Water Cooler Bottles for 2nd Fermentaion?

Adeptus Titanicus

Hi,

I've been looking about for a glass carboy to use for secondary fermentation, and a friend suggested using a plastic one from an office water cooler. It's the right size and all that, but would the plastic in it be ok for fermentation? I would assume it's a food-grade PET, but would it be similar to the Better Bottle stuff as sold by hopshopuk (see better-bottle).

Any opinions? (I'm sure there'll be loads )

Ta,

oblivious

Not sure, but if you are doing a short secondary the water bottle maybe ok. I would assume there would be little O2 penetration in 2-3 week in the secondary. If you intent going a couple of months, maybe it would be worth investing in glass or that Better Bottle system

bigears

I use the water cooler bottles for secondary and as far as I can tell they work fine. I have had two brews where I lagered in them (> 8 weeks) and neither turned out to my liking but I suspect other factors were to blame for this. Most of my beers are in secondary for a shorter period of time and I've not noticed any oxidation or off-flavours.

oblivious

I presume that you used Ballygowan water coolers bottles?

Adeptus Titanicus

bigears wrote:

I use the water cooler bottles for secondary and as far as I can tell they work fine. I have had two brews where I lagered in them (> 8 weeks) and neither turned out to my liking but I suspect other factors were to blame for this. Most of my beers are in secondary for a shorter period of time and I've not noticed any oxidation or off-flavours.

Thanks for the feedback bigears. Can I ask about how many brews have you done using the plastic cooler bottles? Just to get an idea of how many turned out good as oppsed to bad, although I understand that the two bad ones were lagered.

I thought there were some floating about the office, but no luck! So my query is academic for the moment

bigears

I presume that you used Ballygowan water coolers bottles?

I think they're Tipperary but I presume you meant the style rather than the brand.

Thanks for the feedback bigears. Can I ask about how many brews have you done using the plastic cooler bottles? Just to get an idea of how many turned out good as oppsed to bad, although I understand that the two bad ones were lagered

About 10 brews; all were fine except those that were lagered, and again, I don't know if I can blame them for how those brews turned out. I've never used them for primary, purely because they're a little small but they're fine for secondary. My reasoning is that if they're fine to hold water for extended periods they're OK to hold beer. Some people claim that they can't be cleaned effectively but I don't see why this would be the case. I clean them by filling them with a water/Oxiclean solution followed by a good rinse. Sometimes I need to wipe with a small cloth but generally there's nothing too hard to shift after secondary.