Carboy question

At the present time, I have 3 buckets and 1 Better Bottle carboy. I was walking through the grocery store last night and spoted a 5 gallon water bottle which contained spring water. Are these bottles different then Better Bottles. $6.00 is a tempting price tag.

You wouldn't want that for primary. You need some head room.

I think as long as it is food grade and PET, you can use it

h22lude said:

You wouldn't want that for primary. You need some head room.

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Not if you use a blow-off tube and don't over-fill it... You don't need a gallon plus of headroom in a primary. I wouldn't put much more than 5 gallons in it though. I would also use fermcap-s in it if using it as a primary.

With a little brain power, you can use it for a primary just fine. I've been using my two 5 gallon carboy's as primaries for several batches. I even used a 5 gallon glass carboy as the primary for a batch of mead (5 gallons in it).

You DO need to make sure it's the right kind of PET bottle though. If it's not, then don't use it.