RBRT

Recipes 

I went the cheap route, since start up cost was four times as much as I wanted it to be and got a HOME DEPOT bucket for my primary. The smell of the bucket pretty much screamed NOT FOOD GRADE so I got my self a FOOD GRADE 20 gallon storage bag to stick in it. I lined the bucket, cut of excess and was thinking I do not even really want the lid to touch my brew.

I want to know if people think it is ok to just forget the lid and take the excess bag to make a COVER that would lead to the BLOWOFF tube, securing it duct tape: I attached a image... Hope it works.
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
CHEERS

Schumed

Recipes 

I would get a lid but your method I would assume would work...only one way to find out...if the bucket has a 1 or 2 on the bottom should be fine.

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"To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems,"

wittmania

Recipes 

I'm all for saving money, but this isn't a place I would advocate for it. An Ale Pail will cost you less than $20 and will be the one part of your brewery that is in contact with your beer more than any other component (except bottles, I guess). It's not worth saving less than half the cost of one extract kit while risking off flavors in every batch.

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wittmania.com

brans041

Recipes 

My question is, what will you be saving in the long run? Fermentation buckets are ~$15 at LHBS. Home depot bucket and bag seems more work than it is worth. Good luck though.

mikemet

Recipes 

say no to home depot pails!

LHBS FTW

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Primary 1 > Funky Dunky w/ Lemon test
Primary 2 > Apfelwein
Primary 3 > Experimental Pale Ale

Bottled > Bellys Belgium-E, Brown Eye PA-E, Pale Ale-E, Guinness -biab, Apfelwein, Funky Dunky Blonde-biab

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

Batches are usually ~5.5 gallons and HD buckets are ~5 gallons.

You either need to make smaller batches or get a bigger bucket.

RmikeVT

Recipes 

My local homebrew store sells fermentation bucket, lid, grommet and airlock for about $12. But it looks like you have your mind made up. What are you going to do for an Airlock and airlock grommet to keep out the microbes?

What is your first brew going to be?

progmac

Recipes 

go for it!

tre9er

Recipes 

I ferment in home depot buckets all the time. It's fine. Never had an off flavor or infection from them. Clean/sanitize as usual. They're the exact same HDPE as Ale Pails.

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Skal!
Den Faaborg Bryggeri

bdh

Recipes 

For future reference, Lowes sells 5gal food grade buckets. It's about $4 for the bucket and another $1.50 for the lid.