I didn't read the whole thread, but here is a good reason why HD buckets are cheaper, even if they are HDPE.
HD orders the buckets by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Each of those buckets costs them a couple of cents. A company that sells "Brew Buckets" are maybe only buying a few thousand at a time.
Only on HBT would brew nerds argue which plastic bucket to use to store stuff in? LOL No offense to anyone, of course, since I did read the thread but this is the most bizarre thread that I have ever read.
Yup. A lot of guys use those as the hoppers for their grain mills.
Funny (or showing my senility.) The first time I saw that picture I was so taken that I forgot what thread I was looking at. Just saw that it was posted again in the "hot"" thread per my suggestion. This time I noticed the Homer Buckets and came to this thread thinking it deserved to be posted here.Agreed.
Well the Supplier of Home Depot's white buckets, not the ones listed as FDA food safe is Leaktite. I personally had a batch that was just under 2 gallons that I scaled down. I normally do 1 gallon but i have some friends coming down for St. Pattys day so I needed a little more. Long story short I just read this thread and called Leaktite directly, They advised for me to throw out my beer becasue the buckets are not food grade or food safe in any way. Now I got a decision to make, I think I am gonna take my chances but not serve my beer to my friends, just in case. I am sure the company that makes these uses a release agent that is not food safe and proably very hazardous to our health and I imagine after a week in a bucket it has leeched a little of that chemical into my beer. But in my opinion I grew up drinking water from a hose that was not food safe, and from a well that had no filter on it I probably had a lot more toxins in that than in this beer bucket. But again just in case I will not be servinig it to my friends which is why I made 2 times as much just as a precausion.
Alright, seeing as we officially hijacked this thread....
I learned a long time ago not to try and correct people who don't know much about nuclear power. Those who care enough to learn get overwhelmed and glossed over eyes, and those who don't care to learn have already made up their minds. The rest mostly don't care at all. Obviously with a few exceptions in all cases. I currently work at a commercial plant and as one of my coworkers likes to put it, the closer you are involved in the industry, the less you can be trusted to provide accurate information. Therefore, the media, who is NOT closely involved, must obviously be the best source of information. And from what I can gather, is pretty much the case.
I once got into an argument with a gentleman who thought that the steam plume from our cooling towers was radioactive smoke. I tried telling him that I work there and that it is nothing more than water vapor, not associated with anything that contacts radioactive systems and is completely safe. His response to me was, "that's what they want you to think!"
That's right about the time I gave up.
Woah, holy **** this thread is exploding. And all for the wrong reasons.
The linked sites about the FDA and recycled plastics are not the reason why the Homer buckets are not food safe. A non-food-grade HDPE bucket is not food grade because they use a mold release agent that is toxic to help get the molded bucket off the bucket mold at the factory. Food-safe mold release agents are available, but cost about twice as much, so you can pretty safetly assume if a manufacturer does not specify that it's food grade, they've used the cheap version. This is almost certainly the case with Homer buckets because of the rock bottom low price.
OP, if you want to go cheap on the fermenter, then Homer buckets aren't the way to do it. No offense, but the posters say they're not safe are correct. The cheap way is to buy 5 gallon water jugs designed for camping trips. They cost about $6, come with the lid included, and can be drilled in one of two places for either an airlock or a blowoff tube.
I buy mine at WinCo Foods, but their website is really just a landing page, so it's no help. Here's some pictures I snapped during my last trip, for just a topic such as this:
Here's where I chose to drill out for a 5/16" vinyl blowoff tube (leftover piece from a autosiphon):
Or you could drill out the lid for an airlock or blowoff tube. I wanted to preserve the lid in case I ever decided to use them for something other than fermeters later, and drilling the lid also does not allow you to stack them.
There's also some food safe buckets in the picture at a price you might like more than the $15 6.5-gallon fermenters most of us use.
Thats not really true. All studies about its effects on health are inconclusive and the FDA has not banned it because there is no evidence its harmful. they banned it on use in baby bottles only and that was just to boost consumer confidence after the furor that came out. its been in many of our food containers since 1960.
Thank you for doing the footwork.
Those are twice the cost of what I have, but still really affordable.
If you are balking at a $15 bucket then this hobby is not for you.
Why thank you.
The reason I went with the food-grade camping jugs instead of cheaper food-grade buckets or cheaper food-grade water jugs is compactness and... STACKABILITY!
This is my never-before-pictured wine and cider closet. I can ferment or age up to 8 batches at a time in a space that's approximately 57" wide by 13" deep by 29" tall.
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