Suitable FV?

[Kieran the Human]

Does anyone know if the buckets on alpack.ie are suitable as an FV? They say they're airtight and food grade so I assume they'd be ok? Was planning on some big ones for storage and smaller ones as an FV for ginger/pineapple beer and primary for mead.

http://www.alpack.ie/Plastic_Buckets_Tamper_Evident/Default.336.html

[ColMack]

I'm using the 30 L ones at the moment, have done about 4 brews in them without a problem.  You have to cut a hole in the lid for your bubbler bung/grommet but the lids seal very tight.  You can't see through them which is good for blocking out light, but you can't see what's going on. 
Tubes point about not having graduations is valid, but the pre-printed graduations on fermenters are hardly accurate.  I need to get a the Litre jug and a marker out and mark them for myself.

[Kieran the Human]

Yeah I was thinking of doing the auld litre jug & marker job on it. I have two identical 33l FVs and the graduations differ by over a litre. Sounds like they're working well for you ColMack, I'll take a punt on a 30 l and a few 10 ls.

[Eoin]

I use a 60l one which is very similar to those. No problems with it yet, I don't have an issue with gauging volumes as I find "shedloads" is enough of a gauge for me

[vonHolt]

Been thinking about the accuracy of the graduation myself over the past number of months, seems that the pyrex type of jugs are also "approximate" values for the most part.

One idea I have (though I'll admit I've not done anything more than think about it) is to use a weighing scales. Since 1 Liter is 1 Kg (for  the most part). A fairly accurate mesure/conversion can be located -> http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/javascript/water-density.html

Ok, I'll shut up now.

[Eoin]

I actualy gauge my volumes from my mashtun/boiler, it's a 70l boiler and is 70cm high, so I use the tape measure on it, easy.

[JD]

While they're food grade and all, I'm  not sure if the plastic is oxygen permeable or not. This would show up when doing long fermentations  like when making cider. Has anyone used these for cider? Any ill effects noticed?>

[Eoin]

While they're food grade and all, I'm  not sure if the plastic is oxygen permeable or not. This would show up when doing long fermentations  like when making cider. Has anyone used these for cider? Any ill effects noticed?>

Not used them for cider, I do 25l batches when I do it and I use a 5 gallon glass carboy for ciders.

[Ciderhead]

They are not suitable for storage over 8 weeks, anything longer and glass is what you want.

[JD]

@Ciderhead,
Hi CH. This 8 weeks you mention, does it apply to all food grade plastics or just these? I ask because I'm planning on pressing upwarss of 200L of juice this season. Enough glass carboys for that will just not happen. The Alpack plastic buckets I'd hoped were a go-er but you're ruling them out, it appears. Are there other plastic vessels that would be suitable for a 6 month-1 year fermentation?

/JD

[Ciderhead]

@Ciderhead,
Hi CH. This 8 weeks you mention, does it apply to all food grade plastics or just these? I ask because I'm planning on pressing upwards of 200L of juice this season. Enough glass carboys for that will just not happen. The Alpack plastic buckets I'd hoped were a go-er but you're ruling them out, it appears. Are there other plastic vessels that would be suitable for a 6 month-1 year fermentation?

/JD

On the outskirts of Clonmel there are a few tanks there at the side of the road, they aren't plastic
Different plastics have different O2 permeation values which will spoil your brew.
The factors are
1) Wall thickness
2) Environment, ambient air and humidity
3) Resin type

The products with the highest resistance to O2 measured at 25 Degrees are PET 0.035, HDPE 0.03, PP 1.2.
The reason HB shops supply PP is because temperature and impact resistance of PP is vastly superior to HDPE and especially PET (try putting boiling water into a coopers bottle .
HDPE however has the best chemical resistance.

Its the thickness of the plastic which is the issue, a craft cider producer we visited recently uses IBC's with juice stored up to the brim hold, 1,000 litres. These are 5-6mm thick and stored in a dark shed.

I would suggest you find some older stainless beer kegs somewhere.

All my cider is stored in glass but as I get bigger this year , I am looking for old beer kegs.

[Kieran the Human]

@Ciderhead
Do you know what plastic the alpack buckets are made of? Just curious before I buy them.

[Ciderhead]

Nope, I suspect they are PP though.
Would somebody that bought them on the group buy last year check underneath, if its a 2 inside the triangle its HD, if its a 5 its PP

[Garry]

Nope, I suspect they are PP though.
Would somebody that bought them on the group buy last year check underneath, if its a 2 inside the triangle its HD, if its a 5 its PP

I got a few of the 30L ones. There are very similiar to a 33L Better Brew FV I got from HBW only the plastic is white and there are no graduations up the side.


It's a 5 inside the triangle. PP it is then.