Brewing up for Christmas!

[Coley3159]

Hi everyone,

This year i have decided to brew at least 4 diffrent types of ale and larger to entertain guest over the festive period. I currently work in the print industry and have a lot of 25 Lt containers at my dissposal. They would be perfect for the job however there is one problem. They previously contained Isopropanol.

Would i be able to clean and sterilize these containers in order to brew in them?

Cheers

Tom

 

[Baldbrewer]

Jesus That's a tough question, I know it should have evaporated off but personally I wouldn't, food grade only I'm afraid for me mate. Sorry bud :

 

[Andyhull]

When anything evaporates it leaves residues, i think they would have to be cleaned extreamely well but even then the chemicals could have leached into the top layers of the tub.

And as stated they are obviousely not food grade!
I wouldn't use them :nono:

 

[calumscott]

Isopropanol is pretty benign on the safety front. It is a good sanitiser...

The only issue you have is the non-food grade plastic. The plastics food grade marking is given where a plastic is shown not to leach manufacturing chemicals beyond a certain level. There are a few ways to look at it...

Isopropanol is a decent solvent - it may well have already drawn out all there is to come out...
Isopropanol is a decent solvent - it may well have "loosened up" lots of stuff that is now waiting to come out.
You are going to brew ethanol in there - also a decent solvent which may interact in the same ways and draw out different stuff, stuff that may have been "loosened" by the Isopropanol... But then it's in very low concentration...

Me? Well I can't tell you to use them. I'd use them myself though...

EDIT: That was all on the assumption that we are talking about brewing kits and not using high temperatures rather than turning one in to a boiler for example...