Food Grade Plastic vs Normal Plastic

[Vautrin]

Hi,

I'm about to brew my first batch of beer, and am thinking ahead to bottling.

I (lovingly) collected a few cases of beer bottles, and read that letting them soak in StarSan overnight (after a scrub with a bottle brush) should be enough to sanitize them and remove the labels.

Is it OK to just buy a big plastic tub from WalMart or do I need to use "food grade" plastic?

I guess I could (alternatively) use my bottling bucket for overnight soaking, but I think that will be a bit of a pain, because I'd need a few days (one for each batch).

Or, I thought about bottling up a bucket of sanitizer, and leaving those until the day of bottling. Then I could empty and air dry.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[billl]

Starsan works in a matter of seconds, so you just need to rinse the bottles in it.

I haven't found it to be any good are removing labels. Hot water seems to work OK though.

 

[Dageaux]

If you fill your sink with water, add a cup or two of household ammonia, and let the bottles soak for a bit, the labels will peal right off. You can then just rinse them off, sanitize, and fill. They do not need to soak long.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

you want to soak them in PBW (powdered brewery wash) or oxy free to clean and de-label. the starsan is a sanitizer not a cleaner, you use it on everything that touches the beer post boil.

 

[McGarnigle]

I would not waste StarSan on the job of removing labels. OxyClean works well for that, as do a few other things, all of which are much cheaper than StarSan.

I don't think you need food grade plastic for soaking bottles. You need it for wort or beer (if you should bottle in plastic).