Any Experience with Culligan BPA-Free Jugs for Secondary?

I have a buddy who is hooking me up with some 5gal culligan jugs, the BPA-free kind and was wondering if anyone has actually USED them for a secondary before. I have looked up info and people have done plenty of theorizing one what they will and won't let through, but haven't actually heard anyone say they've done it.

I am ramping up production so that I can go crazy as soon as I can get my hands on some fresh pressed cider!

I used a one gallon plastic food grade jug as a primary for a batch recently. I seriously doubt it let anything permeate the plastic from the outside, but the plastic did pick up an odor from the cider. So I don't use it anymore since I assume something got into the plastic and would then get into my next batch. I have not been able to get the smell out.

So my vote is that it is fine for a one or two time use, but I wouldn't use it long term. If you had a ongoing supply you could maybe use them for a period of time and then recycle them.

It is definitely worth a try.

Also I am not sure the jug I was using was bpa free.

Oxygen permeation is a myth, I don't use them for long time storage in fear of a low pH liquid acting as a leachate.

Hmmm interesting... have you heard of anybody who this actually happened to?? Because of course that all makes sense to me, but I am just wondering to what extent it is noticeable/ a legitimate problem.

I mean obviously the bottles have to be able to hold water for a long time without changing it, but water is obviously not acidic by itself, unlike cider. So I wonder if the acidity alone will cause it to happen over time... hmmm...

TimsfamousCider said:

I used a one gallon plastic food grade jug as a primary for a batch recently. I seriously doubt it let anything permeate the plastic from the outside, but the plastic did pick up an odor from the cider. So I don't use it anymore since I assume something got into the plastic and would then get into my next batch. I have not been able to get the smell out.

So my vote is that it is fine for a one or two time use, but I wouldn't use it long term. If you had a ongoing supply you could maybe use them for a period of time and then recycle them.

It is definitely worth a try.

Also I am not sure the jug I was using was bpa free.

Click to expand...

What type of plastic was it? This makes a ginormous difference.

Definitely don't mess with anything that contains BPA or specifically doesn't' say "BPA-Free". My mother is a chemist and after doing a research study years ago, she came home and basically threw away everything in the house that was an unknown plastic because of the results. Even super-low doses over time does all sorts of bad stuff to your reproductive tract and hormone balance. Not worth the risk!

As for the Culligan jug, permeability is probably a secondary concern -- I think the primary concern is plastic leaching. It was designed to hold water @ near neutral pH, who knows what it will do while exposed to wort for weeks at a time.

Maybe a call to Culligan might have some answers?

All i know about my plastic jug is that it use to contain snow cone syrup.

I found this chart, which displays damage to various plastics to acids/bases, and it had some good info. For almost every plastic, weak/diluted acids (such as cider) cause no noticeable damage to any plastic after 30 days except PET, which exhibits very minor degradation. And according to them, no damage means it could last YEARS.

So this doesn't prove anything for sure but it was some info... and now I gotta make sure that these jugs aren't PET.

LINK: http://www.calpaclab.com/pages/chart.html