5 gallon honey bucket

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

WIMARIPA

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
147
Reaction score
4
Location
Philadelphia
I assume the bucket the honey comes in is food safe (if not we have a real problem). Has anybody every drilled a hole in the lid and used it as a 5 gallon fermenter? I'm out of fermenter space until my stuff clears and I get around to bottling, but I wanted to get some jaom going before it gets too hot.
 
I just got a 5 gallon bucket from a local bee keeper. The honey fills up to the rim of the bucket. My normal primaries have head space, which prevents overflow on what little foam might be made. So, if nothing else, I think mine would be a 4 gallon primary.

The plastic on there says it is #2 (rather, the recycling code). There have been plenty of discussions and links regarding BPA release. It seems, in my esteemed judgment, that #1 and #2 are more acceptable than #3-7 or "Other", but it is still a personal decision.

In my view, I drink from plenty of those little plastic water bottles (I'm sorry environment) - and we've all gotta die of something. Me? I'd do it. In fact, if I can figure out how to get a rubber grommet or other means for an airlock, I just might. To me, it sounds like a primary fermenter that I already bought.

I'm thinking a hole the same size as the stem on an airlock, combined with a dab of aquarium/food grade silicone up at the top of the airlock and it might just work. Not 100%, mind you, but better than nothing.
 
I like that idea of just using some silicone instead of having to buy a grommet. With that every time I finish a bucket I can have a new 4+ gallon primary
 
I'm hoping somebody has a better idea - but I'm actually thinking of just sacrificing an airlock and using silicone to attach it to the lid. $2 for a new 4+ primary ... sounds like good math to me. And that would reduce the need for food grade/aquarium silicone - it would never touch beer/mead/wine ... or the perpetual flow of skeeter pee that seems to be flowing through my house.

Very nice idea of using these buckets. Wish I had thought of it before I threw 2 of them out. <sigh>
 
Could you drill a hole a tad smaller than what you need and just JAM the airlock in? maybe make a foil tent and cover the airlock too....like a tee-pee or something :D
 
The bucket is fine, provided your honey source isn't a cheap POS and reused a random bucket.
Drill a hole a smidge smaller than the size of your airlock and shove it in the hole. When you are done, pull it out and use it elsewhere. no sacrificing needed.
 
Better still, get the local HBS to punch the hole and fit the grommet when you're buying the grommet.

That's what I do, as he sells the lids with or without hole/grommet.
 
I didn't even think of my LHBS. I imagine they are lazy and buy the lids with the grommet already in place, but a quick phone call will resolve that issue.
 
The bucket is fine, provided your honey source isn't a cheap POS and reused a random bucket.
Drill a hole a smidge smaller than the size of your airlock and shove it in the hole. When you are done, pull it out and use it elsewhere. no sacrificing needed.

And no need for silicone! It does not take much to make a seal in one of those plastic lids!

Go for it!:ban:
 
the buckets are fine to use. that all i use myself. they are common in the food industry and used for all sorts.

personally i would not bother putting an air lock on it, just use open top style. but then again i would only use it for a fermenter, not for storage. the plastic is not really suitable for long term storage so not good to use as a carboy.
by not putting an air lock on you can use it for other things later.
 
So you think the plastic is too porous to leave anything in it for a couple months. (such as my jaom batch which is already bubbling away).

I went with a grommet on the lid. I don't anticipate using the bucket for anything else but if I do I can always seal the top with that silicone we were talkin about earlier.

I'll see how thus batch turns out and if it's any good maybe I'll do a head to head batch with a better bottle to see how they compare...
 
hard to say. usual advice i see is couple of months is getting to long. if its going to take that long its better in glass etc. however it just depends a bit on how much taste comes out of the plastic. that might depend a bit on how many brews it does before doing a very long brew.
 
Back
Top