New Continuous Brewer no Plastic or Metal

Check out my new 2 gallon

continuous brewer...
after reading about the continuous style I wanted to try it but didnt like the idea of a plastic spigot in contact with my brew and didnt want to go for the oak barrel, so after searching for some time I came up with this (parts from two websites) for about $30

That's awesome! Great work! Are you using rubber seals between the wood and glass?

Thanks! No rubber seal just using the cork alone. It is water tight.

Very nice!! Uh, two web sites? Please share if you can.

About plastic, they are not all alike. You should be safe with HDPE Plastic (recycle symbol with no 2 in the center) because jugs made of
it are used to sell vinegar. Also PET plastic (no 1 inside the symbol). Use to sell vinegar (the clear litre sized bottles) and I think some
distilled spriits as well.

Yeah, good point about the vinegar bottles. That crossed my mind as well.
But all those plastic spigots use a rubber gasket that is on the inside of the container which may be food grade as well and be safe for water but is that made to withstand an acidic liquid I wonder?
The #2 spigots probably are fine, but the spigot that came with my $20 glass water barrel dispenser was a real cheap plastic with a fake metal paint on it so I for sure wanted to change it out.
Im kind of a hipocrite anyways since I then bottle my booch in mason jars and ive been told that might not be a great idea with the metal lid (but the lid is coated and my brew isnt in contact with it).....ah screw it there are much worse things for you in this world. You gotta draw the line somewhere you know (maybe ill switch to grolsch bottles eventually)

But hey, i think it turned out pretty sweet and I did it for like $30:
Here are the websites I used:
Glass water dispenser $20 from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Home-Essentials-Barrel-Beverage-Dispenser/21686116

Spigot: $5 +$5 shipping
http://search.store.yahoo.net/yhst-...//store.yahoo.com/yhst-13391808682274&x=0&y=0

Let me know if you guys find a cheap place to get some flip top grolsch style bottles
-Alex

I work in the food manufacturing business and we NEVER use would for anything. Don't get me wrong I like your setup. It is very creative. I wonder why you think wood is better than plastic.

I guess when ive been reading up on this ive read possible concerns with using plastic but none on using wood. I knew things like whiskey and wine are aged indefinitely in wood barrels and they use a wood spigot and/or a cork bung. Im sure wood would not be an appropriate material in some applications too though.

Some plastics are very bad, sometimes more for the bad flavor effects than
the toxicity. The acid content should sanitize the wood fine. Sauerkraut,
I think, is sometimes stored in wood barrels. Vinegar, alcohol and fermented
foods are not conventional foods and can kill any microscopic bugs lurking
in wood. Fresh food should never be stored in wood.

Also, there do exist spigots made of HDPE but I don't know if they have
rubber gaskets.

hombrewthatstuff said:

Yeah, good point about the vinegar bottles. That crossed my mind as well.
But all those plastic spigots use a rubber gasket that is on the inside of the container which may be food grade as well and be safe for water but is that made to withstand an acidic liquid I wonder?
The #2 spigots probably are fine, but the spigot that came with my $20 glass water barrel dispenser was a real cheap plastic with a fake metal paint on it so I for sure wanted to change it out.
Im kind of a hipocrite anyways since I then bottle my booch in mason jars and ive been told that might not be a great idea with the metal lid (but the lid is coated and my brew isnt in contact with it).....ah screw it there are much worse things for you in this world. You gotta draw the line somewhere you know (maybe ill switch to grolsch bottles eventually)

But hey, i think it turned out pretty sweet and I did it for like $30:
Here are the websites I used:
Glass water dispenser $20 from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Home-Essentials-Barrel-Beverage-Dispenser/21686116

Spigot: $5 +$5 shipping
http://search.store.yahoo.net/yhst-...//store.yahoo.com/yhst-13391808682274&x=0&y=0

Let me know if you guys find a cheap place to get some flip top grolsch style bottles
-Alex

Click to expand...

I joined just to say thanks for the link you posted to the cork spigot , I've been looking for that exact piece for my glass barrel that I picked up at World Market and did not want to use the plastic spigot that came with it.

If you haven't found flip top bottles yet Amazon has them for a pretty good price for $18.99/12pk
http://www.amazon.com/CASE-OF-12-Bottles-AMBER/dp/B005CIFIDO/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1363045149&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=groslch+flip+top+bottles

ScobiWan:

Glad to hear you found what your looking for.
They have 3 different sized ones, but yours will most likely be the small.
Also there is a $20 minimum purchase amount for shopping online but if you give them a call you can puchase just the spigot over the phone.

So have you used the cork for a month now? How's it workin out? I'm just getting into brewing kombucha and I'm pisses because I was going to brew tonight, but now you all have gotten me freaked out because the glass container I bought has a metal spigot. If the cork worked well, I'm considering ordering it.

What does everyone else use? I've seen certain types of plastic and such. I'm just excited to start and don't want to mess it all up on the first try. Thanks in advance.

The general conscientious is that a food grade plastic spigot is perfectly safe to use. I just decided to err on the side of caution (and maybe im being overly cautious) to avoid plastic. Metal, on the other hand most think that it is not a safe material to use even as the spigot. MAYBE a all stainless steel spigot would be safe to use, but I would take it out and inspect it periodically to make sure the acidic brew doesn't cause the metal to rust or pit. Im sure you could find a plastic spigot easy enough. I just wouldn't risk something that might overtime be bad for you when you are doing this as a way to improve your health in the first place.