Clear or Amber or White

[LouieMacGoo]

There are a lot of choices when it comes to fermenters. You can get the amber or clear versions of both the Mr. Beer LBK or the BrewDemon Conical or you can go with the white buckets or the milky white of the FastFermenter or the clear Better Bottles, but if you were to buy a new fermenter and you could choose the color what would you prefer?

[Beer-lord]

I like my SS fermenter and my Speidel but still use my Ale Pale though I'm going to need to get a new one since I only keep them about a year to avoid any problems with scratches.

[John Sand]

I primarily use an ale pail, sometimes a BDC or a carboy. But I do love watching fermentation.

[jimjohson]

Like John Sand, I use ale pails but I also use LBKs. My fermentation chamber is a fridge. I set the ale pails (2) on the crisper shelf and the LBKs where the crisper drawers were. The number of LBKs vary in the winter even down here I need a heater so I only use 1 LBK. The rest of the time I use 2 LBKs.

[Chuck N]

5 gallon bucket for me. Just bought new ones. Less than $4.00 each.

[Kealia]

I just bought a new plastic carboy two weeks ago. Clear. I like to watch.

[FedoraDave]

I just bought a new plastic carboy two weeks ago. Clear. I like to watch.

I prefer clear, also. Not only can I get a better idea of what's going on in there, but I can tell how clean it is (or isn't) when I'm washing up. To keep them from getting lightstruck I just cut a small hole in the bottom of a black kitchen garbage bag and slip it over like a sweatshirt.

I wish the BB carboys were shaped differently, because they can be a challenge to clean, but that's not a deal-breaker for me.

[Ibasterd]

I only have two amber LBKs. I enjoy perving while active fermentation is happening. Due to space constraints, I'm limited to LBKs for now. If I could choose anything, I would probably go for a clear glass widemouth. I don't think I could handle an opaque bucket and not know whats going on inside!

[gwcr]

I have a white bucket, brown MB and both brown/clear BD. Main reason I prefer the bucket is the ease of cleaning. Very few places for goobies to hide in that thing, and I don't have to crank my arm around to clean it. The BD conicals come in a close second for me (the MB kegs have officially been retired...). Now that I use a fermentation chamber, the color/opaqueness isn't that big of a deal to me since it is always dark in there.

[lindseywinstead]

Main reason I prefer the bucket is the ease of cleaning.

Agreed. I have multiple LBKs, a blue translucent plastic carboy, and a few classic white buckets. My favorite is the bucket. Easy to store, as they stack inside one another; easy to clean; inexpensive; and can be had in a wide variety of sizes. They are also simple to modify (i.e. adding bung holes, spouts, etc.). If/when my LBKs need to be retired, I shall most likely replace them with 3 gallon buckets.

[Ibasterd]

bung holes,

You said "bung holes!"

[gwcr]

bung holes,

You said "bung holes!"

Heh heh...

[Dawg LB Steve]

I started using the 8 gallon ones like AIH sells, not really clear but not solid white like the Ale Pails. I like the idea of seeing whats going on other than by the airlock. But I do have all but an amber clear in my arsenal, MR B LBK's, Ale Pails and created my own in the style of the LBK's early on out of the slim lines from Wally World.

[duff]

I have been using BetterBottles and they are clear. I originally chose them because they were the perfect size for the minifriges I had. But I have really enjoyed being able to just look into the fermenter without opening it to see what was going on.

[DirtRacer]

I've got 2 brown LBKs and 1 brown BDC. I liked they were brown at first because it kept light out but now, I've got boxes/coolers I store them in while fermenting so they probably don't need to be brown. One thing I don't like is when I try to get a look into whats going on inside, it's difficult to see because they are dark. I figure the next fermenter I get will be clear so I can more easily see clarity and activity.