15 gallon plastic kegs?

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.

subliminalurge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
475
Reaction score
11
Location
Moline
I just got an interesting response to my ad on craigslist looking for kegs.

The guy says they're plastic and were used to hold flouride for adding to well water. They do have corrosive warning labels on them, which concentrated flouride would, but once emptied and rinsed well I can't imagine there'd be enough left to pose a health hazard.

I've emailed back asking for more details, and pictures, but thought I'd ask here in the mean time since I can't really form a mental picture of what he's talking about.

Does anyone who knows more about this than me know if they would likely be food safe with proper rinsing/cleaning? Are we talking more like plastic barrels than something like a "keg"?

I'm thinking that if they're enclosed, or at least have good lids, they might be candidates for conversion to large fermenters.

He's got 10 or so at 5 bucks each, so if they'd be usable I'd hate to pass this up.
 
I ferment 25 gallons batches in a 30 gallon food grade water barrel. It's was originally created to store water during hurricanes, camping, etc. Anyways, it was very affordable, maybe $40, bought online and brand new.

It comes with a thick plastic lid that I drilled a hole into for the airlock/ blow-off. I've brewed about 4 batches in it and the beer is no different than a glass carboy, only difference is that there is 25 gallons.
 
I ferment 25 gallons batches in a 30 gallon food grade water barrel. It's was originally created to store water during hurricanes, camping, etc. Anyways, it was very affordable, maybe $40, bought online and brand new.

It comes with a thick plastic lid that I drilled a hole into for the airlock/ blow-off. I've brewed about 4 batches in it and the beer is no different than a glass carboy, only difference is that there is 25 gallons.

Yeah, I've thought about getting something like that. This ad was posted looking for kegs to use as keggles, and also for more corneys.

This whole plastic thing just came out of the blue, and I figured for 5 bucks each it was worth looking into wether or not they would be something usable. Not that I could personally use all of them, but for that price I could snatch them up and pass them along to people at the local homebrew club....

Guess I really need to see some pics of them before I know for sure. And do some googling about what effects might be left behind from storing flouride.
 
I ferment 25 gallons batches in a 30 gallon food grade water barrel.

I have really wanted to do this! Big batches in big fermenters. But how do you rack to keg/bottle when it is ready???? Is it upstairs and you rack to the first floor or something? But if it wasn't in a basement how would you temp control it? Its gotta be pretty big...
 
I gotta think he's talking about your typical blue plastic 55 gallon drum, rather than what we would consider a "keg".
I recently grabbed 3 from work that contained NSF grade anti-foaming agent. However, since they've been sitting around for a while, and I'm not sure how well the stuff would rinse out anyway, I'm not going to be using them for any sort of contact appliaction. Gonna make at least one into a portable kegerator though!
 
I gotta think he's talking about your typical blue plastic 55 gallon drum, rather than what we would consider a "keg".

Yeah, that's pretty much the picture I have in my head, although he did say they're 15 gallons.

Almost tempted to grab one or two to start just so I can get a good look at them and whatever labels they have on them to make it easier to find out if they'd be suitable.

I guess if nothing else for that price I could cut the tops off and use them for icing down corney kegs when away from home....
 
I have a 15 gallon barrel that held LME, from my LHBS. I've never used it since I stopped doing 10+ gallon batches, but it certainly would work if you wanted to ferment in it.
 
Back
Top