Culligan bottles

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plantnerd

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Does anyone use the 5-Gallon "Culligan" type water bottles for a secondary (or primary)? I know that they are more permeable to oxygen, more prone to scratching, etc, but I have a friend that will give me 4 or 5 if I want them, and it seems like they would work with proper stopper ant airlock. After a couple of uses, I could give them back & switch out for new ones.
 
LOL, and then the people on his Culligan route start getting beer-flavored water when you return them? ;)

I don't see why you couldn't use them as long as they are smooth on the inside and can be sanitised. Glass would be better for secondary (and primary), but hey, they have to be food grade if they hold drinking water.
 
Well, Janx, we all know they aren't smooth. Don't they have like a built-in recessed handle?

I wouldn't use them as primaries because too much gunk builds up on the sides during fermentation.

If I were to use them they would have to be as secondaries for clarifying ales aided with polyclar. But I wouldn't use them over a week timeframe

Chances are you wouldn't even have to scrub the insides if you used the faucet mounted bottle washer.

Anyway, the real trick to cleaning is do it right away and if you can't at least add a little bleach to the water and fill to the top so the gunk will be soft when you do get around to it.
 
I would give them a try. But I wouldnt set them outside. If the Culligan man wants them back, you may end up without beer.
 
Funny....Yesterday at work i was looking at our gordon water bottles and thinking the same thing.....Some have recessed handles and some dont.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Well, Janx, we all know they aren't smooth. Don't they have like a built-in recessed handle?

Honestly, I have no idea. My water comes out of the ground for free.

I was picturing the plastic carboy type bottles, sans handle, like on office water coolers. Seems like those would work fine as long as they didn't have a pebbled surface or something.

The handled kind would be no good. I wouldn't even want to try to clean it.

The point is, I've seen a lot of food-grade plastic containers used as fermenters. IMHO, glass is always best, but if it gets you brewing more, then by all means go for it :D
 
Janx said:
Honestly, I have no idea. My water comes out of the ground for free.

I was picturing the plastic carboy type bottles, sans handle, like on office water coolers. Seems like those would work fine as long as they didn't have a pebbled surface or something.

The handled kind would be no good. I wouldn't even want to try to clean it.

The point is, I've seen a lot of food-grade plastic containers used as fermenters. IMHO, glass is always best, but if it gets you brewing more, then by all means go for it :D


Good call...as long as they are PET bottles they are food grade and good enough to ferment in.
 
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