Carboys at walmart for 11 dollas
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djfriesen
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Certain plastics are food grade. Others will tend to leech off flavors into your brew more readily. HDPE is the commonly accepted type for plastic fermenters. You can get food-grade buckets at Home Depot for a pretty similar price, if memory serves.
You need the numbers off the bottom of the jug to know if you can use it. Can't remember them off hand but I am sure someone will chime in with them soon enough. In short some plastics aren't a good idea for fermenting/brewing but some work perfectly well.
Thanx Again for the info Revvy! Sometimes there's just to much Info on here I get lost (do it this way, no do it that way). LOL
What I don't understand is.. why is this even an issue? If it is designed to sell water in.. water for drinking.. would it not necessarily HAVE to be food safe? Looks like the same plastic as the Alhambra water bottles to me. They are not made for selling/storing non-foodstuff liquids. I'm using one now for storing my boiled water and will likely get one more.. but will likely be the 3 gal to use as top off water. I'm ready for new education.
I know. In all honesty I think even worrying about number 7's is probably overblown.
Brewtus, who is a plastics guy posted a pretty detailed post clearing up a lot of misunderstandings about plastics in terms of coolers as mash tuns here, I think a lot of it probably applies to this topic as well.
ArcaneXor
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Water has a more or less neutral pH and doesn't contain ethanol, which increase the likelihood of leaching nasties from the plastic, like BPA. If you don't worry about the possibility of consuming endocrine disrupting chemicals in low concentrations, then you're fine.
Also, polycarbonate plastic is MUCH more oxygen permeable than PET, and about the same as HDPE, so it's not a good idea to use it as a bright/conditioning tank.
