Big Mouth Bubbler

[Beer-lord]

I know a few of you have the Big Mouth Bubbler (berryman I think as well as others) and as I get rid of my plastic fermenters every 18 months or so, I was thinking about buying one of these. It appears it will fit in my freezer alongside my SS fermenter pretty well and I'm curious about any problems anyone has had with these. I'm not crazy about clear fermenters but as it'll mostly stay in a fermentation fridge, that's not a problem.
My wonderful Spiedel has a problem fitting in there and I am working on ways to make that happen.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Thought you were talking about Chuck after a few pints!!!!





I use buckets, have the 8 g like they sell @ AIH.

[Beer-lord]

That is who NB named it after. But I didn't want to bring that up.

[Bluejaye]

I had the original, but have since tossed it since the glass was pretty thin and looked like it might have a crack in it after only 2 uses (and I thought I had been extremely careful with it). They have a "new version" that claims to be thicker glass. If my current fermenter needs to be replace I'll probably try it.

[dbrowning]

I have a plastic one and I love it

[Dawg LB Steve]

That is who NB named it after. But I didn't want to bring that up.

[Beer-lord]

It's the plastic I'd want but so many people have complained about the lid not sealing well or it seals well and after fermentation begins, it looses its seal, that I don't know if I want one. I really love the buckets but thought about something like this because it also has the optional lid that lets you take a thief sample without even unscrewing the lid.

[mashani]

Honestly, I don't understand why anyone really cares about the lid sealing except for the whole (invalid) idea that airlocks are super important because it's something we've been told by someone who knew someone who knew nothing because their ideas were based on bulk aging/secondary not primary fermentation.

As in, this is only true for secondarying/bulk aging stuff with no fermentation going on and the fermented wort no longer gassing out CO2, which isn't going to be the case unless you leave it in there more then 2-3 weeks for many beers. Some of the best beers in the world are open fermented. Now if you are going to secondary/bulk age, then sure use an airlock. Or better yet, just seal it up tight, you don't need an airlock for that. If it's not fermenting/venting CO2, it's not going to explode your container, so even there the airlock becomes pointless. All it's good for is blowing pretty bubbles.

But in general, since I rarely secondary, if I wasn't using LBCs (which I do not use a gasket in the lid, nor do I fully tighten them - so they don't seal either - so they act as semi open fermenters, they hold no pressure during fermentation) - I'd be using a spiedel without a lid gasket (or if I could mount a spigot on a 3 gallon plastic Big Mouth maybe one of those - if they even exist - without a lid gasket). I honestly think I've been making better beer since I started to let everything vent at will. It's the best of both worlds, you get lack of pressure like an open fermenter, but beer infecting bugs can't fall into your wort. It's not a problem unless you like to squeeze your fermenter to blow out the co2 and then let it suck in air next to your cats butt.

The only downside if you want to call it that is that you might find out you have an infection before bottling if you wait long enough that the co2 blanked does dissipate enough to allow some small amount of oxygen to touch the surface. Because beer infecting bugs will form a pellicle almost immediately as soon as that happens. You didn't get that infection because of the lack of an airlock, it was already there. You can just find out sooner then when you get a bottle bomb or it turns sour in the bottle. Which doesn't bother me, I like to know when my summer Brett got into a batch, as then I can adjust my priming levels to account for it.

Anyways, that's what I have to say about it LOL.

[berryman]

I've had my BMB since 12/10/13 and have fermented 16 batches in it. Mine is 6.5 glass and I have the harness for it. As Bluejaye said the glass does look thin and it's lighter then I would have expected for a carboy of that size compared to my old regular 6.5 and my other 5 gal glass that I use. Yes the cover isn't the best seal but I don't have a problem with that and I did buy a pack of replacement gaskets for a little of money. I've fermented some batches 3 weeks in it, but I usually secondary most of the time so it's only in there 7-14 days. The best thing about it is the ease of cleaning which I like for using it as a primary, it is also easy to handle even without the harness. I see they re-designed it now and it is a little more money then what I paid a little over a year ago.
My final thoughts = Yes I like it, do I highly recommend it? Yes if you want a easy to clean carboy. If I broke it would I get another one? Probably not, they're other fermenters out there that I think I would like better.