NoIguanaForZ
Well-Known Member
So, I'm interested in potentially taking a 5 gallon batch and doing things like, say, breaking it into several 1-gallon batches, each with a different yeast or flavoring treatment. (As an example, the initial idea that inspired this was taking a "honey blonde ale" recipe and fermenting some per recipe, some with actual honey, and some with agave nectar).
I'm not really interested in storing a whole bunch of glass gallon jugs, and nothing I do produces easily cooptable glass containers.
However, I can easily get my hands on a handful of empty, THOROUGHLY RINSED, 1 gallon plastic vinegar jugs. I'm thinking these might be viable for this purpose, since 1) they seem thicker and more durable than, say, milk-style plastic water jugs, and 2) they're presumably designed to hold acidic liquids without leaching anything harmful or significantly flavor-affecting, insofar as the pH of vinegar is rather lower than that of beer.
So, my questions are:
Has anyone tried using these? Either as experimental 1 gallon fermenters, or maybe for yeast starters?
Anything I should be aware of with repurposed plastic containers as fermenters generally?
Any tangible or concrete reason to expect problems?
(From what I've read plastic tends to be oxygen-permeable enough that I wouldn't want to have an extended secondary fermentation; is that correct?)
I'm not really interested in storing a whole bunch of glass gallon jugs, and nothing I do produces easily cooptable glass containers.
However, I can easily get my hands on a handful of empty, THOROUGHLY RINSED, 1 gallon plastic vinegar jugs. I'm thinking these might be viable for this purpose, since 1) they seem thicker and more durable than, say, milk-style plastic water jugs, and 2) they're presumably designed to hold acidic liquids without leaching anything harmful or significantly flavor-affecting, insofar as the pH of vinegar is rather lower than that of beer.
So, my questions are:
Has anyone tried using these? Either as experimental 1 gallon fermenters, or maybe for yeast starters?
Anything I should be aware of with repurposed plastic containers as fermenters generally?
Any tangible or concrete reason to expect problems?
(From what I've read plastic tends to be oxygen-permeable enough that I wouldn't want to have an extended secondary fermentation; is that correct?)
