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plastic carboy question
here's my question, i'm planning on using a plastic carboy from a water company they my friend had laying around. the problem is he had previously used it for keeping change in. i cleaned the heck out of it with light bleach water and a carboy brush, but i'm still a bit uncertain. i was wondering if its a big deal and if i should just go find another one. i'm a rookie homebewer so i'm sorry if this question seems a bit silly.
From my understanding, you shouldn't use those plastic water bottles anyway. They are supposed to be too gas permiable, and could lead to the beer oxidizing. Plus they're a little too small for a full five gallon batch. You might be okay with a blow-off tube though. Also it may not be food grade. They're usually a number 7 plastic, which is the "other" category of plastic. They might not react at all with drinking water, but wort and your beer is acidic. It might put something nasty into your beer.
I'd recommend using a better bottle if you want to go plastic, or a 6 gal. or larger plastic food grade bucket. You could also use a 6gal or 6.5gal glass carboy. Just my $0.02.
Only one way to find out. Use it. You won't get poisoned or anything. If you cleaned it good, make sure you sanitize it before using it.
I use glass carboys. I have 4 of em. Love em and will continue to use em.
DC
I would suggest just getting a new one. My thought is that if the carboy had been used to store change, there's a good chance the inside has got a lot of micro-scratches which provide a potential hiding place for bacteria and other nasties. Scratched fermenting vessels can be very difficult to sanitize!
IMHO ... my ingredients are too expensive to take chances on that and believe me, I thought about it. I sprung for the Better Bottle and found it to be real nice.
alright i'm convienced to get another food grade bucket or glass carboy. thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.
If it helps, someone gave me one of my carboys (glass) and they had stored change in it. I use it all the time.
DC
Mortician607 wrote:
From my understanding, you shouldn't use those plastic water bottles anyway. They are supposed to be too gas permiable, and could lead to the beer oxidizing.
While plastic fermentation vessels and oxidation isn't exactly a myth, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find extra oxidation from fermenting in plastic in 99% of those beers. The only time it seems to be a real issue is long term storage. Yes, scientific studies will prove that plastic is more oxygen permiable than glass, but this really says nothing about the threshold at which you will actually notice. I think this is one of those things people read a lot and it eventually becomes fact - don't age beer in plastic or you'll have cardboard beer!.
I've made some stronger beers like Imperial Stouts and aged them for at least 6 months in multiple vessels after primary fermentation was over and was never able to detect more oxidation in the ones aged in plastic over the ones aged in glass. Even after being bottled and sitting around for a few years they taste pretty much the same...
DT
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