Bob Sandage and Phil Farrell gave a presentation at the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) conference this year entitled "Does the Type of Fermenter Affect Your Homebrew?" Their experiment revolved around brewing a large commercial-sized batch of Kolsch. The style was chosen because it would easily show any unexpected fermentation issues or differences, and required no post-fermentation processing that might have affected the flavor of the finished beer. The large commercial-sized batch was divided into a variety of different fermenters used by homebrewers, including plastic buckets, carboys, cornelius (corny) kegs, and stainless steel conical fermenters. Where possible, blow-off tubes and poppet style airlocks were also used to gauge any difference these might make. Finished beers went through a blind taste-test to determine which tasted the best. They were also subjected to a laboratory analysis. The taste test rated the beer fermented in a...