Upgrading to stainless steel conical fermenter - size recommendations please.

[mdss]

After many happy years of all grain brewing, using 30l plastic fermenters I've decided to upgrade to a stainless steel conical fermenter. I typically brew 23l batches in my Brewzilla. So I'm after some advice, I've seen both 26.5l and 30l conical fermenters that look good, but can I get away with the 26.5l fermenter, or from your experiences, would this give too little head space during fermentation, and I should really spend the extra money, and go for the 30l one.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RichardM]

Will the larger one fit in your fermenting fridge?

I brew 19l batches in 25l stainless steel stockpot. There is not a lot of headspace but it doesn't seem to cause problems.

 

[mdss]

I'm lucky enough to have 2 fermentation fridges, one is a tall larder fridge, so no problem with size there, the other is an under counter fridge, so the larger fermenter probably wouldn't fit, but at this point since I'm only planning on buying one to start with size is not a problem.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I went through a very similar thought process about a year ago when upgrading from plastic. I too do 23L batches. I went for the 30L one because I didn't want to risk it with not-enough headspace and yeast getting up into the airlock. This is the one I got: Brew Monk Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter - Get Er Brewed (though it was £150 at the time).

I'd recently had a mess (and a very displeased wife) when a previous brew leisurely vomited yeast all over the carpet in the spare room. I figured the extra few quid (there was very little difference at the time) would save my like looking at me like this again:

I have a brew in it at the moment, which will probably come out in a week's time. If you want, I can take a photo of where the krausen came up to if it'll help you decide? But my gut feeling is that a 26L one will be tempting fate a little bit too much.

 

[mdss]

I went through a very similar thought process about a year ago when upgrading from plastic. I too do 23L batches. I went for the 30L one because I didn't want to risk it with not-enough headspace and yeast getting up into the airlock. This is the one I got: Brew Monk Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter - Get Er Brewed (though it was £150 at the time).

I'd recently had a mess (and a very displeased wife) when a previous brew leisurely vomited yeast all over the carpet in the spare room. I figured the extra few quid (there was very little difference at the time) would save my like looking at me like this again:

View attachment 75967

I have a brew in it at the moment, which will probably come out in a week's time. If you want, I can take a photo of where the krausen came up to if it'll help you decide? But my gut feeling is that a 26L one will be tempting fate a little bit too much.

Thanks, that's just the kind of advice I was looking for, in all the years I've been brewing I've never had any incidents with my 30l plastic fermenters, my last brew the krausen went to about the 26l mark, so 26.5l capacity I guess is a bit close. Another thought I've had is to scale down my brew length by a couple of litres to give a bit more of a safety margin. I'm hoping someone on the forum will have experience of the smaller size, so they can advise on a safe brew length with a 26.5l capacity.

 

[mdss]

I went through a very similar thought process about a year ago when upgrading from plastic. I too do 23L batches. I went for the 30L one because I didn't want to risk it with not-enough headspace and yeast getting up into the airlock. This is the one I got: Brew Monk Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter - Get Er Brewed (though it was £150 at the time).

I'd recently had a mess (and a very displeased wife) when a previous brew leisurely vomited yeast all over the carpet in the spare room. I figured the extra few quid (there was very little difference at the time) would save my like looking at me like this again:

View attachment 75967

I have a brew in it at the moment, which will probably come out in a week's time. If you want, I can take a photo of where the krausen came up to if it'll help you decide? But my gut feeling is that a 26L one will be tempting fate a little bit too much.

I've just taken a look at the link you posted to the 30l fermenter on the GeB site, looks nice , now £198.99

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've just taken a look at the link you posted to the 30l fermenter on the GeB site, looks nice , now £198.99

I've been really happy with it. Admittedly, I moved from a 6 gallon plastic bucket directly to this, so I haven't really had anything else to compare it to. The bottom drain valve is really handy as you don't have to repeatedly up-end it when cleaning (provided you have it over something like a sink it can drain into - it fits nicely in the Belfast sink in our utility room). It's not perfect, by I'll write down a decent summary of my experience with over the last year of that'll be helpful (I'll try to do it tomorrow)?

There are a bunch of different manufacturers that all look alike so I expect are all made in the same Chinese factory. Brew monk, brew devil, klarstein, SS brewtech.

 

[Donegal john]

Go for the 30l. As a spark I learned my trade from used to say “your better looking at it than for it”
I have a 30l one and a big stout I did came out the blowoff and covered my fermenting fridge. And that was 23l batch.

 

[gyurmaember]

Can you please describe your relationship with your wife?
Maybe brewtools?

 

[Donegal john]

Can you please describe your relationship with your wife?
Maybe brewtools?

All of us or someone in particular ?

 

[gyurmaember]

All of us or someone in particular ?

I meant @mdss

 

[An Ankoù]

I went through a very similar thought process about a year ago when upgrading from plastic. I too do 23L batches. I went for the 30L one because I didn't want to risk it with not-enough headspace and yeast getting up into the airlock. This is the one I got: Brew Monk Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter - Get Er Brewed (though it was £150 at the time).

