Free 7 Gallon Fermentor

Just thought I'd drop this tip for anyone new to the hobby, old timers wanting to help people get into it without spending much or people that pride themselves on doing things in an economical and or environmentally sound fashion.

If you have a pool, know of someone with a pool or have a community pool nearby you maybe able to pick up a 7 gallon plastic bucket #2 HDPE and lid for free.

The 45 lb. cholorine buckets that Wal-Mart and others sell is basically the exact same bucket the LHBS and online retailer sale as 7 Gal. primary fermentors.
Most people and community pools probably throw these things away and they end up in the land fill. A few folks may throw them in the recycle bin.

You'd need to drill a small hole in the lid, place a grommet and airlock in it. And you could put a hole in the side near the bottom for a spigot if you'd like.

You could also add some plastic weather striping inside the groove of the lid if you wanted to make sure the lid was sealed although with positive pressure on the inside of the primary you probably wouldn't absolutely need it.

Chlorine at the levels used in pool chemicals is poisonous. I would strongly recommend to anyone who uses one of these for fermentation or any other food use to rinse it out very very very well.

Chlorine is the same as used to sanitize by many HB'ers. Just rinse like you would normally. Infact, I know of a food processor locally who uses pool chlorine for his bulk veggies with no issuses.

And, before somebody says 'Ain't Food Grade", I lately looked over my own herd of buckets. A couple were from LHBS's, a couple that I had to wash the condiments out of, and NONE of them had any "food grade' designation on them. And none of the buckets from other sources were labeled "not for human consumption" either. If such a thing as "food grade" even exists, you can't prove it by my collection.

I'd be more worried about the care the buckets have seen... my uncle has a pool and scoops the chlorine with a old metal scoop.. I would be worried about scratches and other places for baddies to hide.. I would think the buckets would take a decent amount of abuse before you get them

SpamDog

I have a inground pool and have been using the buckets that the
Bromine( spelling?) that I use for the pool comes in for years,have U ever tried to scoop up those big tabs? it dont work to good, I just poor mine out or pick em up by hand. The bucketts do take a bit of work to get the smell out thou.I just clean em as best as I can then let them set out side for as long as it takes to get the smell out. I use them for makeing wine also...

SpamDog said:

I'd be more worried about the care the buckets have seen... my uncle has a pool and scoops the chlorine with a old metal scoop.. I would be worried about scratches and other places for baddies to hide.. I would think the buckets would take a decent amount of abuse before you get them

SpamDog

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These buckets come with a plastic 1 cup scoop, that's what I use. And that's what I would imagine most people would use.

As far as toxic levels of cholorine left in an empty bucket:

the amount of cholorine power left in an empty bucket is very small: But

Do NOT inhale the cholorine power.

1. Dump any cholorine power that may still be in the bucket out.

2. Rinse the bucket out.

3. Then fill it with water let it stand in the sun all day long. Cholorine disapates rapidly in full sun light. All the cholorine should be gone by the end of the day.

4. If you are still concerned about the cholorine level. And you know someone that uses cholorine then that person will more than likely have a cholorine level tester. Test the water that's sat in the bucket all day. I doubt you will have more than the lowest detectable level of 0.1 PPM (Part Per Million). But if so rinse and repeat.

Or if it's at or above that level you can rest assured you bucket is sanitized.

Seems a bit toxic to me. Falls into the category of "I'll spend a few bucks now, versus a few thousand in hospital costs later".

Besides, real brewers don't use bleach buckets.

Cheesefood said:

Seems a bit toxic to me. Falls into the category of "I'll spend a few bucks now, versus a few thousand in hospital costs later".

Besides, real brewers don't use bleach buckets.

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Are you kidding?

Cholorine is one of the easiest and cheapest things on earth to test and measure for.

It's used by almost every municipal goverment in the USA on drinking water not to mention the vast majority of people with pools and hot tubs.

There are plenty of brewers that use cholorine as a sanitizer instead of the much more expense Iodine or Star-San.

Just don't let cholorine sit for day's in stainless steel because it can cause pitting.

Full strenght iodine is just as toxic as cholorine if not more so. There's not much on earth that's completely fool proof.

But your analogy is absurd.

abracadabra said:

There are plenty of brewers that use cholorine as a sanitizer instead of the much more expense Iodine or Star-San.

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Some use urine. Care to defend urine?

Anyone care to revive the bleach fight?

How about bleaching aluminum?

Cheesefood said:

Some use urine. Care to defend urine??

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Hard to argue with superb logic like that.

Some diners also get eggs (yep, pre-shelled I would guess) and other food items in food grade plastic buckets.

I'm still alive.....lol. and I have Blue cross... We all cant afford the latest & the greatest some of us have to make do with what we can scroung up...

abracadabra said:

Hard to argue with superb logic like that.

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Inside jokes from last year... he's messing with ya

Cheesefood said:

Some use urine. Care to defend urine?

Anyone care to revive the bleach fight?

How about bleaching aluminum?

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COME TO GUAM AND I WILL PUT THE HURT ON YOU.


Heh. Good times.

Whelk said:

COME TO GUAM AND I WILL PUT THE HURT ON YOU.


Heh. Good times.

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Psss.. he's in BYO and you're not, you're just jealous...

the_bird said:

Psss.. he's in BYO and you're not, you're just jealous...

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Too true, too true. Well, maybe jealous of his brew sculpture, actually. Definitely better than what I have.

They're nice, but I'd never drop the coin on one of those systems like he did. Too many other toys I'd like to have (motorcycle, power tools, pretty much everything in Yuri's garage), and I'm happy with the setup I have now.

Plus, I like *NOT* being an a-hole...

the_bird said:

Plus, I like *NOT* being an a-hole...

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Pssh, laaaaame.


But yeah, what do those things cost? Whatever it is, way too much. I'll take my chances super-gluing some pipes together.