New Member of the Freak Brothers Family!

This is the newest gadget we've recently added to our system. It is a 16.5 gallon chemical mixing tank. (they call it a 15 gallon but, it has 1/2 gal. incremental marks on the side that go up to 16.5 gallons.) We will obviously use it as a fermenter. You can build one for around $175 - $200. I got it at Sprayer Specialties in Grimes, Iowa for $193 but, I bought some extra rubber hoses and nipples so, It cost me a bit less than that. You can get it for $175, easy! This is a place that builds spraying equipment for farmers, pest control companies and anyone else who uses large spraying equipment. I manage a pest control company and, they build all of our power sprayers for us. That's how I found this fermenter. I bought all of the parts and pieces from that one company. The frame, tank, valve, hose and everything else. No need to shop all over the place. You can get everything you need right there. They told me that wineries buy them all the time for storing grape juice. They are food grade plastic and they come in 15, 30, 60, 85 and 110 gallon sizes. I think if you look around, you may be able to find a 5 - 10 gallon tank from another company like this one. Sprayer Specialties doesn't have one that size but, some other company might have one. I'm not sure.

I used a black marker to darken the content lines. This will come in very handy. We never really know how much beer we end up with. Now we will know! 16.5 gallon capacity!

My original idea was to use it as a secondary fermenter. Currently we primary in the stainless vessel and secondary in 3 separate glass carboys. I have always felt like we were brewing 3 different beers. If you are a brewer, that brews large batches, you have to admit that each carboy is doing it's own thing. Don't try to tell me otherwise. You know, in your heart, that each carboy is doin' it's own thing. You know it! I know it's the same batch but, I want to make all of our kegs, that come from the same batch, more consistent. I want them to be truly from the same batch. I believe that having the entire batch going into a single tank will give us this consistency that we are looking for. This plastic tank seemed like a cheap and easy solution to our problem. "E" suggested that, if need be, we could use it as a primary fermenter too. I don't see why we couldn't. Sounds like a good idea to me. If we wanted to do 2 batches, back to back, we could. The only modification that I will have to make is putting longer legs on it. It will need to set about 16 inches higher in order to gravity feed into our kegs because, I don't think it would be a good idea to use a pump. Too much oxygen I would think. Maybe not. I don't know. Anyway, this will not be a problem. I plan to take the frame back to the place I bought it. One of the guys there is a welder. He can give it some legs. He said he could hook me up if I brought him some beer. He He! That sounds like a fair trade to me but, if you have any ideas on how to transfer without gravity feeding it, let me know. One other thought! It just might be small enough to fit inside a large fridge or a homemade cool box. That would make one hell of a nice lagering vessel. Just a thought. Let me know if you have other ideas for this thing.

You can spin the large hex nut off the bottom and remove the entire valve assembly for cleaning. This is a cool feature.

I will keep you all posted on how it works. If you have questions about how to get one, just send me an e-mail or comment on the blog. I check it about every day. If you would like me to build one for you, please let me know. I will do it for $350 + shipping.

Freak Out!