Poor Secondary Choice...

So in my haste to find a 5 gallon secondary... I chose the 5 gallon water jug from lowes / home depot / wallmart (Shown below).



The problem being that the area for the handle is indented and creates a wee ledge on the inside. So I've got an area of about three finger-widths with yeast building up on each side of the top of the handle.

When bottling how much of a problem is that going to cause me? I mean do I need to just siphon slowly from the other side and hope for the best?

I think those bottles are HDPE, which is oxygen-permeable and (therefore) may cause off flavors if left in the secondary for the length of time most meads require.

Oh my...hmm... and how would I discover if that is true?

Normally it says that next to the little recycle symbol right? It says 7 - Other

Yeah, for plastic, the lower number is better. Really, for secondaries, typically you want to stick to PET or PETE, which I think is 1 or 2.

Well... it's already in there... we'll see how it works out...

Any thoughts about the ledge-yeast?

I haven't done a thousand batches, but I believe others here have said to get a low sediment mead, you need to rack several times. So, when you rack from this vessel to the next, you will probably have more sediment than if you didn't have the ledge to deal with, but you've got a couple more rackings to fix that.

Your bottle will work fine but I'd get a better one to use permanently. Most of the yeast in the handle will drift toward the bottom as you empty the carboy but you'll get a little. I wouldn't worry too much.

See... that's the comforting reply I was looking for I'll post as to how it goes.

Killinger said:

Yeah, for plastic, the lower number is better. Really, for secondaries, typically you want to stick to PET or PETE, which I think is 1 or 2.

Click to expand...

Pet is 1, HDPE is 2. 7 is "other" which could mean anything from a mix of PET and HDPE to who knows what.

Well... To follow up... I've 5 batches in those jugs and have 5 more going. I have yet to notice any sort of off flavor or strangeness...

On a side note... I'm a high school science teacher so I plan to borrow a dissolved oxygen probe... and see how the concentration of oxygen varies over the course of a few months. That should settle it once and for all