Reusing plastic juice jugs

Has anyone reused the gallon jugs you get juice in for a primary fermenter. Also has anyone used the 4 gallon water jug like the ones at Sams Club?

Well, if no one gets back to you on this with some experience, I found an old 5 gallon water jug in my garage. The airlock and stopped for a better bottle fit it, so I decided to fill that beast with apfelwein. It's been going good for a month, and I'll let you know when it's done if there's any warping to the bottle or flavour in the wine.

I've used them as primary fermenters a few times but never reuse them because the yeast will settle on every ridge (which most plastic jugs have.) It's just a big pain the butt to be sure that they're totally clean/sanitized after one use.

I use glass jugs (5 litres each) these days for small experiments.

Islandboy85 said:

Has anyone reused the gallon jugs you get juice in for a primary fermenter. Also has anyone used the 4 gallon water jug like the ones at Sams Club?

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Not sure about the 4 gal, but I'll bet somebody has. As for the juice jugs go, yes; have a look at the pic in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/ Regards, GF.

Cool. Ill mix a batch up tonight. Do you think they're good enough for a secondary?

before you think about using one of these plastic jugs as a secondary take a very close look at the insides to see where the old yeast and possible bacteria might have started growing.

ive used 1 gallon apple juice bottles that i use for my 5 gallon Apfelwein projects on smaller batches

Oxiclean em, and I use them regularly

Pretty new to this, and have started by brewing a couple batches of mead. So far, I've done so in gallon plastic water bottles (same material and shape as your standard milk jug). Seems like everything has come out okay, though the connoisseurs may beg to differ. I'm ready to bump things up a notch, so am planning to change over to 2.5-gallon plastic water bottles (same material, just bigger).

I like water (as opposed to milk) jugs because I feel that there's less to clean out of them...a quick rinse (if they've been sitting empty for awhile) and then a sanitizer and I fell they're good to go. I don't re-wash or re-use them after a brew, though...way to much to try to get out of there at that point, so they just go to the trash or recycle bin.

--R

I have used the gallon jugs of various water I've purchased, but I have not reused most of them due to the amount of lees in the bottom. I do have one heavier gallon jug that I purchased with water which I'm cleaning and planning to reuse. I also purchased some inexpensive Carlo Rossi wines in nice 4L glass jugs. I now have four of those.
I have 3 of those 5 gallon plastic water jugs which I have yet to use. Honey costs being what they are, smaller batches have been easier for me to manage. But I am planning to give them a go in the future.

meading_of_minds said:

I have used the gallon jugs of various water I've purchased, but I have not reused most of them due to the amount of lees in the bottom.

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Likewise.

meading_of_minds said:

I do have one heavier gallon jug that I purchased with water which I'm cleaning and planning to reuse. I also purchased some inexpensive Carlo Rossi wines in nice 4L glass jugs. I now have four of those.

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Hadn't thought of that. Nice!

meading_of_minds said:

I have 3 of those 5 gallon plastic water jugs which I have yet to use. Honey costs being what they are, smaller batches have been easier for me to manage.

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I've kind of enjoyed the smaller batches for experimentation purposes, too. I've found that 1 gallon may be a bit tiny for that, though, so am bumping up to 2.5-gallon jugs. Still not planning on re-using them after I've done a batch.

--R

I've done the same thing for primary fermentations, but I've read that aging or long secondary in them is bad because, believe it or not, oxygen penetrates the plastic and will oxidize the product.

What do you consider a "long" fermentation. So far for me, I've just to JOAM...fermenting 3 or 4 months. Is that "long", or am I not causing too many problems (yet) by using plastic?

--R

According to what I read, a few months can affect it.

I fermented 2 gallons of Apfelwein right in the bottles the juice came in. Came out great though. I didn't bother to keep the jugs though. Seemed like a pain to clean all the trub out of the bottom.