Comparing All Stainless Steel Fermenters

When I started out homebrewing, I bought a kit that included everything I needed to make my first brew. There is nothing wrong with doing that, and in fact I would still recomend that be one’s first purchase when getting into homebrewing.

However, once I used the kit to make around 10 batches of beer, I decided to upgrade some of my equipment to make life (and brew days) easier. After all, this was a hobby that I wasn’t planning on quitting any time soon. Home brewers are always looking to upgrade their equipment!

Glass and Plastic Fermenters

I quickly decided that I was going to replace the glass carboy with a metal fermenter first. Glass carboys have many problems, but the main ones include:

• They are extremely breakable. If you’ve ever handled a wet glass carboy you know exactly what I mean. It is only a matter of time before that thing slips and your brew day is ruined.
• Their top opening is too small. Trying to dry hop with a muslin bag in a glass carboy is like trying to squeeze a watermelon through a garden hose. Taking a gravity reading is a royal pain. Some have decided to purchase a Big Mouth Bubbler to give you more room at the top, but it is still glass.
• They don’t have a bottom spigot. I brew a lot of hazy IPAs, and because of that, I keg a good portion of my batches. Being able to utilize a spigot at the bottom of the fermenter would be so useful in keeping oxygen away from my precious beer.

Plastic buckets are another common “starter kit” fermenter option. While many homebrewer’s have used plastic buckets for years (they are cheap), I wanted something I could sanitize easily and could withstand many years of abuse.

Choosing My Favorite Stainless Steel Fermenter

During my research, I found five major brands of stainless steel fermenters, all with varying degrees of features and quality. I’ve listed them below with every specification imaginable that I could find on each of them.

Chapman has created a budget-friendly entry level fermenter that had the racking port I was looking for, but it was missing the conical bottom to help me discard/save yeast. I did like that you could also boil in it, but I already had a brewing kettle.

Spike had some fantastic fermenters that were unfortunately way over my budget. There were even more steel fermenters at a price range well above these two that included Stout and Blichmann, but I didn’t show them here since their price tags were both well north of $400. I also knew I wanted one of the conical fermenters because I wanted to ensure my trub stayed below my spigot outlet.

That left Delta, SS Brewtech and Anvil as my final three options. I decided to choose Delta’s FermTank as my perfect solution for a couple reasons:

• While I don’t pressure ferment yet, the fact that the Delta FermTank product was built for it was a plus. Being able to hold pressure also allows me to transfer oxygen-free.
• The extra welded drain valve at the bottom makes for extremely easy cleaning.
• Everything was 304 stainless steel – making it heavy duty and long asting.
• Comes with a thermowell included.
• It is a stainless steel conical fermenter, which means its base comes to a point allowing trub to settle below the spigot.
• It has a rotatable racking arm, which allows you to adjust how close to the trub you get when draining the beer out.

Update: You can read my full review on the Delta FermTank here.