Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.

Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

Brewing software

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Anyone have experience with brewing in a stainless steel fermenter? (self.homebrewing)

submitted 1 year ago by pwacata to c/homebrewing@sopuli.xyz

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I recently acquired a stainless steel conical fermenter as a long-desired upgrade to my brewing setup - I've been using 5gal plastic carboys until now, but I wanted to move away from them as I'm a bit leery of plastics leaching out while stuff sits in there for months at a time.

Does anyone here have experience with stainless fermenters? I'm especially interested in any cleaning tips and changes to flavor I should expect. Thanks in advance :)

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[–] bees_knees@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's brand new, I strongly recommend passivating first with citric acid. Soaking in citric acid removes free iron at the surface, then the chromium will react with oxygen in the air to form a protective shiny barrier. I didn't passivate my kettle first and got a small buildup of iron in the trub and some slight staining. It's not a big deal and the beer is totally fine, but I still would do it if I bought another one. I just let it soak in acid, then wipe it clean with a paper towel (while wearing gloves) and let it air dry. Citric acid also removes beer stone from kettles and is pretty cheap.

[–] pwacata 3 points 1 year ago

I'd never heard of passivation before - thanks, will definitely do that before my first attempt.