Help! Brining Turkey In Ale Pale!! Bad Idea For Future Use??

Alright, sorry if this is the wrong forum mods, but it does have to do with homebrew equipment.

Anyways, we're trying to brine our turkey for tomorrow and we don't have a cooler to do so. do you think I could put the RAW turkey and a couple of gallons in an ale pale and re-use it for brewing or will it be tainted or something by the raw meat?

Thanks a lot guys and happy turkey day,
J

I'd use my kettle before I used a fermenter.

At least the kettle could be boil sterilized prior to re-use for beer.

I wondered the same thing, but decided to just spend the $4 on a 5 gallon bucket at Wal-Mart. you can find them in the paint dept. I'm sure Lowes or Home Depot will have the same.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I'd use my kettle before I used a fermenter.

At least the kettle could be boil sterilized prior to re-use for beer.

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Hmm, maybe I could use my keggle.

Line it with one of these:

http://www.reynoldsovenbags.com/

GilaMinumBeer said:

I'd use my kettle before I used a fermenter.

At least the kettle could be boil sterilized prior to re-use for beer.

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Thats a better idea.

Guilty....

I cleaned it out very well after, and wahsed it with sanitizer.

While I wouldn't suggest it, it works in a pinch (ie, 10PM Wednesday night).

BK

how big do the oven bags get?

I need to brine a 15 lb turkey with about 2 gallons of brine. a 5 gallons cylindrical cooler would be awesome right now.

me = cheapo.

HalfPint said:

how big do the oven bags get?

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Big enough to carefully line a 6 gallon fermenter and ferment 5 gallon of beer inside. But they sweat.

Oh god, I thought this'd be the year we didn't get a thread like this.

5 gallon buckets are cheap.....Go to the nearest ACO and get one.

Don't use one of your fermenters, all you need is a scratch and a little biomatter from the turkey, and you'll have a nice batch of malt vinegar next time.

Not too mention odors from it.

Come on guys, have some common sense and treat your beer gear with a little more respect. I mean we say it's pretty hard to get an infection, but that's only if we don't do something stupid and go out of our way to encourage them.

Oy Veh

*Slams head against the wall*

for a 15 lb or smaller bird I just use 2.5 gallon zip lock bags and I think zip lock makes some even bigger bags for camping gear if you have a larger turkey.

Revvy said:

Oh god, I thought this'd be the year we didn't get a thread like this.

5 gallon buckets are cheap.....Go to the nearest ACO and get one.

Don't use one of your fermenters, all you need is a scratch and a little biomatter from the turkey, and you'll have a nice batch of malt vinegar next time.

Not too mention odors from it.

Come on guys, have some common sense and treat your beer gear with a little more respect. I mean we say it's pretty hard to get an infection, but that's only if we don't do something stupid and go out of our way to encourage them.

Oy Veh

*Slams head against the wall*

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Lol you're too kind.

Anyways, it's an old Ale Pale that I don't ferment in often anyways. I'm not in the mood to run to the store and attempt to find a 5 gallon food grade bucket. I will not use non food grade buckets.

I ended up using a 5 gallons stainless steel pot that I use when I do PM brews inside. It fits perfectly with a 15 gallon bird and 2 gallons of brine. It has just enough room to put a few plates on top of the bird to weigh it down.

Thanks for all of your help,
J

P.S.

Happy Thanksgiving

Both stainless steel and aluminum are highly cleanable and boiling will kill e.coli and staph, so I wouldn't worry.

Don't know if I'd like the bittering for a turkey, but it works fine for brats.

At least you didn't see Alton's Deep Frying Turky Episode and decide to brine it in your mash tun.

Dude, dont screw up your brewing equipment. Go to home depot and spend $3.99 for a new plastic bucket to put that bird into Please.

Brew-boy said:

Dude, dont screw up your brewing equipment. Go to home depot and spend $3.99 for a new plastic bucket to put that bird into Please.

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I think we've beaten him into submission on this one.

Revvy said:

I think we've beaten him into submission on this one.

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Yeah, but those aren't food grade!!

Last time I checked, they didn't sell food grade 5 gallons buckets at HD.

Well, the bird is out of the oven and being carved as we speak. It's juicy as hell!

Happy turkey day!

HalfPint said:

Yeah, but those aren't food grade!!

Last time I checked, they didn't sell food grade 5 gallons buckets at HD.

Well, the bird is out of the oven and being carved as we speak. It's juicy as hell!

Happy turkey day!

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Actually if you do some digging, you will find out that those HD buckets actually ARE food SAFE, whether they are labelled foodgrade or not. That has been discussed on here ad nauseum, and quite a few people even use them as fermenters.

Oh,

I wish I knew that.
Are you talking about those 5 gallons orange buckets?

That's good to know.

Thanks,
J

Revvy said:

At least you didn't see Alton's Deep Frying Turky Episode and decide to brine it in your mash tun.

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I brined my turkey in my mash tun, can you belittle me now?

Chef you could make a American Turkey ale.......lol

Nah, I have no worries whatsoever about anything getting contaminated or producing off flavors. Did the same thing last year.

