Need a new FV. Recommendations?

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Piemaster

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Hi all

I have been brewing for around two years now and I am still using a 'starter kit' FV. It has served me pretty well up until now, but a couple things about it are starting to annoy me.

Firstly it is basically just a plastic bucket with a lid. It has no airlock or anything which means than when fermenting I have to just sort of fit the lid loosely to allow air to escape. This isn't ideal when you have two inquisitive cats in the house.

Secondly, bottling is becoming a real chore. Siphoning directly into bottles always leaves me with a very messy kitchen and about 3 litres of wasted beer in the bottom of the FV. Batch priming in a keg is cleaner, but requires another vessel to be sterilized etc. Also the tap on the keg is extremely slow and it takes forever to bottle afterwards and I worry that the priming sugar won't be evenly distributed.

Can anyone recommend me some kit to make my life easier? Maybe a better FV with an airlock tap built in? Or a keg with a better tap? Or a neat bit of siphoning equipment that can get beer for FV to bottles quickly and without mess? I'm not looking to spend the earth, but up to £60 or so would not be out of the question. It doesn't need to be too large, the 25 litres of my current FV is fine.

Any responses appreciated.
 
With regards the airlock: I got a flathead drill bit and just drilled a hole big enough to fit the bung into it into my Wilko FV. 12 brews on and still going strong (plus I prefer the added security of not having to leave the lid half off.)

I am a bit unusual in that I use a syphon tube with a tap and a little bottling wand attached.
 
For the primary any FV will do (my best is a Young's bucket from my starter kit, but the Wilko ones aren't bad) - just get a bung and airlock and drill a hole in the lid. Personally, I don't want to have a tap in my primary - it'd be a pain to clean and you risk sucking up your yeast off the bottom. Taps do often come with a diverter insert thing to avoid this but that just knackers your flow so it takes longer.

For bottling I'd recommend a second FV, drill a home in the side and fit a tap and little bottler. Batch prime in the bucket and fill straight from the bottler - so much quicker and easier than faffing with spoonfuls of sugar, siphons, taps etc...

Like yours, the tap on my keg is really slow (suppose they are designed to operate under pressure after all) - if you're batch priming and stirring I wouldn't worry about evenly distributed sugars. I found that sterilizing a second bucket was much quicker overall than messing with a siphon and measuring sugar into each bottle.
 
For the primary any FV will do (my best is a Young's bucket from my starter kit, but the Wilko ones aren't bad) - just get a bung and airlock and drill a hole in the lid. Personally, I don't want to have a tap in my primary - it'd be a pain to clean and you risk sucking up your yeast off the bottom. Taps do often come with a diverter insert thing to avoid this but that just knackers your flow so it takes longer.

For bottling I'd recommend a second FV, drill a home in the side and fit a tap and little bottler. Batch prime in the bucket and fill straight from the bottler - so much quicker and easier than faffing with spoonfuls of sugar, siphons, taps etc...

Like yours, the tap on my keg is really slow (suppose they are designed to operate under pressure after all) - if you're batch priming and stirring I wouldn't worry about evenly distributed sugars. I found that sterilizing a second bucket was much quicker overall than messing with a siphon and measuring sugar into each bottle.

Yep I have this setup too.. I like it because I use that for batch priming
 
I bought a couple of these: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Airlock_Grommet.html#.VHRdzWfX_Fw
because they don't require quite such a big hole to be drilled but I kinda wish now I'd gone for bored bungs as they're more versatile.

My first bottling session I also used a syphon tap: http://www.brew2bottle.co.uk/syphon-tap.html?gclid=CND84IDLlcICFS_MtAodXFMAKg
Brilliant, simple little gadget that makes such a difference. You can adjust the rate of flow to avoid aeration and overflow, as well as shut it off. It just pushes in to the end of a standard bore (5/16") syphon tube.

I also have one of these: http://www.brew2bottle.co.uk/syphon-sediment-trap-350mm.html?gclid=CK_t-P7MlcICFYIfwwodLCYAyg
another simple device that seems to work surprisingly well to help prevent sucking up sludge.

I know the Little Bottler is a very popular device but I still don't understand how it works. I've been told it comes with its own tap so do you fit this to the fv like any other tap, and then fit the Little Bottler over it? And does that than mean that the Little Bottler won't fit different makes of tap? Does it stay permanently attached to the fv? Does the tap control flow? What is the advantage of the Little Bottler over a short length of syphon tube pushed onto an ordinary fv tap which could then control the flow?

Piemaster, hope you don't mind me asking these questions in your thread but hopefully any answers will be useful to you also. I've asked two different suppliers to explain and neither could.
 
