I currently ferment in buckets but my wife wanted to get me a stainless fermenter for Christmas. I was eying up the 7.5 Anvil bucket fermenter and the SS brewbuckey one? anyone have experience with both or one of these and can say which is way better and why?
I have one Anvil 7.5 and 2 of the smaller 4 gallon buckets: Pros The racking arm. Makes things a little easier than siphoning from a bucket, It's stainless. I can't say I perceive much of an advantage, but I haven't done side by side batches. Price. If you want to get into stainless, this is probably tough to beat. Cons Cheap metal. One of my lids has a slight dent in it. I'm not sure if it came that way or if I did it. Certainly there were no major handling mishaps on my part. Sharp metal parts. The lid and the nut that threads the barb to the valve gave me many micro cuts over the first few years. Maybe the fixed the problem in QC, but not a bad idea to try to buff some of those pieces. Gaskets. I had to have them send me more because some of the ones I received were obviously defective. Overall, it turned out that stainless did not make a major impact. Having the smaller fermenters has kind of rekindled my brewing, tempting me to do small batch and side to side experiments I am glad for the small fermenters, but I probably could have found some small buckets. I think I am probably transferring with less oxygen now, but not completely sure.
I have a Brewbucket. I like it a lot. Brewtech makes a quality product, my boil kettle is also a Brewtech. I’ve never used Anvil, so can’t speak for them.
I have an Anvil 7.5 gallon fermenter which I use but am indifferent to. Easy to clean and lightweight, and can use temperature control fairly easily with it. The biggest positive for is that with the addition of a weldless bulkhead and ball lock on the lid you can do a closed transfer to a keg. The biggest con is the lack of ability to ferment under pressure/spund. For a few more dollars (really good deals out there now) I much prefer the Kegmenter that I use with a couple of small modifications.
https://www.morebeer.com/products/egmenter-fermentation-keg-7-gal.html I changed out the floating dip tube they include with a clear beer draft system with screen and added a weldless thermowell to the lid.
I think the SS brew bucket is an absolute classic piece of kit. You can change out the lid with a domed lid and add a TC gas post, and you basically have a conical. Can cold crash under pressure, do really easy closed transfer, no worries on leaks. buy once cry once
That link didn't work for me. Is this the same item: https://www.morebeer.com/products/kegmenter-fermentation-keg-76-gal.html
Cleaning is really the only part I find annoying about it. Being stainless it's not too hard to scrub and remove any debris from the walls but the opening is only 4 inches and depending on how active fermentation is, you may need to scrub trub off the top. Pouring out the opening is annoying as well but I bought a 4 inch to 2 inch TC reducer and it concentrates the liquid pouring out which helps a lot.
The CIP ball linked below might help to clean a kegmenter. It’ll also require a ½” MPT (quick-connect, hose barb, etc.) to mate to the line that feeds water or cleaning solution under pressure. (4" TC CIP configuration is not very common.) www.brewershardware.com/rotating-cip-spray-ball-1-2-female-fpt-connection-on-4-flange-mount.html @Prep8611 there's an article in the current Brew Your Own mag about a DIY 15.5-gal Sanke keg fermentor. All-in it might not fit the budget category. My interest waned when it mentioned welding stainless steel.
I wish I had seen that you can replace the lid with a domed lid when I bought mine. I had to modify the stock lid for a TC gas post. I’ll keep this in mind if I get another.
@Supergenious , yeah it's great they are the same size. The domed lid is completely rigid, so I find it can hold more on the order of 5-10psi rather than 1-2 with the flat lid. (although SS would never say that for risk of getting sued probably)
