Stainless Steel Fermenters

[Agentgonzo]

about as scientific as a cosmetic advert saying 65 people thought it made x look better. Not scientifically or statistically rigorous enough to get in a peer reviewed journal. It's just kitchen science, but entertaining, food for thought and wasteful of a few pinches of salt.

I love the way that people go straight to "it's worthless, not scientific, not enough data and not peer reviewed" or even "they are a fraud and make it all up for the advert revenue".

Brulosophy never even claim to prove anything. They repeatedly say "it's a single datapoint and doesn't prove anything". I guess people just love to hate them

 

[Sadfield]

They repeatedly say "it's a single datapoint and doesn't prove anything"

Which is the point @RoomWithABrew made.

People just love to think people hate them.

 

[RichardM]

By that logic, not drinking at all is best.

Yes. Certainly not more than 14 units a week according to the UK government Chapter 12: Alcohol

 

[Chippy_Tea]

l have a glass of some sort in the house we tend not to choose to drink from a plastic "glass" most of us brew in a plastic FV as a SS FV is an expensive option but one I imagine all of us would choose if they were only £10 dearer than a plastic FV.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Wasn't that your post @Chippy_Tea

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Wasn't that your post @Chippy_Tea

Kind of my post said -

As we all have a glass of some sort in the house we tend not to choose to drink from a plastic "glass" most of us brew in a plastic FV as a SS FV is an expensive option but one I imagine all of us would choose if they were only £10 dearer than a plastic FV.

BZEE posted the edited version of it below that's why i posted the

l have a glass of some sort in the house we tend not to choose to drink from a plastic "glass" most of us brew in a plastic FV as a SS FV is an expensive option but one I imagine all of us would choose if they were only £10 dearer than a plastic FV.

 

[user 18729]

It completely depends on what you want to achieve. Can you make drinkable beer in a plastic bucket? Of course. Can you make enjoyable IPAs in a plastic bucket? Yes, just about. Can you make a quality beer, without any dissolved O2 or a high risk of contamination in a plastic bucket? It’s unlikely I’m afraid.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Can you make a quality beer, without any dissolved O2 or a high risk of contamination in a plastic bucket?

Absolutely . It's been done by thousands upon thousands of people for decades.

 

[Clint]

If contamination risk in plastic buckets is "high" we'd be tipping what % down the drain?
I've been brewing for 6 years or more and never tipped one.

 

[Sadfield]

If you know what you're doing, you can ferment in many things that aren't shiny.

""

 

[Clint]

Stainless steel buckets are one step away from cauldrons...and we all know where that'll lead you!
Yes...The ducking stool!

 

[Bzee]

I was in middle of a reply when tablet went winky

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I was in middle of a reply when tablet went winky

Thanks.

 

[Bzee]

livestocksupplies Ltd is where I got my stainless churns from. I don't bother with airlock ... and can't copy url due to poor command of tablet technology

 

[hoppyscotty]

Absolutely . It's been done by thousands upon thousands of people for decades.

Not sure it has. I suspect they were not brewing super hoppy IPA’s over the last few hundred years and pretty sure if you jumped in a Time Machine and had a few beers from history I suspect you wouldn’t even recognise it as beer as we know it today and it probably wouldn’t have been too great compared to todays clinical and engineered beers.

As for open fermentation, again you’re not doing that for super hoppy IPA’s and the thick yeasty foam on top of the beer does protect the beer from oxygen, not to mention the open topped fermenter is located in a sterile clean room that is far more sterile than the dust coated and cobweb festooned garages and brew sheds most of us brew in. The beer is pulled from underneath and put into cask, though the process of going into cask is usually open to air which is why cask beer has a very short shelf life once tapped…precisely because of oxidation. So oxidation remains the enemy of all beers, but some styles more than others.

One aspect that has been mentioned before is repeatability. If that is important to you then you need every little element and detail of your kit, process and ingredients to be identical from brew to brew. So that is why the big breweries have the fancy pants stainless equipment and as a home brewer if you are after repeatability then the first place to look is the fermentation side of things.

