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Review: Stainless Steel Brew Bucket and FTSs Temp Control

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Check out the video above to see my full review of these two items from Ss Brewing Technologies: The Brew Bucket and the FTSs Fermentation Temperature Control System.

Where to buy the Brew Bucket and FTSs:

FTSs-homebrew
FTss-coils
brew-bucket-volumesbrew-bucket
Thanks to Ss Brewing Technologies for providing the FTSs for review.

If you have questions about the gear or want to share your own experience, leave a comment below.

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Comments

      • Hey Larry, let me see if I can get you a good answer from Ss Brew Tech. Not that I know anything about constructing these things, but would it really be the same cost to add a double-wall?

        Reply

  2. Billy:
    Nice explanation of system. I have a brew bucket and a chronical and FTS for both. They both work great. First time I actually forgot to add insulation wrap to chronical and just wrapped with reflectic insulation and and blanket and system still held temp well (@ 65 F) even at high fermentation in a 70 degree room.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the comment Roy. Very cool you have both the brew bucket and the conical. Yea, it holds the temp very well.

      Reply

  3. Billy…you seem to be schilling for some provisioners of new but not necessary home brew equipment (how else would you have gotten that professionally produced clip if the Ss company had not provided it)? The crap about rotating the spigot to eliminate trube is so inconsequential, especially if you rack to a secondary. I could easily buy a cheap gauge stainless steel pot of like dimensions from some place like the webstuarant store add a weldless stainless steel bulkhead thru fitting and attach the lid w/ 3 small c clamps and achieve the same thing for much less than $200.00 plus shipping. Are they paying you or do you just get free stuff? I brew great beer and use a bunch of 5 gallon plastic ex-pickle containers that I have outfitted w/ cheap spigots that I got from the Brauhaus.com. this way the fermenters are also my bottling buckets and transferring from primary to secondary to bottles is simple and cheap! As for controlling fermentation temperature that’s simple…brew ales in the summer, fermenting in your basement or crawl space and brew lagers in the winter and ferment in your garage. Incidently, I brew 10 gal batches @ about $35.00 per and my friends can’t wait to be invited over for brewskis. I usually enjoy your emails but this does not seem an objective product review to me…anyone else?

    Reply

    • Well, Billy said (more than a couple of times) that it’s not for everyone, and that if you’re happy brewing in plastic buckets, that’s cool, too. And you seem to be doing quite well with the methods you’re employing.

      But for those who do want a more advanced system for regulating temperature, or who like those kinds of systems, or who feel such things really bring their beer to a higher level, then a product demonstration video such as this is valuable.

      This is not a system I’m interested in; I can regulate my temperatures pretty well with what I’m doing now. And I’m not trying to reach “the next level” of brewing, since I’m pretty much the only one who drinks my beer, and I like what I’m brewing. But this was an interesting, informative video. Regardless of how he got the equipment (and I think it’s unfair for you to assume that he’s getting remuneration under the table to shill for any manufacturer), Billy’s online presentations are geared to educate and inform. As I said, I’m not interested in getting this involved with my homebrew. I like to say I’m making beer, not sending a rocket to the moon, and the simpler the better, IMO. That being said, my competition results have pleased me, so I must be doing something right with the system and procedures I’ve been using.

      No, this is not for everyone. But it may be just what some homebrewers are looking for, and this video provides a comprehensive review of a system that some may not be aware of.

      Reply

    • Hey James, to address your points:

      – This comment -> “how else would you have gotten that professionally produced clip if the Ss company had not provided it”. I’m not even entirely sure what this comment means, but I am happy you think the video looks good because I thought the audio was crap haha. As far as Ss Brew Tech paying me — of course not. They provided the FTSs for review (as I stated in the post) and I bought the brew bucket myself.

