Fermenters - good and bad?

[Tesla101]

Hi All,

Did a search for types of fermenters and what's recommended and what to steer away from but didn't find what I was after.

I'm pretty sure I read on here somewhere that as long at your fermenter is at least "food grade" you're OK. But after a discussion with Mrs Tesla the other night on the pros and cons of using any type of plastic in any part of the distilling process it did get me thinking - is "food grade" plastic OK? Should I be looking around for stainless steel, or even glass? At what cost?

Currently I'm using the light blue "food grade" plastic 25L camping containers that are supposed to be for storing water. Are these OK? Will they degrade over time? etc., etc.

Would be keen to hear your thoughts...

[Bobsyauncle]

Food grade plastic use fine with fermentors. It's the high % alcohol that you can't use them for.

[scythe]

Stay away from the idea of stainless kegs as fermenter.
Too much hassle, big blue foodgrade barrels are better and come in a range of larger sizes.

[CH3CH2OH]

Here is what i use

works great, easy to clean

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=365&start=4600#p227765

[Tesla101]

Thanks ethanol, that looks the goods. I'm looking at upgrading from 4 x 25L fermenters to something bigger, like a 100L - although I'll wait until I get a 4" bubbler first, just so I can process it faster. For now, I can do a stripping run on a 25L wash after work, couldn't to that with a 100L wash and a T500 :laughing-rolling:

Another question - do you guys siphon your wash into the boiler or use the tap at the bottom? Does it matter a lot of some lees gets in, especially if just making neutral from a reflux/plated column still?

[PeterC]

Thanks ethanol, that looks the goods. I'm looking at upgrading from 4 x 25L fermenters to something bigger, like a 100L - although I'll wait until I get a 4" bubbler first, just so I can process it faster. For now, I can do a stripping run on a 25L wash after work, couldn't to that with a 100L wash and a T500 :laughing-rolling:

Another question - do you guys siphon your wash into the boiler or use the tap at the bottom? Does it matter a lot of some lees gets in, especially if just making neutral from a reflux/plated column still?

I use 2 x 60L fermeters of the same type as the 25's and do 50L ferments which fit in my 80L boiler nicely. The tap has a fitting inside with a slotted tube you can face upward. Most of my ferments I leave for an extra week or 2 and I usually get them reasonably clear. So I then collect from the tap after discarding the first bit with lees. I don't like too much dead yeast carried over to the boiler, it gives things a vegemite smell but not sure how much it affects the distillate. For neutral I do aggressive cuts and put heads and tails into the next run. My fermeters sit on a milk crates so I can get a bucket under the tap. With a larger fermeter you would probably have it on the ground so would need to suck out with a small pump.
Cheers.