I'd recently had a mess (and a very displeased wife) when a previous brew leisurely vomited yeast all over the carpet in the spare room. I figured the extra few quid (there was very little difference at the time) would save my like looking at me like this again:

View attachment 75967

I have a brew in it at the moment, which will probably come out in a week's time. If you want, I can take a photo of where the krausen came up to if it'll help you decide? But my gut feeling is that a 26L one will be tempting fate a little bit too much.

The Brew Monk is an excellent but of kit, I've got two of them. The thermometers, on the other hand are crrap. Best swapped for the Grainfather thermometer for about £10 - 15. But, they've put the money where it matters.

 

[Agentgonzo]

The Brew Monk is an excellent but of kit, I've got two of them. The thermometers, on the other hand are crrap. Best swapped for the Grainfather thermometer for about £10 - 15. But, they've put the money where it matters.

I've found mine has been fine. Old analogue meat thermometer type thing. Accurate to a degree, which is good enough for me as I don't have a fermenting fridge.

If you're spending £15 on a thermometer, you may as well spend £35 and get an iSpindel. That's what I did. Temperature and bonus gravity tracking

 

[KHS]

Is there a notable difference in upgrading from plastic to stainless conical? Thinking of upgrading

 

[Agentgonzo]

Thanks, that's just the kind of advice I was looking for, in all the years I've been brewing I've never had any incidents with my 30l plastic fermenters, my last brew the krausen went to about the 26l mark, so 26.5l capacity I guess is a bit close. Another thought I've had is to scale down my brew length by a couple of litres to give a bit more of a safety margin. I'm hoping someone on the forum will have experience of the smaller size, so they can advise on a safe brew length with a 26.5l capacity.

I just bottled today. Here's a photo of how high the krausen got up to.

That's a bit of a shallow one. Normally it's probably twice the height (this was liberty bell, 1.053 OG). So it would probably reach the 25L mark. So in theory a 26.5L fermenter would be ok for you, but close. The 30L one has plenty of headroom. Though as you can see the actual capacity of mine is a few liters above 30, so you'll probably be fine.

Additional things with my one:
Good things

• Good quality construction.
• Handles and clamps make it easy to work with
• Bottling spigot is at about the right height, though could be a little lower. I lose about a pint to a litre of beer every batch
• It has a rotating racking arm (bent tube on the inside) that means you can pick up from just above the trub layer, but in practice it always points fully down and is still clear of the yeast cake (see above).
• Stable. You can in theory stack multiple on top of eachother, but I only have one
• Legs are adjustable
• Bottom drain valve makes cleaning so much easier

The bad:

• The inside of the legs are sharp. This is the only bad party of the construction. Though it's easy to sand them down to make them less sharp
• The rubber on the bottom of the feet is beginning to wear down.
• The legs are just u-shaped legs. If you ferment inside, it may damage the carpet or a soft floor
• There's not quite enough room to get a standard bottle under the bottling tap. Shame, but easy to work around. I bottle over the sink, so it's not a problem.
• It's not quite short enough to fit on my worktop and below the wall cupboard, which is a shame, but isolated to me

Hope that helps. Overall, very happy with it. Would buy again

 

[mdss]

I just bottled today. Here's a photo of how high the krausen got up to.
View attachment 76261

That's a bit of a shallow one. Normally it's probably twice the height (this was liberty bell, 1.053 OG). So it would probably reach the 25L mark. So in theory a 26.5L fermenter would be ok for you, but close. The 30L one has plenty of headroom. Though as you can see the actual capacity of mine is a few liters above 30, so you'll probably be fine.

Additional things with my one:
Good things

• Good quality construction.
• Handles and clamps make it easy to work with
• Bottling spigot is at about the right height, though could be a little lower. I lose about a pint to a litre of beer every batch
• It has a rotating racking arm (bent tube on the inside) that means you can pick up from just above the trub layer, but in practice it always points fully down and is still clear of the yeast cake (see above).
• Stable. You can in theory stack multiple on top of eachother, but I only have one
• Legs are adjustable

The bad:

• The inside of the legs are sharp. This is the only bad party of the construction. Though it's easy to sand them down to make them less sharp
• The rubber on the bottom of the feet is beginning to wear down.
• The legs are just u-shaped legs. If you ferment inside, it may damage the carpet or a soft floor
• There's not quite enough room to get a standard bottle under the bottling tap. Shame, but easy to work around. I bottle over the sink, so it's not a problem.
• It's not quite short enough to fit on my worktop and below the wall cupboard, which is a shame, but isolated to me

Hope that helps. Overall, very happy with it. Would buy again

Thank you so much, I'm now convinced the 30l is the way to go, I'll be ordering a 30l fermenter from GeB this weekend, your down points are no issues for my setup, since I'm never going to stack, there's no carpet in my brew shed, no overhead cupboard to get in the way, and I've got an overhang that I can use which means getting a bottle directly under the fermenter is also not an issue for me.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Thank you so much, I'm now convinced the 30l is the way to go, I'll be ordering a 30l fermenter from GeB this weekend, your down points are no issues for my setup, since I'm never going to stack, there's no carpet in my brew shed, no overhead cupboard to get in the way, and I've got an overhang that I can use which means getting a bottle directly under the fermenter is also not an issue for me.

. The negative points really aren't that negative! I've been very happy with it.

Oh, one last point. The handles are very noisy (metal clanging on metal). I stuck a couple of felt pads underneath them - it makes it a lot quieter