Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Looking into what i will ferment in when i start up again since i will need more than 30L fermenters.

What do people recommend between the 200l blue plastic drums and the 220L olive drums?
any advice on the two?
Only difference really is price and lid that i can see off the bat. Is that the only advantage or are they both as good as each other?
In Brisbane and surrounding areas its about $15 per blue drum and $40 for olive drums.

From what i can see the olive drums have a better lid than the blue drums.

going to need fermenters capable of doing 150L batches of vodka, whisky and rum with room for ruff ferments.
i would prefer to have 2 drums going at a time. Vodka and either rum or whisky

Cheers
WTD

Big opening is a plus on olive drum its same plastic so lid is about only difference(you can also get open top blue drums but seem harder to come by). I havn't used mine yet but olive smell seems to come out after 6weeks soak in napisan and then a further 4ish weeks airing. :handgestures-thumbupleft: for nuetral maybe use a blue one no strong smell to taint ya neutral and olive barrel for whiskey and rum where your washs are flavoured to mask any residual smell taste also big lid will make cleanup a breeze lots easier access when there is grain etc to clean out,. I always give my fermenter a hose out as soon as possible before it dries, makes cleanup heaps easier also :handgestures-thumbupleft: really does come down to personel preference

I've just started using a 200L plastic drum, I found it hard to find one that was food grade and previously used for something food grade compatible. Mine was a hospital grade disinfectant. Paid $30
Can't for certain remember now, but believe the symbol for food grade plastic is a number 2 (or4) inside a triangle.
Somebody in the know may be able to confirm this for me.
I cut the whole top off and am using glad wrap as a lid, works great.
I would suggest what ever you decide, don't worry about the lid issue.
Price shouldn't be a factor compared to health either. A once off purchase that is reliable will give you peace of mind for ever

I have three of the Blue 209L drums that have the removable lid. The lid after a dozen or so uses don't seal 100% but well enough for keeping infections at bay. If olive drums were available I'd buy them simply for the better lids.

I've only ever used the red/orange olive drums, a decent go with washing detergent and hot water took the smell and oily coat off first go. Been very happy with it. The lid didn't seal completely first off, but ring of cling wrap in between barrel and lid has it airtight no problem.
The shop just down the road sells em for $15 :D

coffe addict wrote:If olive drums were available I'd buy them simply for the better lids.

Gold coast ?
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/molendin ... 1097747547

If you have the cash to spare the stainless olive oil drums look good .

200L plastic drums are hard enough to handle, not sure why you'd go stainless and make it even more difficult!

Depends on you favourite color really. :happy-partydance:

Zak Griffin wrote:200L plastic drums are hard enough to handle, not sure why you'd go stainless and make it even more difficult!

50 l and 100 L some are using as storage and used as beer fermenters.

I use 1 200 litre olive drum for uncle j and the rest is in 4 m80 litre olive drums no problem

Cheers guys, im going to go the olive drums for the larger opening.
The gold coast link above was the one i was looking at, they say they will be ongoing with selling them. Must be a business.

Dont care what they look like, as long as they do their job. Planning on stripping 2 batches then putting low wines in the boiler and fill up the boiler and thumper with wash so 150L would be the right size wash. SS would be way out of my price range.

Cheers
WTD

yes, they are olive importers. Gives confidence that they have only been used for food grade stuff. the residual odor is not really a problem.
$40 is a bit high, but they are built to last. I love them.

Yea bit high but only one around so i would pay it for the convenience.

i did a Northern Rivers search on gumtree too and didnt find any. That is where i will be distilling as the wife got too paranoid here

Thanks rumsponge!