 

[foxy]

Not sure it has. I suspect they were not brewing super hoppy IPA’s over the last few hundred years and pretty sure if you jumped in a Time Machine and had a few beers from history I suspect you wouldn’t even recognise it as beer as we know it today and it probably wouldn’t have been too great compared to todays clinical and engineered beers.

As for open fermentation, again you’re not doing that for super hoppy IPA’s and the thick yeasty foam on top of the beer does protect the beer from oxygen, not to mention the open topped fermenter is located in a sterile clean room that is far more sterile than the dust coated and cobweb festooned garages and brew sheds most of us brew in. The beer is pulled from underneath and put into cask, though the process of going into cask is usually open to air which is why cask beer has a very short shelf life once tapped…precisely because of oxidation. So oxidation remains the enemy of all beers, but some styles more than others.

One aspect that has been mentioned before is repeatability. If that is important to you then you need every little element and detail of your kit, process and ingredients to be identical from brew to brew. So that is why the big breweries have the fancy pants stainless equipment and as a home brewer if you are after repeatability then the first place to look is the fermentation side of things.

Go to the Czech Republic and see how the open fermentations are done there. There used to be one on the border with Germany, the filthiest brewery I have seen with open fermentation. I will try and find a picture.

 

[Sadfield]

I'm pretty sure Samual Smiths achieve repeatability.

Isn't the main issue with oxidation of hoppy IPAs, dry hopping, transfer and packaging? Rather than the fermentation?

Pilsner Urquells sterile clean room.

Black Sheep's, come and dribble into our Fv's, tour.

 

[Agentgonzo]

If contamination risk in plastic buckets is "high" we'd be tipping what % down the drain?
I've been brewing for 6 years or more and never tipped one.

About 15 years in plastic before moving to SS, and 0 down the drain here.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Not sure it has. I suspect they were not brewing super hoppy IPA’s over the last few hundred years and pretty sure if you jumped in a Time Machine and had a few beers from history I suspect you wouldn’t even recognise it as beer as we know it today and it probably wouldn’t have been too great compared to todays clinical and engineered beers.

I'm not sure what your point is. It seems unrelated to what I said about people being in plastic buckets for decades.

 

[user 18729]

Not sure it has. I suspect they were not brewing super hoppy IPA’s over the last few hundred years and pretty sure if you jumped in a Time Machine and had a few beers from history I suspect you wouldn’t even recognise it as beer as we know it today and it probably wouldn’t have been too great compared to todays clinical and engineered beers.

As for open fermentation, again you’re not doing that for super hoppy IPA’s and the thick yeasty foam on top of the beer does protect the beer from oxygen, not to mention the open topped fermenter is located in a sterile clean room that is far more sterile than the dust coated and cobweb festooned garages and brew sheds most of us brew in. The beer is pulled from underneath and put into cask, though the process of going into cask is usually open to air which is why cask beer has a very short shelf life once tapped…precisely because of oxidation. So oxidation remains the enemy of all beers, but some styles more than others.

One aspect that has been mentioned before is repeatability. If that is important to you then you need every little element and detail of your kit, process and ingredients to be identical from brew to brew. So that is why the big breweries have the fancy pants stainless equipment and as a home brewer if you are after repeatability then the first place to look is the fermentation side of things.

Exactly this

I’m not sure why people are getting defensive of their beloved plastic buckets on here.

I’m not denying you can make beer in one and some pretty good beer as well, but dissolved oxygen is the big thing with every style, and in particular an IPA.

Let’s put it this way, if a commercial brewery could brew a quality NEIPA or big West Coast in a plastic fermentor or something non pressure rated then they would do so without spending thousands of pounds on pressure vessels.

Going back to my comment, it depends on what you want to achieve. And to answer the original question of this thread, YES, stainless steel is better than plastic and pressure vessels are better than open fermenters for the reasons above.

Let me get comfy whilst I wait for the next plastic bucket user to get upset…