[majorvices]

That is very cool! Is that fermentor tiled? What yeast are you using? Very cool picture. I remember a tiled, open fermentor build similar to that from BYO years ago.

[anthony]

I too would be curious for more details on the fermenter.

Reminds me of those old pictures you see from breweries that were using shallow, rectangular porcelain tile lined fermenters.

[Jimmy K]

That's gorgeous. Makes me want to give up the whole airlock thing and just ferment in a loosely covered bucket so I can see what's going on! (Sadly, still haven't used the carboy. I like my buckets for how easy they are to work with and because I don't relish the idea of lifting/carrying 50lbs of slippery glass.  But I would love to see more of the fermentation.)

Buy some BrewHaulers for your glass carboys. So much easier for one person AND they allow two people to share the load.

[Joe Sr.]

That's gorgeous. Makes me want to give up the whole airlock thing and just ferment in a loosely covered bucket so I can see what's going on! (Sadly, still haven't used the carboy. I like my buckets for how easy they are to work with and because I don't relish the idea of lifting/carrying 50lbs of slippery glass.  But I would love to see more of the fermentation.)

Buy some BrewHaulers for your glass carboys. So much easier for one person AND they allow two people to share the load.

Or milk crates.  Which also work great for Better Bottles.

[fugglupagus]

Looks like meringue.   

Very cool!

+1.  I suddenly find myself hungry for pie.

[morticaixavier]

I too would be curious for more details on the fermenter.

Reminds me of those old pictures you see from breweries that were using shallow, rectangular porcelain tile lined fermenters.

There are still breweries in the UK, if I am not mistaken, that ferment in large square stone fermenters.

[jeffy]

I too would be curious for more details on the fermenter.

Reminds me of those old pictures you see from breweries that were using shallow, rectangular porcelain tile lined fermenters.

There are still breweries in the UK, if I am not mistaken, that ferment in large square stone fermenters.

Yorkshire Squares

[troybinso]

What yeast strain is that?

[yeastmaster]

What is fermenting in there?

A big IPA.  If you look close there are a few bits and pieces of citra hop cones floating around

[yeastmaster]

So what different character you notice with the stone square? anything that might not be attributable to the open fermentation in general?

Looks really neat by the way and it DOES look like whipped egg whites.

I haven't done a side by side comparison between this and my carboys so I can't really say if it makes a big difference.  I don't notice anything that really stands out to make me know which fermenter I did a beer in.

[yeastmaster]

I had to recheck the title of the thread to make sure it wasn't dessert!

Lid or no lid?

I have a loose fitting wooden lid.  During active fermentation where the krausen is rising I usually have it sitting up so it leaves about a 3/4 inch gap between the lid and the top of the fermenter in case the krausen wants to spill over which it has.  As it falls and I don't have a good krausen layer I set the lid on so it is closed but anything but airtight.  Once the primary fermentation is open I will usually transfer to a carboy for secondary.  At that point I like to get it airsealed, less worried about contamination as I am about oxidation since I don't always get things kegged or bottled right away.

[yeastmaster]

That is very cool! Is that fermentor tiled? What yeast are you using? Very cool picture. I remember a tiled, open fermentor build similar to that from BYO years ago.

PacMan yeast

[yeastmaster]

That looks awesome!  I'm also curious about the stone box.

Me too. Did you contruct it? What kind of rock? How is it sealed?

Thanks

It is made with old slate pavers that had been sitting in a pile in my parents back yard for about 20 years.  Figured out my dimensions and cut them to size with a tile saw.  I used a food grade silicone to seal them together and built wooden collars to wrap around the top and bottom to keep the walls from pushing out when it is filled so I am not relying entirely on silicone.  I built a wooden lid for it as well.

It weighs about 50 pounds empty so I have it on a piece of thick plywood that is a little bit larger than the footprint of the fermenter.  I created rope handles on two sides so I can pick it up and move it.  When I am racking out of it I will pick up one corner of the plywood and set it on a 2x4 and set the racking cane in the low corner I create by doing this.  I can rack out almost everything and have very little waste. 

It is easy to scoop yeast out of the bottom but it is a bit of a pain to clean.  I scoop out as much as I can and then fill with warm/hot water and get everything as mixed up as I can and then sifon out.  I usually have to do this a few times and typically will put in some oxyclean to help me break up any crud.  Once it is clean I usually fill it with starsan.  I don't leave the starsan in for extended periods because I think the acidity interacts with the slate.

So far it has been really fun to use and made some pretty good beer.

Check out my blog to see some more pictures:  http://saccharomycessafari.blogspot.com

[dudesbrews]

nice work.......thanks for sharing.......I also checked out the blog. I love the birch tower.

[narvin]

I get some really fascinating yeast art from certain strains.  This is ringwood in an open fermentation: