Begin Brewing!

I have four stainless steel fermenters.  Three are made by SS Brewing Technologies, and have a conical bottom with a valve, dip tube, and thermowell.  The last is by Chapman and is a cylindrical shape with a tap near the bottom.  They are all good products, but I'm partial to the SS Brewing Technologies fermenters for their conical bottoms (to capture trub and yeast), stackability, and thermowells. Although I purchased it (supposedly) new, one of my SS Brewing Technologies fermenters arrived with a rough white substance on the inside.  I suspected that this was beerstone, and was hesitant to use the fermenter for that reason.  Beerstone can create pockets for bacteria to thrive in, and it can be difficult or impossible to sanitize that surface well enough to prevent infection.  I work too hard on my brews to chance an avoidable infection. Recently, I started reviewing how other home brewers were removing beerstone from their equipment.  The recomme...

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...