Stainless "Brew Bucket" fermenter

[hophead168]

stumbled into this site while looking around at fermenters.... looks pretty funky, i mean it's a "bucket fermenter" but has a conical base and a racking arm ??? WTF .... anybody used one of these things ?? I can't find crap on the web... maybe new, but just curious if anybody bought /used one ? Kind of skeptical on stuff nobody has reviewed or even seen in a mag or whatever.... Thx ssbrewtech.com was the site i saw it on. Thx

[Ozwald]

I don't see the point in the conical bottom. No dump valve & I highly doubt the yeast are going to settle to the center... which actually would increase the surface area between trub & beer. Why not just put the port a little higher on the wall & save a bunch of money? At the price I'd be highly skeptical of the quality/thickness of the stainless & welds.

[BnB Brew]

Im sure I don't have quite the brewing chops as Lee but I disagree. I think these look like a pretty good alternative. I think the conical should work as expected. I like the fact that pulling samples to check gravity with this leaves way less room for infection than a carboy, the wine thief method kinda freaks me out sometimes. Also cleaning shouldn't be any issue. Its only one valve and it almost looks like the "bucket" in contact with the beer is spun from a single piece of stainless so the weld comment could be irrelevant. My disagreement is with all due respect, I just like getting shiny new things for my brew process so I may also be blinded by bells and whistles sometimes. I put my name on the list to be notified once they are in stock and I will report on it asap. Can't wait.

[Ozwald]

I wish you the best of luck; hopefully it works out for you.

Allow me to elaborate. I don't think it's a horrible product; my previous post was just briefly pointing out some design flaws which may or may not bite you in the ass.

Take a close look at the picture where they show how they can stack them (3rd one down) and you can see where a weld connecting the cone & cylinder has been ground out. You can also see the horizontal lines on the cylinder from the original piece of stainless sheet, meaning there is a vertical weld all the way up the side. The cone is also at ~40 degrees, instead of the optimal 60. Yeast stick to the much steeper 60 degree cone like mad, this isn't going to let them settle to the middle, especially lacking a dump valve (which would create flow to pull them down a bit). Stainless is also very expensive, especially right now. Welding stainless is difficult & takes a highly skilled welder, even moreso to make a sanitary weld. Those 2 facts mean, for the advertised price they're either cutting corners somewhere or making next to no profit. The 'corner' could even be in QC where one unit is fantastic & the next not so much. You can't really tell off from pictures or a website.

On the plus side, they could have put a flat bottom on this thing & it would still be worlds above a bucket (provided the welds are good). It's still stainless, so you don't have to worry about oxygen & OCD cleaning practices. The valve has a ball & racking arm so you can safely take samples (which is a big no no with even spigoted buckets).

All in all, I wouldn't buy one, but I don't think it's a ridiculous notion that someone would. I, personally, would either stay simple - you can make fantastic beer in a cheap bucket - or shell out a little more for some serious bells & whistles. Again, if you choose to go that route, I hope you get a fantastic product that you're $175 worth of happy about & it treats well many batches to come over the years.

[mordantly]

Oz, i remember seeing distiller swhag that showed a 5+ gal stainless bucket.. i would buy those in a heartbeat for as you stated vs an ale pail. the product of this discussion, NOT FOR ME. why can't some one make a 6.5 ale pail but stainless and maybe a corny lid at a decent price? i mean we would only need to buy those primaries one time until our grand kids got tired of them.

[Ozwald]

Oz, i remember seeing distiller swhag that showed a 5+ gal stainless bucket.. i would buy those in a heartbeat for as you stated vs an ale pail. the product of this discussion, NOT FOR ME. why can't some one make a 6.5 ale pail but stainless and maybe a corny lid at a decent price? i mean we would only need to buy those primaries one time until our grand kids got tired of them.

If I had any use for a 5ish gallon fermenter, I'd be in line with ya.

[hophead168]

As for vertical welds, you ever looked closely at Blichmann's stuff? I mean doing one piece extruding is very limited as to what you can build and almost can never be taller than it is wide... So all the Blichmann brew kettles for instance, those are welded up the side and i don't see anybody having problems with those. And speaking of Blichmann they are using 0.8mm stainless on a bunch of their products. About as thin as you can get away with to be honest. But again, nobody ever accuses them of being cheesy. Just that name alone gives them 2x power in pricing versus reality of materials and cost i would guess.

As for 45 degrees versus 60 degrees in the conical base, let's just say gravity should do its job and the trub should gather very nicely down there. From the looks of things (and the fact that on their conical page they have a pic of their 7 gal conical being pressure tested in a brewery), these guys would at least on the surface seem to know what they are doing and probably aren't just making random stuff without some thought to what brewers will find of value and/or works, so i'll give benefit of doubt for now at least.

Still, it is a funky product without doubt. But glad to see someone doing something new / interesting anyway. Equipment world pretty boring lately to be honest. Nobody reaches, then we never get anywhere other than where we have been )

On the list to get notified when they get some in stock and be curious to see once some guys do some real reviews and write ups.

[Ozwald]

Hmm, let us know when you get notified that your company gets them in stock. I'm sure you'll be first to know. In the meantime, read a little closer, since i referred to sanitary welds, not the mere presence of them. I won't even comment on the rest of the stuff since you've already made up your mind.