Home Depot bucket used by LHBS for weighing grain

[devils4ever]

I'm looking for another bucket to place under my grain mill to hold the freshly milled grains. I started looking for a food safe one, when I noticed that my LHBS uses a Home Depot bucket that is definitely NOT food grade.

So, now I'm wondering if I really need a food grade bucket to just hold my milled grains. I'm not using it for fermenting or bottling, just to hold the dry grains. My guess is it perfectly fine. Home Depot bucket good enough?

 

[augiedoggy]

I'm looking for another bucket to place under my grain mill to hold the freshly milled grains. I started looking for a food safe one, when I noticed that my LHBS uses a Home Depot bucket that is definitely NOT food grade.

So, now I'm wondering if I really need a food grade bucket to just hold my milled grains. I'm not using it for fermenting or bottling, just to hold the dry grains. My guess is it perfectly fine. Home Depot bucket good enough?

Why do you say its not food safe? Its made of the same food grade plastic as all the other plastic buckets out there... The orange dye would be the only thing that may not have the certification for food use but even that is a non concern for a dry powder and grain. I use one in my brewery for starsan and never had any color leeching from the orange plastic. "Food safe" and "food grade" are not the same thing... It costs big money to get certification for something that some manufacturers dont bother with if its not the buckets intended use anyway... For holding milled grain pretty much anything including an old wooded wine barrel would work its not even wet so nothing will leech int the grain either way.

I have an irish ale fermenting in old repurposed roadsalt 6 gallon buckets now...

 

[jafo28]

For measuring and catching the milled grain I've always used a couple of the orange homer buckets. I seem to remember a thread around here that some people use them for storing their grain.

 

[pshankstar]

My ugly junk corona mill is mounted within a Home Depot orange bucket. Never had any problems with it. I also keep my Star San in a couple of these buckets and like one of the other posters above I have not seen any colors leeching from it. Don't worry about it and enjoy a nice cold one. Cheers!

 

[cubalz]

My LHBS uses Homer buckets as well. He does line the bucket with a bag to capture the crushed grain for use in taking it home. Even if he did not use a liner, it would be no big deal. Without heat or liquid, no transfer of off flavors, aromas or colorants can occur.

 

[Br3w4u]

The only thing that separates a food grade bucket from a non food grade bucket is that a non food grade bucket could have previously been plastic from a gas can or some chemical container. A food grade bucket would be non recycled plastic so you can be sure there wouldn't be a possibility of leaching other chemicals that were previously stored in the recycled plastic. I would think any chemical that the recycled plastic was exposed to would be destroyed by the heat when they melt the gas can or whatever to pour in to the plastic bucket mold. That's just my thought. Anyway I think a Home Depot bucket is perfectly safe for dry grains.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Not wanting to get into the old " is it food grade? " regarding the Homer bucket, but for holding dry grains it is fine as long as it is clean.

 

[govner1]

Easy solution is to buy one of Lowe's White 5 gal buckets. Clearly labeled as Food Grade/safe. Also less expensive and you can also get a gamma lid at Lowe's for less.

 

[Weezy]

Dry grain is not going to leach anything out of the bucket.

My uncle was just telling about a professor he was sitting next to on a flight. He's a chemistry professor at a local university. He's working with some grad students on the leaching of chemicals from plastics. He said he'd never put hot liquids in any plastic ever again. I wish I was on the plane to get more details and ask specific questions.

 

[Tarpon87]

Go to your grocery stores bakery department, ask for empty icing buckets. Food grade, gasket lids, free

 

[jrgtr42]

I don't know if I would store grain in one of those buckets for months and months, but for the hour or 2 (or even overnight) between crushing and dough-in, I wouldn't worry about it. If you're really that worried, you could get some large food storage bags and line the Homer bucket with them, or if you have an old ale pail that may not be usable for fermenting anymore, you could use that. I have a couple of them I don't feel comfortable fermenting in - too many scrapes, scratches, and aroma of old beers left behind - but they're still great for storage and such.

 

[Drumminguy81]

Easy solution is to buy one of Lowe's White 5 gal buckets. Clearly labeled as Food Grade/safe. Also less expensive and you can also get a gamma lid at Lowe's for less.

2nd this. lowe's sells new food grade 5 gallon white buckets. They are cheap. Just go pick one up.

 

[madscientist451]

Go to your grocery stores bakery department, ask for empty icing buckets. Food grade, gasket lids, free

Or almost free, I get them from my local store for $1

 

[augiedoggy]

Dry grain is not going to leach anything out of the bucket.

