Plastic water cooler bottle as carboy

Hey all:

Trying to get started on the cheap, and it occurs to me the big plastic water bottles that you see at the water cooler in some offices would work pretty slick. I have access to some of these, and they look like 5 and 10 gallon bottles. My guess is, because they are for water for human consumption, that they are food-grade plastic and will not impart iimpurities/flavor in the beer.

Seems like a good way to save some $ in startup costs, but I'm interested to see if I'm missing something.

Thanks!

No. They will not work. Spend the money and get a fermentation bucket if you was to save money.

Why won't they work? I use one for secondary (For fruit additions, dry hopping or if I just want to free up my primary) Not enough head space for primary though unless you are doing smaller batches.

WhiteEagle1 said:

No. They will not work. Spend the money and get a fermentation bucket if you was to save money.

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??? They work quite well actually.


ElyIrishBrew there's a ton of threads on this subject. There's at least 5 a week. Plenty of people, including myself use them. Here's a good thread for you.

Just try to find recycling code <1> or <2> on the bottom. And be aware that if it's only a 5 gallon water bottle (and not a 5.5-6 gallon one) that you'll need to use a blowoff tube and/or brew slightly smaller batches.

The aren't the right plastic. Better bottles are made out of polyethelyne (i think). If you can find the drinking water bottles that have a 1 one the bottom those can be used for brewing, but pretty much all the others (commonly 5, and 7) will impart flavored and impurities. Some people still use them with no problems though.

Zogman100 said:

Why won't they work? I use one for secondary (For fruit additions, dry hopping or if I just want to free up my primary) Not enough head space for primary though unless you are doing smaller batches.

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They will work fine. This has been a non-issue for a LONG time.

cknittle said:

The aren't the right plastic. Better bottles are made out of polyethelyne (i think). If you can find the drinking water bottles that have a 1 one the bottom those can be used for brewing, but pretty much all the others (commonly 5, and 7) will impart flavored and impurities. Some people still use them with no problems though.

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Since the bpa recalls began, more and more of them on the marketplace are made of the correct plastic. If they have a <1> or <2> on the bottom they are perfectly fine to use. Even as far as last week people have sighted them in more and more places, even some walmarts have made the switch. In fact the BetterBottle company is manufacturing many of them for the water bottle industry, so you may actually be using one by them nowadays.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I used the search feature first but didn't find much. Thanks again for taking the time to helo a noob out with a common question. And Revvy, thanks for the link!

I use a smaller 3 gallon water jug from Walmart for my 2.5 gallon batches and not one problem or off flavor at all. I would use them and not think twice. It's not like your distilling through a car radiator

Right supposedly the ones with <1> or <2> on the bottom are safest. I noticed at work the water bottles have a <7> on them so I stopped drinking out of those. I used to get poland spring water delivered at home and I checked those, and they were <7> too.

For some reason I thought I read in Palmers book that you shouldn't use them.......?

WhiteEagle1 said:

For some reason I thought I read in Palmers book that you shouldn't use them.......?

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Because most of them are #7 & 8 plastics. I can't remember which type of plastics those are but they are essentially of lesser quality than the # 1 & 2. If the water jug has a #1 on the bottom of it, go for it. Might be a pain to clean out the handle on the inside after brewing if it has one though.

knox_brew said:

I use a smaller 3 gallon water jug from Walmart for my 2.5 gallon batches and not one problem or off flavor at all. I would use them and not think twice. It's not like your distilling through a car radiator

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I've never seen the 3's at WalMart.. only the 5's for about 8$.. If I go to the local supermarket.. the same 5G bottle is 2.5X the price. Their 3G bottles are more than the WM 5G bottles.. go figure.. the clerk at the supermarket told me they probably get them at WM

I was at Lowe's and looked at some Primo bottles they had out of curiosity, they were #7's. I think it's all relative on how much plasticizer and other stuff they might leach out. Contact time sometimes makes a difference too. I don't know, even when they say 'food grade' I'm still suspicious of plastic. Even when they say BPA free, ok, so you took out one chemical that might be a problem, how do we know there aren't others that are a problem? At my local LHBS the glass carboys are not that much more expensive than plastic anyway so I have been getting glass.

WhiteEagle1 said:

For some reason I thought I read in Palmers book that you shouldn't use them.......?

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There's been a lot of RECENT changes in plastics, mostly as I said due to the BPA recalls. When he wrote the book, Better Bottles were barely on the market.

Plus HE regurgitated a lot of those old brewing chestnuts about a lot of stuff, that has since either changed with the times, or simply been proven wrong.

WE'VE been tracking the changes in plastics on here on a regular basis....This place has much more recent info on most everything in brewing.....

Have a sculpin clone and a red ipa in 2 #1 5 gallon water jugs right now. Had to free up a primary for a founder breakfast stout clone

I work for a company that cleans and bottles water as a big part of their business and they have completely or almost completely swithed over to the "PET" bottles. I actually purchased 6 of them from a church yard sale and have been using them as secondaries when I want to free up my primaries. No off-flavors.