      – Your comment comes off as evangelical. It’s like you’re saying “I brew this certain way and everyone else should too.” That’s fine if your process works for you, but not everyone wants to brew that way. I acknowledge in my video (as FedoraDave pointed out) that this equipment is not for everyone and if you want to brew in plastic buckets that is totally fine. I think you should be as equally open minded that some people want to use higher quality equipment and would rather pay for something turnkey rather than spend time building it on their own. Look no further than the massive success of Blichmann Engineering to tell you that there is a large segment of homebrewers who enjoy higher-end gear. Is the wool being pulled over the eyes of tens of thousands of homebrewers? I don’t think so.

      – I’m not the only one who is a fan of the Brew Bucket and FTSs. Search the web and it’s gotten many glowing reviews.

      When it comes to cars I do not have fancy taste. I drive a 13 year old beat up Hyundai Elantra. Because I don’t care about having a nice car. But I don’t judge people who buy $50,000 BMW’s — they just have different values than me.

      For the people that are considering buying the Ss Brew Tech gear, I hope they find this review helpful. I think they will.

      Reply

    • ** As for controlling fermentation temperature that’s simple…brew ales in the summer, fermenting in your basement or crawl space and brew lagers in the winter and ferment in your garage. **

      Today’s high is 95 and that’s the lowest high temp in the ten day forecast. No one has basements here in the south and most home construction is slab-on-grade rather than crawl space (though I doubt a crawl space is at optimal ale temperatures when the aforementioned forecast).

      Leaving it in the air conditioned house would make the beer in the mid-70s which is 5-10 degrees warmer than I’d like to ferment my beer.

      I won’t be jumping on this bandwagon but it is an option to replace the deep freeze that I currently use as a fermentation chamber.

      Reply

      • Hey, Bryan, I *have* a basement, but our temps here in the Metro NYC area have been in the 90s lately, and my ales have been fermenting in the low 70s. Oh well. They’re turning out okay, though. And I made a saison earlier in the summer and fermented it upstairs in my beer closet. It got into the high 80s, and turned out to have some very pleasant esters.

        As for lagers, I have a fridge with a Johnson Controller, so the temp can be rigidly regulated. I’m a lot more casual with my ales. Most of the time, though, they ferment in the low to mid-60s in my basement. This summer has just been a killer, that’s all.

        Reply

  4. Billy, very informative review and very apreciate as im looking to put my hands in one of those. For those which are still with doubts you have another good review by beerlover1983brew which present a review, in two parts, before and post fermentation. A question: As i have fermentation chamber i just want the Bucket, do you know if this is possibel to mount a termowell in a plain lid without the chiller?

    Reply

  6. Billy,

    Great posting. Like you am currently fermenting in Speidel’s and not sure this would be enough for me to switch over but nice to have another less expensive alternative to SS Conical. Did have a question for you. You mentioned that you used your plate chiller to get temp down to 70 and then let the FTS bring it down the rest of the way. Could you have also just attached 2 garden hose adapters to the in/out connectors and used the FTS like an immersion chiller to get down to 70 and then connect the cooler and pump after and have that take over? Seems like it would work although not sure if could be an issue where the FTS sits higher whereas an immersion chiller would rest on the bottom of the kettle. Just curious as to your take on this.

    Thanks,
    Bob

    Reply

  7. I wonder how the SS FTS compares to a VERY similar solution.
    http://www.gotta-brew.com/products/cool-zone-cooling-jacket.html

    Upside for the coolzone might be:
    – can use with other fermenters too.
    – no cleaning or sanitization impact
    – can add heating and a 2 stage controller at a similar price point as FTS

    The SS FTS is prettier and has the custom neoprene jacket.. but i feel like I could pretty simply replace the jacket with a trip to home depot.

    This assumes the coolzone is reasonably similar in efficiency. Anyone use one of the coolzone?

    Reply

  9. They now have a brewmaster bucket that has a thermowell. So you can use it with your normal temp control setup as opposed to having to buy the FTSs. Just used it for the first time and it worked great. Fit perfectly in my chest freezer.

    Reply

  10. Great review. I’m looking into getting a Brew Bucket (or two) to add to my chemistry set. I consider myself an advance novice home brewer but I like shiny things. I have a couple of questions for you Billy. 1) With the conical fermenter can the secondary fermentation step be skipped or is it still required? 2) Does the stainless brew bucket respond well to external temperature management e.g. heat belts or cooling jackets?

