feeds the beer to the corny keg, the co2 displaced from the keg is fed back into the top of the fermenter, hence no oxygen is introduced to the beer and there is no risk of over pressurising the fermenter.

i have seen photos of damaged brewbuckets using similar methods to yours where they have forgot to reduce the co2 pressure so just be very careful if using this setup.

 

[user 18729]

I would be worried about forgetting to open the valve and damaging the fermenter with this set up.

the way I do closed transfers with the brewbucket is gravity feeds the beer to the corny keg, the co2 displaced from the keg is fed back into the top of the fermenter, hence no oxygen is introduced to the beer and there is no risk of over pressurising the fermenter.

You will need to be careful. As long as you ensure the blow off is open during fermentation, and you have a quality regulator when pressurising the vessel to transfer there is little risk of damaging your fermenter.

For added protection you could add a pressure release valve set at 2psi for example, but that obviously increases the cost.