Why every homebrewer needs a decent fermenter

The fermenter is the one piece of gear where going cheap actually costs you. Everything else in a homebrew setup you can improvise or upgrade later. The fermenter is where the beer spends a week or more of its life, and it decides how much oxygen gets in, how stable the temperature stays, and whether anything you did not invite gets a foothold.

What the fermenter is actually doing

It holds the wort while the yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and it keeps everything else out while that happens. That sounds simple and it is, right up until one of three things goes wrong: oxygen gets in, the temperature swings, or something contaminates the batch. A good fermenter makes all three less likely, and a poor one makes all three easier.

What to look for

• Material. Food grade plastic is what most people start with, and there is nothing wrong with it. It is light, cheap and it will not shatter. The downside is that plastic scratches, and scratches hold bacteria, so a scratched fermenter gets retired rather than scrubbed harder.
• A wide opening. If you cannot get your hand and a cloth inside it, you will not clean it properly, and cleaning is most of the job.
• A seal that seals. The lid and the grommet do the real work. A tired grommet is the most common reason an airlock never bubbles and a brewer panics.
• A tap, if you can. A fermenter with a tap lets you take a gravity sample without opening the lid, and bottling off the tap beats siphoning every time.
• The right size. A 23 litre batch wants about 30 litres of vessel. Fermentation needs headspace for the krausen, and a fermenter filled to the brim will push foam out through the airlock.

Plastic, glass or stainless

Plastic is where nearly everyone starts and where plenty of people stay. Glass gives you a proper seal and lets you watch what is happening, and it is heavy and it breaks, which is a genuinely bad combination when it is full and wet. Stainless is the long term answer if you brew often, because it cleans up properly and lasts effectively forever, and it costs accordingly.

For a first or second batch, buy the plastic one and put the difference into ingredients. You will learn more from three batches than from one expensive vessel.

Looking after it

Clean it as soon as it is empty rather than tomorrow, because dried trub is a different job entirely. Use a soft cloth and never anything abrasive, since the scratches are the problem. Sanitise it before every use even if it looks clean, and check the grommet and the tap seal each time. Those two small rubber parts cause more mystery failures than anything else in the setup.

Shop related products

• Beer Essentials No Rinse Sanitiser 25g. What you sanitise the fermenter with, every single time.
• Beer Essentials Brew Sanitize 250ml. The concentrate, worth it if you are brewing regularly.
• S-04 Safale Ale Yeast 11.5g. An English ale yeast that settles compactly, which makes racking off cleaner.
• Coopers Original Dark Ale 1.7kg. Something to put in the fermenter once you have one.

Did you know we keep fermenters, airlocks, hydrometers, thermometers, bottles and cappers in store. Most of the brewing hardware is not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf before you drive in.

Brewhilder will help you size a setup if you are starting from nothing, or come in and we will work out what you actually need rather than what makes the biggest sale.

Keep reading

• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them
• How to brew a good IPA at home
• Turning a homebrew batch into a tasting night

Cheers,
Candeece

I have chased an airlock that would not bubble for two days. It was the grommet. It is always the grommet.