Better bottles from Wal mart

[jlc904]

Has anyone bought one of those 5 gallon Heavy Duty water bottles from Wal Mart?($7.00) It is like a 5 gallon carboy but has a handle molded into it. Would this be a decent fermenter for the price? Or would the handle be too hard to clean? Also, what size stopper do you need for a 1 1/2 inch hole? I would probably be better off to use a blow-off tube rather than an airlock to do a 5 gallon batch, right? I'm a greenhorn trying to save a few bucks, Thanks

 

[jlc904]

Sorry just saw where this has been talked about alot.

 

[EdWort]

they are good for storing starsan, but that's about it.

 

[Revvy]

I use some of the three gallon ones for small batches. They work fine.

 

[Malticulous]

I have few. I dechlorinate brewing water in them. They are PVC. I can get 6.5 gallon buckets for about the same price so I ferment in them.

 

[doctorRobert]

I believe they are not food grade (there's a number on the bottom that let's you know, forget which ones work).

Target had ones that were made from the plastic that is okay to use.

 

[Wellshooter]

We have very hard water here. I fill these bottles with filtered water from a water vending station and use it to brew with. I think they would be ok as fermenters but hard to clean.

 

[EdWort]

The biggest problem is they are oxygen permeable and that's not good for beer.

 

[Revvy]

The biggest problem is they are oxygen permeable and that's not good for beer.

Sorry Ed, I don't agree. It probably depends on the plastic, but I've used them for plenty of beers, even oaked and aged a beer in them, and never had any issues with that. I think that's just same "party line" people even said when the better bottle came out.

I think modern plastics have come along way, especially in the last couple years after the Bispahenol A recalls. More and more of the new bottles coming out are made of the same stuff as the better bottles. In fact the company that made better bottles started making bottles for the water cooler industry. Some water companies even advertise they are using better bottles for their products. And some of the water better bottles have ended up at homebrew shops mis labled, there was even a thread on that here a couple years ago, iirc the OP called the BB company and they said they got mixed up in the warehouse, but they are the same bottles, just that the water bottles are stamped "not for re-use" and some other legal mumbo jumbo, but they are the same bottles.

There's just too many variables in plastic water bottles these days, since so many companies changed their plastics a couple years ago so we wouldn't grow man-boobs due to BPA, to be able to make a blanket statement like "they're oxygen permeable" anymore.

That might have been the truth 5 years ago, but there's been some leaps in the industry the last few years. Heck even the BMC brewers started putting their beers in plastic bottles for ballparks and stuff not to long ago, and THEY did that becasue of the leaps in plastic bottle technologies. I posted an article about that on here a couple of years ago, when I think miller started bottling with them.

It all depends on the bottles, but it's no longer as cut and dried as many people think.

 

[eibbor]

Thanks for the reassurance revvy, I have looked at those a few times and even thought about using them before, but my pipeline isnt built up enough yet to sacrifice a batch of beer if it turned out not to be the best option. i think i will definitely keep them in mind but Im going to skipp the ones with the handle built in as i think they would be too hard to clean.

 

[ChshreCat]

I flip 'em over and if they say "1" or "2" in the little triangle, I'll use 'em. If they say any other number, I put them back.

 

[Revvy]

I flip 'em over and if they say "1" or "2" in the little triangle, I'll use 'em. If they say any other number, I put them back.

Yup, that's the determining factor.

 

[FromZwolle]

anything else to look for? i haven't seen one in years, but is there a manufacturing date slipped into a serial number somewhere?

 

[wyzazz]

I use some of the blue Aqua-Tainer's in Wal-Mart's Camping section for fermenting. They hold around 7.5gals, I just drill out the breather hole wide enough to fit a bit of 5/16 OD tubing for a blow off and I'm good to go!

 

[Revvy]

I use some of the blue Aqua-Tainer's in Wal-Mart's Camping section for fermenting. They hold around 7.5gals, I just drill out the breather hole wide enough to fit a bit of 5/16 OD tubing for a blow off and I'm good to go!

Those are also what the no-chill brewing crowd use.

In fact starting in the fall, a buddy and I are going to be giving 1700's era brewing demos for a museum, but chilling and finding authentic fermenters seem to be a stumbling block between the historical and the modern, So I've been toying with the idea of sneaking the beer into aquatainers when no one is looking. Just going no chill.

 

[wyzazz]

Those are also what the no-chill brewing crowd use.

In fact starting in the fall, a buddy and I are going to be giving 1700's era brewing demos for a museum, but chilling and finding authentic fermenters seem to be a stumbling block between the historical and the modern, So I've been toying with the idea of sneaking the beer into aquatainers when no one is looking. Just going no chill.

That's exactly why I bought them, I ran out of Sanke Kegs to ferment in and needed something to "No Chill" in. FWIW they work great either way, I've got a Hefeweizen fermenting in one right now!

 

[Encinoman]

I own two of those 5 gallon water jugs from wal-mart with the handles. I strictly use them for holding purified water and nothing else. They are rated a "3" So that may be okay but like you said earlier the handle and the textured surfaces make it harder to clean and could be bad as far as bacteria growing in them.

 

[wyzazz]

The Aqua-Tainers are #2 HDPE.

 

[FromZwolle]

The Aqua-Tainers are #2 HDPE.

price? sounds like my next purchase:rockin:

 

[wyzazz]

$10.88 at my Wal-Mart.