bovineblitz

Recipes 

I was thinking about using one of the #7 bottles to hold campden tab treated water for brewing before adding to kettle/mash tun/HLT/fermenter for top off. I never have enough containers to hold 7-9 gallons of water... seems like a good use of one of those bottles.

Grimm

Recipes 

Austin Homebrew is selling a PET bottle similar to the better bottle. I just recently purchased 2 of them and will be using them for primary and secondary when needed.
after a long read of Polyplastics that article I feel pretty safe that my beer won't be tainted by chemicals or oxygen because of the bottle material.

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Ludwigbrewing.com

bottweiser

Recipes 

That was a great article it makes me feel better about the polycarbonate water-cooler bottle I have my Apfelwein in. Basically it seems to say that the latest studies indicate that only harmless amounts of BPA can get into food stored in a polycarbonate container. I don't think this applies in your case though.

If your bottle is PET, it never had any harmful chemicals in the first place so there is no chance of any taint from the plastic. PET is also very impermeable to oxygen so it will definately keep your liquids safe during long ferments. This is one of the ways that PET bottles are superior to polycarbonate, which does let oxygen in.

Blulakr

Recipes 

I used 2 of the blue plastic water cooler bottles for about 6 months. One for a primary and the other a secondary. The first several batches were fine, no problems and tasted good.

I then had 2 bad batches in a row . Both tasted like vinegar. I bought 2 glass carboys and all my beers since then have been fine.

I believe the problem was scratches in the plastic. I just couldn't get them clean without scrubbing with a carboy brush.

Now I use those plastic bottles to store used anti-freeze before recycling.

ChunksJR

Recipes 

Hopefully not in your beer. Good thread! Thanks!

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The main thing to remember about homebrewing, if it still tastes good, it's beer!" -david_42

Primary:
Secondary:
Bottle conditioning:
5MAR - Milk Stout
19MAR - Irish Red Ale
20APR - Hefeweizen

CollinLeon

Recipes 

Just curious... Has anyone ever tried using the 30 or 55 gallon white or blue plastic barrels? What type of plastic are they made out of? I've used them fuel storage for my generator prior to hurricanes (even though they were originally food grade plastic). Around here, they are very easy to find for either free or at most $15.

Mrcrowley269

Recipes 

I have a question...I have read a few posts and understand that the plastic bottles are not the greatest for secondary fermenter. My intention is to use some for secondary fermenting using real fruit or vanillia beans. I plan on a 10 gallon boil, splitting it into 2 5 gallon carboys. My issue is I may not do it often and glass is expensive to start. My intention was to break the 5 gallon batches into 2 2.5 gallon batches to play with flavoring. Of the 4, 2 would have fruit, which should start the fermentation process and. Rest CO2. I am not sure about 1 as I would use only vanillia beans only. And the last nothing. I was wondering for the last 2 would nitrogen or CO2 purge be viable to protect 3-4 weeks in a plastic secondary fermenter? If not, would O2 absorbers suspended above the beer along with the purge be viable?