I have a 5 gallon round cooler that I don't use for anything else but brining turkey (and the occasional chicken and pork butt). It's worth $20 for the cooler to avoid even a chance of food poisoning, IMO.

Revvy said:

Oh god, I thought this'd be the year we didn't get a thread like this.

5 gallon buckets are cheap.....Go to the nearest ACO and get one.

Don't use one of your fermenters, all you need is a scratch and a little biomatter from the turkey, and you'll have a nice batch of malt vinegar next time.

Not too mention odors from it.

Come on guys, have some common sense and treat your beer gear with a little more respect. I mean we say it's pretty hard to get an infection, but that's only if we don't do something stupid and go out of our way to encourage them.

Oy Veh

*Slams head against the wall*

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Oh god I would have hoped that you would have been here for more than one Turkey day before you started making generalizations about the trend of posts from year to year around here. Thanks for playing. PS I would also think as a minister you wouldn't take the lords name in vein, cause the rest of us don't, again thanks.

Revvy said:

I think we've beaten him into submission on this one.

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I hope someone gets beat into submission soon.

Revvy said:

Actually if you do some digging, you will find out that those HD buckets actually ARE food SAFE, whether they are labelled foodgrade or not. That has been discussed on here ad nauseum, and quite a few people even use them as fermenters.

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Well then I am sure you would be willing to provide those links for the rest of us so we can see for ourselves how it has been proven.

PseudoChef said:

I brined my turkey in my mash tun, can you belittle me now?

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You F*ing Ruined it dude! It will taste like crap now.

Revvy,

Is there any post that you can respond with a simple answer instead of slamming a guy for asking a question. Way to treat the people around here like they don't matter and what you say is from God's Mouth!

......................................

Brewmeister Jeff said:

Revvy,

Is there any post that you can respond with a simple answer instead of slamming a guy for asking a question. Way to treat the people around here like they don't matter and what you say is from God's Mouth!

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Hmmm....That's funny that you think THAT way (did I once tell you to search or something?) But if you look at Halfpint's response to my post as quoted below, you might notice that He didn't have a problem with my answer.

HalfPint said:

Lol you're too kind.

Anyways, it's an old Ale Pale that I don't ferment in often anyways. I'm not in the mood to run to the store and attempt to find a 5 gallon food grade bucket. I will not use non food grade buckets.

I ended up using a 5 gallons stainless steel pot that I use when I do PM brews inside. It fits perfectly with a 15 gallon bird and 2 gallons of brine. It has just enough room to put a few plates on top of the bird to weigh it down.

Thanks for all of your help,
J

P.S.

Happy Thanksgiving

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He clearly didn't have a problem with my answer...and honestly, that's all that matters....I do believe that if he felt I was too hard on him, he might have said otherwise...but since HE happens to be a friend from the Tap room...he didn't take offense....and he's a big boy and I'm sure could defend himself, IF he felt the need, which clearly HE didn't. Nor do I think he would have wished me a happy turkey day if he had an issue, dontja think? People who have issues usually make snarly comments like says stuff comes for "God's mouth" or something, NOT wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving.

So troll on to someone else...I'm not going to bite the bait.

Revvy's posts can come off wrong just like any post can be misinterpreted if not read with a bit of a devil may care attitude. It's the internet, people read, "How's it going," and manage to interpret it as a dig. Lighten up folks, Revvy may have a tendency to be BRUTALLY honest with his replies, but the guy is always helping out when someone has a question. I've come to learn that he isn't going to sugar coat it for anyone!

Glad to hear the turkey turned out. I brine mine in a VERY large Rubbermaid container every year.

First of all,

I'm not offended.

Like he said, I've talked to Revvy a lot around here. I know that SOME of the stuff he has to say is good knowledge when other stuff is just his drunken late night rambling. lol. Don't feel bad Revvy. I still like you buddy and I believe that your good people.

So as Revvy would say, RDWHAHB.

Cheers,
J

Shooter said:

Glad to hear the turkey turned out. I brine mine in a VERY large Rubbermaid container every year.

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+1

Yeah, the turkey was delicious. Everyone liked it. As weird as it sounds, the sides are always a bigger hit than the turkey, but I guess you always want the turkey to be as good as the sides!

J

Always amusing how one guy can climb on his horse and call someone else out while doing the same thing....

As far as the OP (I know the subject is settled) I would like to clarify a few things as to the why in why not.

Brining a turkey in a plastic vessel that you plan to use in any stage of brewing even once is a horrible idea. While the salt and acid content of the brine will help preserve the bird should the temperature not remain constant, one can never be sure that what is left behind after the brining will be completely removed. We are talking about Salmonella (not to mention all the crap in the brine) here and while it isn't deadly per se, it just makes sense that we discard this practise out of hand. If proper sanitation is paramount then using your plastic beer equipment to store raw protein is not an option and I certainly think it is something that ranks much higher than using a nonfood safe bucket on the Hell No List.
I hear those of you who would say, "Pah, I do it every year, no big deal" and I say "Whatever, dude. Do your thing".