My uncle was just telling about a professor he was sitting next to on a flight. He's a chemistry professor at a local university. He's working with some grad students on the leaching of chemicals from plastics. He said he'd never put hot liquids in any plastic ever again. I wish I was on the plane to get more details and ask specific questions.

and just think... There are folks here who actually mount electric element in them and brew in plastic!... its one of those things that wont hurt you right away so people just assume it must be ok... many plastics are unstable leeching at anything over 180 degrees.

 

[RichBenn]

and just think... There are folks here who actually mount electric element in them and brew in plastic!... its one of those things that wont hurt you right away so people just assume it must be ok... many plastics are unstable leeching at anything over 180 degrees.

From what I've learned about chemicals leaching from plastics, I avoid long exposure to all plastics at higher temperatures, especially for liquids. Supposedly HDPE is OK to 180F, but when you get thousands of times more chemical leaching at elevated vs. room temperature, I think not.

At room temp for grain contact for a couple hours - heck, my organic produce from the supermarket has longer contact in plastic. Kinda impossible these days to avoid plastics but we can be smart about it.

 

[beermanpete]

You could use a retired fermentor if you happen to have one.

 

[Kee]

I'm looking for another bucket to place under my grain mill to hold the freshly milled grains. I started looking for a food safe one, when I noticed that my LHBS uses a Home Depot bucket that is definitely NOT food grade.

So, now I'm wondering if I really need a food grade bucket to just hold my milled grains. I'm not using it for fermenting or bottling, just to hold the dry grains. My guess is it perfectly fine. Home Depot bucket good enough?

As others have noted, you can get cheap food grade buckets. I've also heard of food grade plastic bags (big enough to line the buckets) but not sure where you can get those.

But what gets my attention is the LHBS using the HD buckets. A commercial operator should use proper food grade containers, even though he's probably doing no harm.

 

[MaryB]

Walmart also carries white food grade buckets. Cheap enough at around $3 each. I use a pair for holding milled grain(my batches are 20 pounds of grain so need 2 plus it is a lot easier to one hand one and stir in grain as I pour!).

 

[devils4ever]

2nd this. lowe's sells new food grade 5 gallon white buckets. They are cheap. Just go pick one up.

Sadly, I've checked 3-4 local Lowe's stores and none of them have them.

 

[pshankstar]

I will second what @Tarpon87 said, check with your local bakery or the bakery department in your grocery store. I have picked up dozens that I use to store my grains for long term storage. They give them away for free, you just need to clean all the frosting out of them. Replace the lids with a gamma lid, you will be happy you did. After I mill my grains (corona mill in the HD bucket) I move the milled grains into one of these buckets. Usually it's the night before brew day.

Ultimately I don't think there is an issue to hold the grains in the HD bucket for a short period of time. As someone else said too, I'm sure the local produce and other produce sits in plastic containers for quite some time. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it too much for a dry contents container for short periods of time.

 

[processhead]

The downside of reusing bulk food buckets is you run the risk of infusing undesirable but nonhazardous tastes and aromas into your stored grain. Cake icing is fairly benign stuff and doesn't leave much odor. Dill pickle bucket aromas have a half life akin to nuclear waste.

I would buy new food grade buckets as was suggested if it were a concern. Or just get a couple new plastic bags from your LHBS to use as bucket liners if you want to take the belt and suspenders approach. Bags have the added advantage of keeping your buckets dust-free.

 

[Peruvian802]

Tractor Supply Company sells food grade 5 gallon buckets and lids. Find them in the back by the horse feed, etc.

 

[pshankstar]

The downside of reusing bulk food buckets is you run the risk of infusing undesirable but nonhazardous tastes and aromas into your stored grain. Cake icing is fairly benign stuff and doesn't leave much odor. Dill pickle bucket aromas have a half life akin to nuclear waste.

I would buy new food grade buckets as was suggested if it were a concern. Or just get a couple new plastic bags from your LHBS to use as bucket liners if you want to take the belt and suspenders approach. Bags have the added advantage of keeping your buckets dust-free.

Yes that is a good point. I have not asked for any of the buckets that stored dill pickles b/c of that reason. The frosting buckets seem to have no odor from what I can tell. Plus after cleaning them you can leave them out in the sun for a day and let the light and heat do it's thing, but I think it isn't needed with frosting buckets.

 

[augiedoggy]

Those pickle buckets were nasty.. remember them well working in the restaurant business...

 

[processhead]

I have used pickle buckets for brining and curing various types of meat and fish. No problems with that, but buckets don't really fit into my brewing process anymore asside from hauling spent grain out to the mulch pile.