Home Distiller

I am going to get some more (larger) fermenting barrels.
I can buy 30 gallon drums for $20 each so 2 would be 60 gallons and $40

or I can buy 55 gallon for $40 each.
I am using a 15.5 gal keg as my boiler now, about a 12-13 gallon charge.
With 2 30 gallon barrels or 1 55 gallon barrel, I could ferment basically 4 runs at a time.
both sizes are open head with "band clamps". The 55 gallon does have the 2 bungs in the lid, the 30 does not have any.
is there an advantage or a disadvantage to one or the other?

Planning to go up in boiler size in the future to either a 26 gallon (about 22 useable gallon) or dreaming a 50 gallon(useable) StillDragon Pot Belly.


thanks for the input

I'm running a keg boiler and keg thumper . I'm getting the most efficiency and flexibility with 32 gallon Brutes nested in 44 gallon Brutes . One ferment will make one strip run of 12 gallon boiler charge and 12 gallon thumper charge .

I have a 50, 30 a 12, a couple of 10s and a lot of 5s. I've done one ferment in the 50 because for me it is a bit impractical because of my long ferments and potentially long rest times. The one ferment I did got a lacto infection which is fine but it could just as easily been a different infection that could have cost my whole batch. I also had a 10 gallon batch of cider go vinegar, which scared me so I prefer to do cider in 5 gallons because if one goes bad I don't lose 60 gallons of hard work. I'm pretty happy with the 30 for non fruit ferments and am thinking about buying a second one.

Price seems pretty high.... food companies throw them away.


Might shop around but its good to have several of each on hand.

Both are nice fermenters.

I would say your choice is largely based on what you intend to do with them. For me, I have an 8 gallon boiler, so my 32 gallon Brute is perfect for three stripping runs worth of a mash.