Cider and beer fermenters

[JimH]

Should I get a different fermenter for cider? I have a plastic bucket fermenter I have been using for beer. I want to make a cider, but realized I maybe should think about getting a new bucket. I don't make cider often, but I will be making a mead soon as well. I guess I need a dedicated bucket for cider and mead?

[duff]

I've used the same BetterBottles for beer, mead, and cider. Never had any problems.

Not sure about the buckets.

[Foothiller]

Like duff, I have made ciders and meads in the same fermenter that's used for beer, with no problem. There is more latitude for what can be used for cider and mead, though, since they are not as sensitive to light unless you use hops. (Still minimize light though.) One consideration for cider and mead is that I like to rack to a secondary at least once after primary fermentation and before bottling, and then you want to minimize headroom to avoid oxidation, since active fermentation will no longer fill excess headroom with CO2 and since there is no krausen. So, more recently I brew ciders and meads as 3.5 gallon batches in 5-gallon carboys for primary, instead of 2.5 for beer (unless it's a 1-gallon test batch). That fills a 3-gallon carboy for the secondary with some to spare as a sample of its progress.