anybody use these as fermenters?

[Maltose]

Ran across these on the DudaDiesal website:

it says it can be used for "beer brewing". i'm just wondering if they are food safe. $150 for a 15g fermenter...

http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=ct15

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Thats pretty neat.

I would email the sales rep to find out what type of plastic they are made out of, it is probably HDPE, but I would want to be certain. HDPE does have a number 2 recycling symbol, so if in fact it is HDPE it should be safe for beer brewing. IIRC thats what Ale Pails are fashioned from.

EDIT: I saw that it says the containers are made from MDPE (medium Density Poly Ethylene) I cannot find too much info on what the recycling symbol is for MDPE, however, it is similar to HDPE, but has better stress resistance. Reagrdless, both HDPE and LPDE, are poor oxygen barriers, but for the amount of time that wort will be fermenting it is probably a non-issue since Ale Pails are made form HDPE.

I'll Asumme MDPE falls in a catagory between HDPE, and LPDE, which would make it very similar to the two.

Im sure someone who knows more about it will chime in soon.

 

[Swordsman]

I've been looking at something similar at the USPlastics website.

15 Gallon 19” x 24” with a 2" FPT Fitting for $75.56

The link you posted comes with the stand, I was thinking of building my own but the USPlastics site sells them for $72.04. Altogether, that's just a little under the site you were looking at.

The USPlastics site says these containers meet fda standards for liquid storage up to a standard gravity of 1.7.

 

[bendavanza]

Many home and pico brewers use the US plastics induction tanks.

 

[Revvy]

There's actually a lot of threads on using them, including a few diy threads on how to turn that into a conical.