I spoke to a customer at length a couple weeks ago about the Plastic Bucket: Is it food grade or not? issue. He told me he is in the plastics industry with first hand experience with HDPE and LDPE. According to him all virgin run HDPE is food grade, dyed or not. The plastic and dyes do not leech.
Recycled HDPE is food grade as well, but not all of it is classified as such under regulations (like NSF2) because its original use disqualifies it or cannot be verified. So, what I understand from him is that HDPE is all suitable for home food use, but would not be acceptable in situations where Food Contact Safe is required. I would also like to remind you that any number you see inside the triangle has nothing to do with food grade or not.

If Revvy wants to take the lord's name in vain that is something best left between him and his god. I have yet to see him attempt to push anything more than proper forum etiquette so sweating him on the subject of religion doesn't carry water.

What's with all the Revvy bashing lately? He's a stand up guy.

Maybe some of his posts come out a bit strong but as one of the few that regularly answer the same newb questions we get endlessly on here, that can be expected. Do you know what it is like to answer the same questions hundreds of times or see the same debate spring up over and over and over when it had been debated to death (usually with some form of qualifiable answer) the first time?

I do. In the 5 years (yes 5 I had another account here before this one) I have seen these things over and over. No big deal. It's expected as new members join the forum (and this is one of the friendliest ones around), but it can get on the nerves after a while. Especially when you start getting bashed about answers you know to be correct by new members.

I have seen a disturbing trend over the last 18 months of more and more newish members "people bashing" on HBT. I'm sick of it and barely post outside of the tap room thread any more because of it. I was even called "an idiot" because someone in the brewing science forum didn't like how I adjusted my Mash pH.

Anyways, RDWHAHB or STFU.

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

What's with all the Revvy bashing lately? He's a stand up guy.

Maybe some of his posts come out a bit strong but as one of the few that regularly answer the same newb questions we get endlessly on here, that can be expected. Do you know what it is like to answer the same questions hundreds of times or see the same debate spring up over and over and over when it had been debated to death (usually with some form of qualifiable answer) the first time?

I do. In the 5 years (yes 5 I had another account here before this one) I have seen these things over and over. No big deal. It's expected as new members join the forum (and this is one of the friendliest ones around), but it can get on the nerves after a while. Especially when you start getting bashed about answers you know to be correct by new members.

I have seen a disturbing trend over the last 18 months of more and more newish members "people bashing" on HBT. I'm sick of it and barely post outside of the tap room thread any more because of it. I was even called "an idiot" because someone in the brewing science forum didn't like how I adjusted my Mash pH.

Anyways, RDWHAHB or STFU.

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+1

I think a lot of the guys on here would never have the balls to treat some one the way the do online in real life. It's very immature and quite embarrassing in my opinion when people do so.

As this was my OP, I'm sorry for asking such a newbie question, but I was in a pinch and really didn't have the time to search. Sorry on my part. Ehh, not really.

Anyways, it's a damn Ale Pale that started this thing and quite frankly, an Ale Pale that has a leak at the spigot and never bubbles when there is active fermentation.

However, that's besides the point because it's over now, we had a wonderful day, the turkey turned out well, and I think it should be dropped.

Cheers,
J

HalfPint said:

+1

Yeah, the turkey was delicious. Everyone liked it. As weird as it sounds, the sides are always a bigger hit than the turkey, but I guess you always want the turkey to be as good as the sides!

J

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I'm a bit of a stuffing/dressing nut myself, but I do believe the brining really helps the turkey become more of a standout item.

Shooter said:

I'm a bit of a stuffing/dressing nut myself, but I do believe the brining really helps the turkey become more of a standout item.

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Yep, same here. I really can't get over stuffing and cranberry sauce. It's just freakin delicious!

You guys are making me hungry for turkey. I swear I can smell it cooking. Bistsids. We had our Thanksgiving over a month ago!

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

You guys are making me hungry for turkey. I swear I can smell it cooking. Bistsids. We had our Thanksgiving over a month ago!

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Yeah, you Canadians and your silly notion of Thansgiving when it is still warm outside. You're in North America, heck if the wind's right I can throw a paper airplane across the St Clair river where I live and hit Sarnia, Ont. You should be thankful and over-stuffed when WE are.

You see, we like to give our woman folk a longer break before they have to start cooking up Turkey dinners again.

You border town guys need to get it straight. head to Canada and visit friends for OUR thanksgiving. Then you can have two Turkey days a month a apart and a third near Christmas.

Actually, we have it early cause the temp drops 40 degrees when you cross the border.

(Besides, by perpetuating the myth that Canada is a 365 days a year icebox, we keep you Americans from invading and pilfering our women.)

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

(Besides, by perpetuating the myth that Canada is a 365 days a year icebox, we keep you Americans from invading and pilfering our women.)

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I went to Jamaica in April this year. The resort Swmbo and I stayed at was packed with Canadians. They were all telling me how damn cold it was that time of year.

Being from Texas, I don't know how in the hell you guys do it!