greetings! I've used a Brute for a while now. Make sure you get a white one,
NSF approved. Last winter I had a batch of peach wine in primary ferm for 7
weeks w/ a towel & bungees, but that's little use to you. Things that I've
seen or done , as a food service professional, that may be of use:

place the whole (32 gal) brute inside a much larger (55 gal) XHVY clear
food grade utility/trash bag and tie it tight.

use foil: 2 or 3 pcs, dull side to dull, triplefold a seam creased well.
this'll give you a decent seal if you gently unfold it over the vessel.
Start at th seams and crinkle the edges under the barrel lip. NB not your
best choice for acidic items.

of course, there's always sheets of rubberized gasket material from pepboys
& a buttload of c clamps or c jaw visegrips. the material is "relatively"
innocuous... but we've used it & we're still relatively brain damaged

HTH bobdrob

"Adam Preble" > wrote in message
...
> In the archives here, I've run into a comments about using a Rubbermaid
> Brute food-grade garbage can for fermentation, particularly when a pile of
> fruit is involved. I was considering using one as my fermenter for a
> lambic beer. How long do people tend to keep the must/wine in one of
> these cans? I assume if it's food-grade, it could handle it indefinately.
> On top of that, is there a way to put a gasket around the lid? The style
> of beer does require some oxygen for part of the process, but it would
> eventually spoil if left like that too long.