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Fermenting in IBC Water Totes


firefighter75

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Google a local container company? Probably a lot cheaper to find a local place vs having them shipped individually.

Heck, even if you have to drive a couple hours. I can (barely) fit three IBCs in the bed of my truck and 3 in my friends trailer. I've got about 1" of leeway between the overhanging IBC and the trailer at its closest contact point when cornering.

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@Iliasm

Try hitting up another distillery close by that has medium high volume... they probably are buying gns in totes and have more than they need. We offload our extras every couple months for cheap.

We are in Seattle.

Thanks all!

@mcsology - possible to sync offline regarding any upcoming offloads? I'm also in Seattle.

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Thanks all!

@mcsology - possible to sync offline regarding any upcoming offloads? I'm also in Seattle.

Absolutely.

I'll msg you when we are moving some out. Probably 4-6 weeks. We just got rid of some not too long ago.

Feel free to stop by sometime though. I'm at batch 206.

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  • 3 weeks later...

They work great for fruit juice and sugar ferments, less so for grain (although I currently have 6 going with whiskey mash... but we have a brewery do the mashing for us, and we use rice hulls to remove most of the solids before transferring into totes).

Either it's our facility or the totes, but I suspect that there is some lacto that we never quite get to killing that hang out in the porous plastic.

Cleaning isn't as bad as some folks are letting on. What I do, Is make sure that there's always an extra one on hand filled to the absolute top with your KOH/NaOH cleaning solution (making sure that you maintain the pH every time you transfer it to another tote). 24 hours of soaking is usually more than enough time for the basic cleaner to destroy any organic scale that developed during fermentation. When It's time to clean post ferment, you can simply pump the cleaning solution from the waiting tote to the one that is to be cleaned. You can then pressure wash/spray rinse the one you pumped out of, then use whatever sanitizing solution you like to get rid of whatever microorganisms you can. I usually throw in about 5 gallons of Iodine sanitizer solution and roll the thing around on all sides and let sit for 20 or so minutes. Pump to the next tote, Rinse, Repeat. Works really well in a series if you are wrangling lots of totes per batch.

This way, the chemicals and time are doing the heavy lifting and all you need is a spray hose to blast off any remaining scale on the inside of the tote. Sure beats reaching in with a nylon brush and trying to reach all those corners!

that sounds like a good idea.!! thanks!

I use STEAM pressure washer, and then sanitizer. I figured the steam boils the bad guys to death and then comes the sanitizer.

but i also like that idea too!

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Been trying to devise a CIP system/spray ball lid that I can just screw on and administer the detergent/sanitizer, any ideas?

It's the same idea I have, but we aren't operational yet so it's not proven.

Just have 1 wash lid with a spray ball attached inside that you screw on to each IBC when it needs cleaning, in theory it should do the trick.

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It's the same idea I have, but we aren't operational yet so it's not proven.

Just have 1 wash lid with a spray ball attached inside that you screw on to each IBC when it needs cleaning, in theory it should do the trick.

GAMAJET

The most bad aspirin tote cleaner in the world! They have cleaners for just about everything. Even wood barrels.

There tote cleaner delivers 10lb of force to the insides of the tote where the jets hit it.

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Hats off to you guys fermenting in IBCs. That cleanup must be a bear.

Want cheap? Motor on down to the local farm supply and buy a stock tank. Plastic LDPE. Light, tough, CHEAP. You can make a lid for it out of anything (we used sheet foam insulation in the winter on ours).

We liked them cause they were cheap and super easy to clean. Never, ever had a stuck or off ferment when we cleaned/santitized/watched the pitch temps like we're supposed to.

Wanna move them around? put them on a pallet before you fill.

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Sure thing. We used some of these: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/rubbermaidreg%3B-structural-foam-stock-tanks-100-gal--capacity

But we preferred a cheaper version here: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/tuff-stuff-products-heavy-duty-oval-tank-110-gal

They come in sizes up to 300 gallons, I think.

Best thing was they're mostly in stock in these kinds of places. if it isn't, they'll ship to the store for free (versus a huge bill to ship to you).

Cheers!

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Typically people in wine country use plastic sheets and create a faux top for it with a potato chip sealer to just cover the top from fruit flies. Then once the fermentation falls, they use a perforated racking cane must separator that is dipped into the wine and separates out the liquid.

The reason these are so great for grapes is because you can put them in and set dry ice in there and chill them down for several days prior to mashing which creates internal fermentation.

For bourbon or grain mashes this would also be similar because you could separate out the liquid portion if you got the centipose sizing matched to your outer sleeve hole size. It is also possible it would work poorly. It could blind the holes. I keep wanting to try it but haven't had the time.

The other thing that people do, is tilt the probins with a cascade bin tipper and into a bladder press. If you do go this route you MUST buy one that tips, don't even consider a small one and manually unload it. You will hurt yourself, it will get beat up.

All in all they are great for cheap bins. They are around 60-150 used in wine country and 400 with the lid new.

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What are you folks fermenting in IBC's using for airlocks? Or are you adding a hose barb to the IBC lid for a blow off hose?

Get a 2" mpt to slip pvc fitting from the hardware store, that goes in the bung in the lid of an IBC. For initial heavy fermentation I just cover the hole with cheese cloth to keep out any vectors. When the fermentation slows down, if i need to hold the mash for a few days, I use a Silicone fitting from the home brew store that fits into the 2" PVC Slip fitting, and a standard homebrewers airlock.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Depending on how active your ferment is/grain-bill, much like Sorghum suggests, it's easy and cost effective at first to cut a hole in the lid and use a silicone bung, tube, and you can run it into a 3 gallon or smaller bucket of water for a cost effective solution.

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