Man Down! Brute catastrophic mash failure.

[shadylane]

Just wear some rubber boots when your around it.
Ya wouldn't want to burn any of your toes
What do you think the odds are, of the plastic trash cans being less durable now than they were 3 years ago

[Hillbilly Popstar]

Pretty good, I'd wager.

That's a good point. I'll have to be vigilant.

[dukethebeagle120]

Been there done that
Get yourself a 55 gallon barrel

[hellbilly007]

58 gallon olive shipping drums work great, if you can find em. These are terra cotta colored and have a screw off lid. I prefer the olive drums because there isn't any off odors that are associated with the pickled pepper drums. Btw, the pepper drums don't carry over the smells or flavors of pickled peppers.

[The Baker]

58 gallon olive shipping drums work great, if you can find em. These are terra cotta colored and have a screw off lid. I prefer the olive drums because there isn't any off odors that are associated with the pickled pepper drums. Btw, the pepper drums don't carry over the smells or flavors of pickled peppers.

A 58 US gallon olive drum would be HUGE! Somewhere over 200 litres.
I have five olive drums, some 70 LITRE and some 80 Litre, and this gives me some flexibility in size and variety of ferment.
And anything bigger would be almost impossible to manage, to move about.

Geoff

[hellbilly007]

Yes, the size a little cumbersome at times. I don't move mine when full or anywhere near it. One charge lasts me a while, although this quarantine crap has me drinking a bit more than usual.

I'm wanting to build an elevated bench for my fermenters, so I can use gravity for transfers. Trying to streamline my processes.

[MtRainier]

Amazon has "Eagle Transport Drum, Open Head, 57.5 gallon," for $86 with free shipping in the US. It's extra thick HDPE and able to handle a hot mash better than a thinner Brute.

[Yummyrum]

I use a 200liter olive barrel for my sugar washes for neutral nowdays . Got it setup under my carport on a bench close to where my still is setup , gravity feed to fill still .

. I stuck a drain in near the bottom above the trub line .

My biggest issue with it is having to climb up to fill and stir it

[DetroitDIY]

Amazon has "Eagle Transport Drum, Open Head, 57.5 gallon," for $86 with free shipping in the US. It's extra thick HDPE and able to handle a hot mash better than a thinner Brute.

I use the 55 gallon blue drums with the cam lever steel lid to container closure. Thick walled HDPE, thicker than Brute in the radii (stress risers and typical failure points). I pick them up for ~$20 at my local homebrew place, formerly containing malt.

I do mash in my 55 gallon drums, poring 210F water into them. Haven't had a failure, but I don't mash to frequently. I also ferment in them. HDPE and PP are what he home brew stores sell for brewing. Most Brute (and 55 gallon drums containing food) are food safe. The Brute's typically advertise as such.

Yes there's leaching from plastics, and permeability. If you want inert plastic, get PTFE. If you want inert cheap containers, get glass. If you want inert robust containers, get stainless (not truly corrosion free, but sufficient for our use). I ferment happily in HDPE, PP and Glass. I store distilled spirits in glass, stainless or wood... sometimes with some PTFE contact. No worries with the materials for either.

Plastic ages, has embitterment with UV, softens substantially above it's glass transition temperature (and can take much less stress). It changes over time, it wears out, and it interacts. It's not an indictment, it's just one of the trade-offs for cheap, tough, and light. If that worries some, stainless if available.

[TDick]

Don't know where you are, but check Facebook Marketplace for Food Barrels.
I've got 3-4 sellers, but the closest is about an hour away from me.

Note:
One of the sellers is about 4 hours away from me. He shows this picture of white barrels in addition to the blue ones I normally see:

food barrels.png (69.38 KiB) Viewed 1641 times

His listing says:
"I have plastic food grade barrels for sale. There are numerous sizes available including some not listed below.

55 gal white $25 ea.
35 gal white $20 ea.
30 gal blue $20 ea.
15 gal blue $20 ea.

Beware of barrels that once contained soap and chemicals. Those are NOT food grade. My barrels are true food grade. I have been selling these same drums got 5 years without a single complaint. Please be careful. "

[DetroitDIY]

I posted about adjusting these for fermenters on another thread... one barrel without a removable lid, and one with viewtopic.php?f=50&t=72282
. I find those with the removable lid much easier for cleaning, or fixing something inside (if you need to). I do my hot mashing in one of the blue barrels with a removable lid.