    Reply

    • Hey Tony, thanks for reading the site.

      1) I’m probably the wrong guy to ask that question to because I almost always skip the secondary, no matter what.

      2) I haven’t tested it so I can’t give you a good answer. I would shoot a note to the crew at SS BrewTech. They are great at responding.

      Cheers!

      Reply

  11. Alright Billy good video son, very informative. In fact a geezer I know has a few of these for sale so I may just help myself and take the plunge, as for the muppet who tries to brew real ale in is crawl space you obviously dont get out a lot so grow ya self a coulpe and make a fermentation chamber, cheap as chips and easy as 123. You will get better ales with more consitant flavours and charataristics, so butter up chap take that blouse off and man up a little, good old billy here just given a few punters the heads up of whats about if ya dont like it dont watch it! Alright buttercup

    Reply

  12. I just picked up one of these bad boys, baby step before moving into a full on conical fermenter. Did not get the temperature control but might make that plunge this summer, gets pretty hot down here in Texas. Picked mine up from http://www.letshomebrew.com

    Reply

  13. I have a couple of these with the temperature control and love them. A bit of advice, Ss doesn’t currently sell the neoprene jacket separately. To clean and preserve the jacket, I wash it occasionally in wet suit cleaner that you can pick up anywhere that sells dive gear.

    Reply

  14. Hi Billy, thanks for the incredibly informative video. I have a 10 gallon Blichmann conical fermenter system and really hope to upgrade to some method to keep fermentation cool this summer. This seems to be the best method, but nothing seems to fit my conical very well. Maybe this temperature controller will work, augmented by a nice down sleeping bag wrapped around the conical? What do you think? I live in Santa Rosa, so house temperature rarely exceeds 85°. I already have one refrigerator in the garage for the serving tank and it’s difficult to find a refrigerator that fits the very wide Blichmann conical system. If you think the controller will be sufficient to keep 10 gallons in check, then I think this is going to be my method. Thanks for the advice

    Reply

  15. Hi Billy,

    i was wondering if you could tell me during fermentation, what did you use for ice in the cooler? I am really interested in the FTSS heating and chilling I have read you could use a couple frozen 2 litre bottles in a cooler with 5 gallons of water.

    How often did you have to replace/add ice to the cooler during fermentation?

    What was the temperature of the room the fermenter/cooler was in?

    Where I live my garage can get to triple digit during the day and as cool as low 50’s at night.

    Thanks in advance.

    Jerry

    Reply

  16. Recently purchased the brew bucket and have used it a couple times. Like the product of stainless steel and started looking into the FTS cooling system as my basement still hits low seventies at best in the middle of summer and I’m sure fermentation is higher than that. The unfortunate thing about the FTS system for the brewbucket is the cost. for $250 you can control ale temps but still not do any lagering. You can buy a small chest freezer for 150-175 and add a $30 controller, still use the thermowell upgrade on the brewbucket, and for $200 you can now control ales an lagers. It seems like the initial product is a good price but then the accessories that only fit on this device are raised up since you pretty much have to buy them from the ss site. Even if you get this system for $250, if you rack to a secondary what then, yet another controller system instead of switching out the brewbucket in the fermentation fridge for the secondary glass carboy?

    The cost just doesn’t make sense:
    Coil is basically a small version of an immersion wort chiller, stainless steel – $70
    Temperature controller – $35
    Submersible pump – $35
    Vinyl tube – $3
    Thermowell with thermometer – $25
    Lid – $15?
    Neoprene jacket – $25?
    Total – $208

    Does the jacket and new lid really justify $82 for these two?

    I like the brew bucket but $250 to control ale temps with one specific fermenter and then have to throw another 150-175 later for a lagering chamber or for glass secondaries just doesn’t make sense. I think I will stick with the brewbucket but purchase a small chest freezer and temp. controller that I can place the thermometer into the brewbucket thermowell upgrade without purchasing the new lid assembly and then can also brew lagers as well.

    Is there something I am missing?

    Reply

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