Brewing water stored in Home Depot Buckets

[Invertalon]

Hey Everyone,

Last night I prepared my mash and sparge water, along with mineral/acid additions to save time tonight when I brew after work. Any issue with doing so?

I know they are not particularly "food grade", but just for water, is there any reason I should worry about the water sitting in there before boil/mash and everything else? I don't ferment in them or anything, typically just weighing out water additions and grain and such.

 

[kombat]

It'll be perfectly fine. Those buckets are HDPE, which is perfectly safe for water (or other food, for that matter).

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

There fine.I used to use those for a secondary

 

[kh54s10]

It'll be perfectly fine. Those buckets are HDPE, which is perfectly safe for water (or other food, for that matter).

This is not true. Home Depot buckets are not food safe. Someone wrote to Leak Tite who make the buckets and the plastic itself would be OK but when they add the color it is no longer food safe. I don't know about the white ones.

I don't know what would transfer from the plastic to the water though.

 

[CGVT]

There will be two categories of thought on this. The first will say that if you use these buckets a third arm will eventually grow out of your forehead. The second will say, go ahead and use them, they won't hurt you.

I fall into the second category, but you will just have to decide weather the sky is falling or the "danger" is real

 

[kombat]

My understanding was that they are not certified "Food Safe" because it costs money to certify them as "Food Safe"(TM) and they didn't bother because not many people buy buckets from Home Depot intending to use them to hold food. They buy them to hold dirt.

But the buckets that are certified as "Food Safe"(TM) are made from the exact same plastic (HDPE) as the Home Depot buckets. For holding cold water, I have no doubt they are 100% safe, and would not leech anything into the water. Heck, I use them for holding hot water (carrying from the tap to my HLT, and storing hot waste water from my chiller to be used during cleanup) with no concerns. I suppose maybe for very high temperatures (i.e. boiling) it's possible something could leech out, but for other uses, I don't believe anything harmful is transferring into the water.

 

[kh54s10]

My understanding was that they are not certified "Food Safe" because it costs money to certify them as "Food Safe"(TM) and they didn't bother because not many people buy buckets from Home Depot intending to use them to hold food. They buy them to hold dirt.

But the buckets that are certified as "Food Safe"(TM) are made from the exact same plastic (HDPE) as the Home Depot buckets. For holding cold water, I have no doubt they are 100% safe, and would not leech anything into the water. Heck, I use them for holding hot water (carrying from the tap to my HLT, and storing hot waste water from my chiller to be used during cleanup) with no concerns. I suppose maybe for very high temperatures (i.e. boiling) it's possible something could leech out, but for other uses, I don't believe anything harmful is transferring into the water.

I would have to say that I would not be too concerned either.

But, food safe buckets are pretty easy to obtain. I get mine from a local dairy. They contained syrups. And the dairy sells them for only $1.50. Others have found bakeries etc that will give them away.

So, I have gotten proper buckets and do not use the HD buckets.

 

[Invertalon]

Thanks for the peace of mind everyone! I figured there would be no real issue, but just wanted to double check - just to be sure.

 

[Natdavis777]

I still have two of the graduated buckets from HD that I use for star san and wort runoff after transfer. I originally used them when I only had two vessels, and needed to collect my wort before I could put it in the BK (which then was doubled as a HLT heating/holding sparge water). I have yet to notice any negative impacts as of yet.