Anyone have experience with brewing in a stainless steel fermenter?
Anyone have experience with brewing in a stainless steel fermenter?
I recently acquired a stainless steel conical fermenter as a long-desired upgrade to my brewing setup - I've been using 5gal plastic carboys until now, but I wanted to move away from them as I'm a bit leery of plastics leaching out while stuff sits in there for months at a time.
Does anyone here have experience with stainless fermenters? I'm especially interested in any cleaning tips and changes to flavor I should expect. Thanks in advance :)
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If it's brand new, I strongly recommend passivating first with citric acid. Soaking in citric acid removes free iron at the surface, then the chromium will react with oxygen in the air to form a protective shiny barrier. I didn't passivate my kettle first and got a small buildup of iron in the trub and some slight staining. It's not a big deal and the beer is totally fine, but I still would do it if I bought another one. I just let it soak in acid, then wipe it clean with a paper towel (while wearing gloves) and let it air dry. Citric acid also removes beer stone from kettles and is pretty cheap.
I'd never heard of passivation before - thanks, will definitely do that before my first attempt.