Equipment?

I am new to brewing and cider making. I am also new to this website.

My question: Is it okay to use a 5gal. water cooler container?
I am college student.
The container is a #3

How would this affect my final product?

Thanks
Your Newbie

Water cooler containers (like those big plastic jugs of water?) generally let in too much oxygen. A food-grade bucket will work, however. If you go to a chinese resturaunt you can get some old soy-sauce buckets. Other resturaunts have 'em too, but soy sauce buckets are really cool because the ones with the pouring lids will fit a stopper and airlock perfectly. And the other kind is slightly tapered so that the first kind fits inside it perfectly. Not important for making cider, but if you ever want to mash your own grains it will be very helpful.
In short, get a free food-grade bucket from a resturaunt.

I agree about getting a bucket, but would also add that 5 gallons seems a little small. With a 5 gallon batch, you might have 4.5 gallons after the boil, but even then, you will need more room for the krausen to build up. Otherwise, you'll have a mess to clean up every time you ferment. Most starter kits come with a 6 or 6.5 gal. primary bucket.

desiderata said:

I agree about getting a bucket, but would also add that 5 gallons seems a little small. With a 5 gallon batch, you might have 4.5 gallons after the boil

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With a cider you don't need to boil it and the 'krausen' isn't usually as big as the beer version but a 5 gallon bucket is too small - the 6 to 6.5 gallon bucket you mention would be much better.

Are you 21? If so, get your hands on a bunch of one gallon wine jugs and use those. They're small, they're cheap, they weigh nothing (I've got two five gallon fermenters going back home and they weigh a ton, amigo) and take up very little room.

You can get carlo rossi 4 L wine jugs out of the recycling if you live near a college. You can also split your wort into two five gallon buckets, yielding about 6 or 7 gallons of beer. It works fine.