Air tight buckets necessary?

[realityinabox]

I picked up a couple of 4.25 gallon buckets from a bakery down the street earlier today. I have a couple lids from ACE hardware that are marked food safe, but they are for 5 gallon buckets.

The lids fit pretty well on the new buckets, but aren't quite at tight as the 5 gallon buckets they're made for (the 5 gallon buckets require more force to get on/take off). I tested them by putting some water in the buckets, then turning them on their side with the lid on. No water leaked. Is this a good enough fit for fermenting (primary/secondary)? The bakery could be a very steady stream of food safe buckets for fermenting (albeit 4.25 gal, not 5 or 6.5 gal), but they toss their lids, and the 4.25 gallons isn't standard. As I said, the ACE down the road has lids marked food safe for far cheaper than the LHBS buckets, and my inexperience doesn't know how important a strong force-fit is verses a moderate force-fit.

(as a side note, the ACE has white Leaktite 5gal buckets marked HDPE and #2 recycling for like $4. I did a forum search and read other threads, but are these fine for fermenting?)

 

[bernardsmith]

For the primary there are very good reasons not to have a tight fitting lid and an airtight seal but for the secondary (or to continue to ferment and age after the gravity has dropped from the initial reading to about 1.005) then you really do want to be able to make certain that CO2 can escape but no air can enter. For cider , given the short aging process this is less about oxidation and more about potential spoilage organisms, but for other fruit wines (where the starting gravity is more likely to be around 1.090 rather than 1.050 and with that gravity and the need to allow the wine to age to bring out the complexity it is capable of presenting then there is a real risk that the wine will oxidize and so discolor and produce undesirable flavors...

The good reasons for avoiding a tight fitting lid initially is because you want to introduce air into the must during the first few days, you want to be sure to keep any fruit submerged in the liquor so that it does not spoil - and so that the yeast can more easily get to it, and because you then have no anxiety about whether the activity of the yeast will produce enough CO2 to blow the lid off your bucket should the airlock become blocked with fruit and so paint your ceiling with fruit juice.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Yeah you definitely want it airtight in your secondary/aging bucket. A few months ago I had ended uo with 6 gallons of vinegar because the lid yad a bad seal.