Ageing in a recyle #1 water bottle?

so yea i gotta water bottle 4 gal. with a recyling symbol on the bottom with a one in it. Am i gonna be ok to age in this thing? Or is ageing a glass only thing?

peachcarmelsoda said:

so yea i gotta water bottle 4 gal. with a recyling symbol on the bottom with a one in it. Am i gonna be ok to age in this thing? Or is ageing a glass only thing?

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I have read many differing opinions on aging in plastic, and seen many threads on here about it. If you do a search i'm sure you will find a lot of info about that topic so you can come to your own decision on wether or not to use plastic as a fermenting vessel or use it to age in. I personally haven't aged in plastic (or at all really) and probably wouldn't, because i happen to have a glass carboy. Though, If i didn't have the glass carboy i'd probably try it in the better bottle, depending on length i wanted to age. Just my .02 cents

yea i found a little 2 much information on it..
after reading up on it for over a hour i decided to ask for help. As some of the info was years old even.

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Isn't the #1 recycle symbol the same material as a better bottle?

peachcarmelsoda said:

yea i found a little 2 much information on it..
after reading up on it for over a hour i decided to ask for help. As some of the info was years old even.

____
Isn't the #1 recycle symbol the same material as a better bottle?

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Haha, yea definitely alot on that debate. My better bottle is stamped #1 PETE on the bottom. How long were you thinking of aging in plastic and what kind of beer. Maybe people with real world experience can chime in

ageing mead about a year.
cider: gonna start drinking it asap.
wine: gonna drink that when the cider runs out and it tastes decent.

everything is aimed at about 15-18% abv so it may take a while.. I have no idea as this is my first batch really. But i got like 7 gallons on the way so it's gonna take a while.

I have a flanders red aging in exactly the same bottle. it's been in there 5 months now and hasn't shown any oxidation or other issues that commonly get cited by the "glass only" folks on here. I plan on using them for sours because they're cheap and I won't mind tossing it when I'm done to avoid infecting a clean batch. I believe they take the same #10 stopper that the better bottles do too, but make sure you check.

edit to add: I don't think I'd try to reuse one, I don't know how well they'd hold up to cleaning. but for a few bucks it's hard to beat (especially because they come filled with water you can use to brew with).

The most recent (May/June 2013) issue of BYO has a pretty technical article on using plastic. From what I got from the graphs, yes, more oxygen gets in, but if you do it for short periods (2-3 months) it's not a problem. Even at longer times, it didn't appear catastrophic, just lets more oxygen in.

I lagered a bock for 2 months in an ale pail and it turned out fantastic.

My 5 gallon water bottles are made by better bottle corp. I had a mead sit in one for 6 months tasted fine. I say go for it.

According to me, water bottle manufacturers are permitted to provide an expiry date on the bottle. Try stainless steel bottles and containers, it will also help in maintaining inside water temperature.