A question for making mead

[Hammer3331]

I would like to make some mother mead ( honey, water, and yeast ) .
in a 5 gallon compacity then later on break it down in to smaller 1 gallon jugs with flavor added.
my question is can I use the 5 gallon plastic jugs like the ones from offices and bottle water company or just use the glass jugs ?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Hammer3331 - and welcome. I am sure that you will get replies that say they use plastic containers made for holding water without any problem... and IMO, in the very short term I think you probably could BUT water is not very acidic and alcohol is a far better solvent than water (try extracting oils from lemon zest or vanilla in a mason jar filled with water compared to a mason jar filled with vodka), and so the question is how stable is the plastic used for storing water when the liquid being stored is both acidic (a pH of about 3.0 compared to water - 7.0) and where the solution is about 12% alcohol (plus or minus). There are plastics that do not leach chemicals when in contact with alcohol but that plastic tends to be PET. If you are not concerned with any health risks associated with the leached chemicals then water grade plastic may not be a concern. If long term health risks are an issue then I would choose PET (or glass). But the higher the recycling number associated with food grade plastics is, the fewer the issues around leaching appear to be evident... yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance.

 

[Hammer3331]

ok glass then