New Poland Springs Carboy

Hey everyone,

Poland Springs just came out with a new series of 5 gallon bottles. They are made out of PETE type 1 plastic which is the same plastic as better bottles. The other feature which makes these new bottles nicer than the old bottles (and easy to identify) is that they have a solid plastic handle. The old bottles have hollow handles which the water can flow through but this fact makes them difficult to clean. The new bottles don't have that problem.

I've seen some of the old posts about whether or not to use 5 gal Poland Springs jugs for fermenters. For the most part the concerns were that the plastic was "type 7" and had unknown oxygen permeability.


I think this is a substantially cheaper alternative to better bottles which run $25 or more. I think Poland Springs only charges a $5 deposit. I got mine free from work (I asked permission).

sweet, free is good! Let us know how it works out. I'm sure O2 will be more of an issue that with glass, but it should be just fine for ales (maybe for lagers too, due to the lower temps).

Yes, I have seen these as well. Tempted, but 5 gal is a bit small for my needs.

rokfizix said:

I got mine free from work (I asked permission).

Click to expand...

I assume you asked the owner of the bottle?....hah....great, now all the do gooders who post adnausium regarding keggle deposits have a second outlet, please no.

They work just fine. Personally, I use the Culligan (type 1) 5 Gallon carboys from Home Depot but I never do more than 4.5G batches if I'm going to primary in them. I also have a 4G type 1 that I picked up from Menards that I'm using for smaller batches and secondary.

This is one of the benefits of the Bisophenal A ban that has been happening over the last 3 years, we are seeing a switch from <7> plastics now to <1> and <2> made of pete, which is a great boon for us. And puts to rest most of the old school arguments against using them aside.

And BTW, many of these "new" waterbottles are actually made by the Better Bottle Company. Some advertise the fact as part of their marketing, and interestingly enough some of the water/betterbottles have accidently ended up in homebrew shops. They are labeled "for water only" and "not for reuse" BUT when the hbt member who got one of these contacted them, they were told that they HAVE to stamp them as such, BUT they are perfectly fine and exactly the same as their regular better bottles.

1 1/2 year ago Lowes was carrying a brand of water in handy 3-gal. containers that were Type 1.

Like a fool, I only bought one! They are no longer sold there, but now we will be seeing more of it.

Can't wait to get my hands on couple of these and increase my capacity on the cheap. Hmmm, these might make it easier to do some meads now to and justify the lengthy time use and not use up my 5 gallon glass bottles. Thanks for the info guys. I'll be on the lookout now.

I recently noticed these 5 gallon Poland Spring bottle as well. My question is what size stopper would I need for one of these?

Thanks.