I bought a couple of these: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Airlock_Grommet.html#.VHRdzWfX_Fw
because they don't require quite such a big hole to be drilled but I kinda wish now I'd gone for bored bungs as they're more versatile.

My first bottling session I also used a syphon tap: http://www.brew2bottle.co.uk/syphon-tap.html?gclid=CND84IDLlcICFS_MtAodXFMAKg
Brilliant, simple little gadget that makes such a difference. You can adjust the rate of flow to avoid aeration and overflow, as well as shut it off. It just pushes in to the end of a standard bore (5/16") syphon tube.

I also have one of these: http://www.brew2bottle.co.uk/syphon-sediment-trap-350mm.html?gclid=CK_t-P7MlcICFYIfwwodLCYAyg
another simple device that seems to work surprisingly well to help prevent sucking up sludge.

I know the Little Bottler is a very popular device but I still don't understand how it works. I've been told it comes with its own tap so do you fit this to the fv like any other tap, and then fit the Little Bottler over it? And does that than mean that the Little Bottler won't fit different makes of tap? Does it stay permanently attached to the fv? Does the tap control flow? What is the advantage of the Little Bottler over a short length of syphon tube pushed onto an ordinary fv tap which could then control the flow?

Piemaster, hope you don't mind me asking these questions in your thread but hopefully any answers will be useful to you also. I've asked two different suppliers to explain and neither could.

Here is a Youtube vid on someone using the bottler

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Gh_OpfOI4[/ame]

And yes it does detach
 
Oh I see! Thanks Covrich. So the only disadvantage is that with four fvs I'd need to buy three new taps as the spigots on the ones I have (Young's) are too fat.
 
Oh I see! Thanks Covrich. So the only disadvantage is that with four fvs I'd need to buy three new taps as the spigots on the ones I have (Young's) are too fat.

Depends on how you go about it, if you batch prime and use one as bottling vessel you could only use one and then you only need to use that one vessel for the hour or so while you bottle.
 
Piemaster, hope you don't mind me asking these questions in your thread but hopefully any answers will be useful to you also. I've asked two different suppliers to explain and neither could.

Not at all, I am finding all posts in this thread useful, even those on a tangent, and I am looking into all the options presented so far.

Thanks everyone.
 
Brewferm from the home brew shop,great sturdy bucket,ive got 3 of them,superb

I've got one of these as a bottling bucket and it good quality, much better than my balihoo one. I need a new fv so think I'll buy another one although without a tap. I really like how well the lid clips on.
 
After reading this thread, looking at all the options and reflecting on my situation I have decided that my primary FV is not really the problem. If I could just get a secondary FV/batch priming vessel with a tap that didn't take a minute to fill each bottle then that would be fine. If it had the right tap to fit the bottler then that would be a bonus (although not sure I'll get the bottler right away).

In light of that, the one Covrich recommended in the very first reply (http://www.home-brew-online.com/equ...5-ltr-including-little-bottler-plain-lid-p800) doesn't look like a bad bet. The brewferm also looks good, although the airlock would be a bit superfluous on a bottling FV. Does anyone else have any others that they could recommend given these criteria?
 
Tesco have 25% off Homebrew from today till 22/12/14..... I have just bought a second Coopers DIY Beer starter kit with the FV and extra bits for £52.13... also added a few packs of the Coopers replacement caps for 94p a pack.... can't complain at that..... and also used £8.00 of Tesco vouchers so got it even cheaper...

The Coopers FV comes with the tap and a bottler.... so well worth considering and I have found it is by far the easiest of the ones I have to clean... must be something in the Plastic as nothing seems to stick to it, just rinses clean every time.
 
...
The Coopers FV comes with the tap and a bottler.... so well worth considering and I have found it is by far the easiest of the ones I have to clean... must be something in the Plastic as nothing seems to stick to it, just rinses clean every time.

I love my Coopers FV, with the removable Krausen ring, if only they sold them separately.

The bottling wand that comes with it though is useless as it isn't spring-loaded and keeps dripping once removed from a bottle.
 
I love my Coopers FV, with the removable Krausen ring, if only they sold them separately.

The bottling wand that comes with it though is useless as it isn't spring-loaded and keeps dripping once removed from a bottle.

When I use the Coopers FV and wand for bottling I use the spring out of a 'Little Bottler' in the Coopers wand, works great and stops any drips :thumb: though you still need to use a drip tray under any of them as the beer on the outside of the wand runs down and drips off whilst you are using them...

Hey... at £52.13 with the spare bottles and a beer kit when on offer from Tesco's you cant beat the price anywhere.. :D

I have to give a massive :thumb::thumb::thumb: for the Krausen ring as well... brilliant idea and works great...
 
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