is my plastic carboy still safe?

[brewshki]

I was making a batch of cider from Mangrove Jack and something interesting happened that didn't happen the last time i made a kit from them. Their instructions tell you to boil an amount of water and add that to your fermenter along with extra sugar and the juice concentrate. I did that with my plastic carboy today and the hot liquid disfigured the carboy. Thinking about it now, that doesn't really surprise me, but I am not worried about the safety of that carboy and the batch of cider in it. Would that boiling liquid have leached our harmful chemicals? It is a Vintage Shop 6 gallon carboy bought from MoreBeer. I know it is made of PET, but I am still a little confused and worried.

 

[bradleyhunt]

I doubt that even if anything leached out, that it was a harmful amount. Do you want to live forever?

 

[flars]

There most likely will be no chemicals leaching from the plastic, but the fermentor may be very prone to cracking where it is deformed.

 

[brewshki]

I sure hope not. It does make me consider buying a glass carboy. What I really really want is to avoid it all entirely and get something stainless but I can't afford that.

 

[Mackster]

I would ditch that procedure. Poring boiling water into any fermenter other than stainless steel is foolish. You would see the bottom of your glass carboy pop right off.

 

[kombat]

I sure hope not. It does make me consider buying a glass carboy.

DO NOT dump boiling liquid into a glass carboy. Something a lot worse than a little "deformation" will occur.

 

[brewshki]

DO NOT dump boiling liquid into a glass carboy. Something a lot worse than a little "deformation" will occur.

I understand that. I meant just to avoid the possible issues plastic has haha. That **** would break and then I'd die.

 

[brewshki]

Emailed the home brew shop and they don't think such short contact time is something to worry about. There could definitely be chemicals leached out because it is only rated to 140F but the manager said if there was no smell of sulfur it should be fine. Didn't smell a whiff of sulfur so I think it'll be okay. It is a cider so I am sure the sulfur is on its way but that'll clearly be because of fermentation

 

[dmcman73]

Boiling the water is only to "sterilize" it prior to dumping it into the fermentor. Next time, boil the water then let it sit covered with aluminum foil until it cools down before adding.


BTW, I may be wrong but, wouldn't adding boiling hot water to anything that has been pitched kill off the yeast??