ferment

[fshnne1]

I was wonderring if a standard 5gallon water bottle the type you would use for a water despensor/ purifier would work ok with a rubber stopper as a fermentor

 

[the_bird]

Probably not.

Two issues. First, a primary fermenter wants to be bigger than five gallons (unless you are making a 4 gallon batch, you need room for the krausen. Second, most of those bottles allow a very high amount of O2 to pass through, which can have a severly detrimental impact on flavor. Check the bottom of the bottle; if the number in the recycle symbol is a "7," it's no good to you as a fermenter, it's just "other plastics", meaning that it could be pretty much anything.

If it's a "1" (unlikely but possible), that means the plastic type is PET, which is fine for a fermenter. You should still get something bigger for a primaries (food-grade buckets are dirt-cheap), but the water bottle might be OK for a secondary fermenter (also known as a clearing tank).

 

[Markusface]

Only problem with that is that the plastic (I assume it's plastic?) could be permeable to oxygen, which could oxidize the beer, and you wouldn't want that. How long it would take for this I don't know. It doesn't cost much to invest in a Better Bottle fermenter, it's like a water container but its oxygen permeability is negligible. I'm getting one of these badgers this weekend :rockin: woop!

 

[m_f]

I was wonderring if a standard 5gallon water bottle the type you would use for a water despensor/ purifier would work ok with a rubber stopper as a fermentor

I will say no problem at all.
Where I come from (Argentina) there are no glass carboy and the most popular fermentor is 5 gall water bottle. For both primary and secondary.

Considerations:
Use a blow off because it will be too small for a 5 gal batch (as noted) ~and preferably leave some small head space, put there aprox. 4.5 gallons~

Do not use an airlock unless you leave a good head space.

Use it as a primary for 7 days, then rack to another bottle for two more week. (down there the norm is to do the secondary inside a fridge I do not know why because it is not that hot)
Do not let it sit there for a long time because it is permeable to oxygen as it was said.

 

[fshnne1]

I do have the #1's you think I could use them as a secondary, the other thought because it has to ferment for so long is I am about to brew a batch of hard cider for the wife would these be ok for that.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Personally, I'd say invest the few dollars in a plastic food grade bucket for primary and a glass carboy or better bottle for secondary; do you really want to go through the work of brewing only to have the whole thing ruined by cheap equipment. A bucket and carboy should run you under $30.