Pretzel container as primary

The other night while enjoying a few homebrews and pretzels, I looked at the bottom of the pretzel container and found that it is made of PETE plastic. I got to thinking that I may be able to use it as a primary for small batches, 2.5 or 3 gallons if it will hold that much. Of course I would have to drill a hole in the lid for a airlock. Can anyone think of a reason to not do this?

The container looks similar to this...

Is there cardboard under the lid? Probably easy to remove if so.

Don't remember seeing any cardboard, but I will check later on.

Nice find, should work quite well. If you screw the lid on loosely the gas should be able to escape around the threads serving as an airlock.

just keep it out of the light as usual. Give it a shot.

Saccharomyces said:

Nice find, should work quite well. If you screw the lid on loosely the gas should be able to escape around the threads serving as an airlock.

Click to expand...

Good idea. I'm all about the K.I.S.S. method.

Pretty close to the Mr. Beer fermenter. Welcome to MR.BEER® - Beer Fermenter (2 GAL)

built in beer snacks!

I use the same thing at home for 1 gallon batches. Like said before keep put the sun and you'll be fine.

I figured for $5, I get pretzels and a perfect primary for test batches. I've been considering moving into all grain and I think starting out with a few small batches is the way to go. Plus, I don't have the equipment to do 5 gallon all grain batches, but I can do 3 gallons.

I've got a gallon of a spontaneous fermented Saision in a Hawaiian Punch one gallon jug. It's PET and it's fantastic! Use what ya go...

and it's much easier to get through than cheap wine!

Sorry to bump this thread up, but while i was over at my dad's place last night enjoying some utz pretzels and wine i happened to think about using the empties as a primary as well.

I am an avid DIY'er and "salvager", so finding out that this vessel was made of no 1 PETE was great news. More fermenters to add to my currently converted 4 gal Mayo buckets acquired over at Sam's Club.

Wondering if it proved successful for anyone. Also curious what kinda volume these things hold (no empties sitting around, waiting for my dad to finish the current on haha). Any reason to glue the lid on and possibly drill for a stopper for an airlock/blowoff? I will probably use this for kombucha, mead, sake or any other small experimental batches. Any advice... Also, lagering potential?

Thanks guys. First post here, but ive enjoyed reading through the forums for a few months... my extracurricular to Palmer's book.

I actually bought a large pot so I could do full 5 gallon all grain batches, so I never tried the pretzel containers. So now I have 4 of these things sitting around taking up space. I might use them for small batches of the Welch's wine, though.

Would work well for a primary, would work GREAT for ageing.

Grab a dollar store pot of black paint for UV protection, fill it up with some wine or beer and toss it under the stairs for 6 months.

Brilliant.

My daughters can go though one of those jars in a month...I am envisioning a room full of 2.5 gal SMaSH batches by summer...