water bottle as secondary??

Ok, Im sure its been posted, but can I use a grocery store water bottle as a secondary? they look a lot like better bottles, and more convienent to pick up.
I searched, but found nothing...
Norm
oops, just saw that I'm in the wrong forum. will repost,

I'm still new to brewing but I would think it will work fine as long as you can get an air lock on it

I don't know if you've gotten an answer elsewhere, but if you search you'll find about a hundred threads with the same question. Most people say no, I personally wouldn't bother with them, but it's up to you.

Whelk said:

I don't know if you've gotten an answer elsewhere, but if you search you'll find about a hundred threads with the same question. Most people say no, I personally wouldn't bother with them, but it's up to you.

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yeah, what this guy says. It makes me sad, but what are you going to do?

Now it's the best time to learn more and more about the bottles that we are using in our daily life, and how they affect our health and environment.

I think the only downside is cleanup.

The theory is that the PET plastic used for our beloved fermenters has a higher resistance to degradation by alcohol than the HDPE used for water bottles.

Looking the same ≠ being the same.

That being said, I did ferment a Brett saison in one without any impact on flavor.

Did anybody notice that the thread was more than 10 years old before @Crysta Waston resurrected it?

bpgreen said:

Did anybody notice that the thread was more than 10 years old before @Crysta Waston resurrected it?

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And a bunch of other threads.

For what it's worth. Most of the new 5 gallon water bottles are made from the same exact material PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate ) that your better bottles are made from. The post above that mentions HDPE water bottle- HDPE is used for 1 gallon milk and water not 5 gallons. HDPE is also the material that is used to make 5 and 6 gallon Ale Pales and other food grade buckets many people use for fermentation. Just look to see if it is stamped #1. Older bottles and still some new bottles are made from PC ( Polycarbonate) and are believed by some to leech BPA. If you are ok using Better Bottles then you are fine to use the #1 marked 5 gallon PET bottles. I have used them several times especially when doing kettle sours ( I have 3 I set aside and only use for sours - easier to move 3 - 5 gallon bottles vs 15 gallons in a kettle to the hot house )

Some plastics are really poor at blocking oxygen ingress, others are much better (often an order of magnitude or more).
Eg: HDPE vs PET, PET wins by a factor of 10.
Should be a consideration....



Cheers!