Plastic barrels

[Barrelman]

Hi l hope it's ok for me to mention the plastic containers l deal in ...

HDPE Food-Grade plastic barrels, jerry cans & buckets in assorted sizes.

Website: http://www.alchembio.co.uk

 

[Wez]

Welcome to THBF, your post is fine

We were talking about conicals/containers intended for biofuel purposes and if they were food safe today, maybe you can set the record straight for us :thumb:

 

[Barrelman]

The containers l deal in are "Food-Grade" inasmuch as they were once used to carry food. Chemical-grade containers are similar and l'm sure there's some overlap in their tolerance for haz-chems, they are often made of exactly the same material.

The containers l use are HDPE, meaning High Density Polyethylene, the name of a group of plastic resins defined by a density of greater or equal to 0.941 g/cm^3 amongst other parameters. HDPE is a thermoplastic.

All this is only relevant because it's irrelevant if you know what l mean - it all comes down to their previous contents, not the containers, when looking at re-use for foodstuffs. These containers as they are in my possession aren't meant for the storage of food as they have not been laundered. You will need to disinfect them, and even then l would only use them for raw / intermediate materials and not for storing finished product. People often use them to store grain, rice, etc.

As for containers that once held strong acids and bleaches - some say they will never be fit for re-use and can at best only be granulated and recycled, at worst consigned to landfill. I only deal with food-grade containers.

 

[Wez]

Ah, understood :thumb: Thanks for the explanation, I hope the members here venture over and maybe you get some trade through us.

While you are here, can we convert you to the dark-side of all grain brewing?

 

[Barrelman]

Yeah sure ... l made a brew way back in 1996 - it was more psychedelic than alcoholic l'd say. I didn't try it again after that

 

[Wez]

Feel free to have a browse around, things might have moved on the average cost of a pint brewed by the guys here is i'd say £0.25 certainly worth having a think about :thumb: cheers for joining up, hop we give you some trade.

If you don't want to brew, you could always pop in The Snug, just to tell us what your drinking and what you think of it

[/homebrewrecruitmentmodeoff] ..... for a bit :thumb:

 

[Barrelman]

Thanks, l will cop an eyeful of it now actually!

 

[Vossy1]

Hey B,

I'm familiar with your barrels and know they are good to go...home brewing wise.
A chap in France uses the same barrels for his entire brewery and a lot folk I know use them to store grain.

Do you soley deal with used items?

 

[Wez]

Hey B, I'm familiar with your barrels

Can you say in all honesty, that you've never, ever said that before to another man. :shock:

:rofl:

 

[Barrelman]

Hey B, I'm familiar with your barrels

Can you say in all honesty, that you've never, ever said that before to another man. :shock:

:rofl:

Haha.

Anyway, l'm only able to deal with used items at the moment, as they cost a lot of money to manufacture - approximately £100,000 l reckon, just for one barrel, but after the initial investment l'm sure you could make lots of more barrels for free, but anyway, injection-moulding doesn't work out for small quantities, and small = anything under 100,000 items l'm afraid.

 

[Vossy1]

Can you not source items BM, or are the items you supply bi-products, so to speak?

Biodiesel suppliers, supply new HDPE conicals/buckets at very reasonable rates and I'm sure they don't invest in plant to make them.

 

[Barrelman]

Can you not source items BM, or are the items you supply bi-products, so to speak?

Biodiesel suppliers, supply new HDPE conicals/buckets at very reasonable rates and I'm sure they don't invest in plant to make them.

I spent a lot of time sourcing containers once. I never looked at conicals, but yes, l'm sure buckets can be sourced quite cheaply. In fact l am happy to lower my price for buckets if asked - l just automatically priced them with reference to capacity. But putting self-promotion aside, l don't think brand new containers are very cheap.

Have you found a decent source? Please tell me about it as l am kind of interested in 10-litre to 220-litre containers.

 

[Barrelman]

Oh by the way, yes, l only deal in by-products :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Have you found a decent source?

Not a source yet...unfortunately...though by god I've tried

 

[Barrelman]

The cheapest company l know of that supplies 30-litre plastic drums brand new charges £5.95 per drum, or at least they did a few months back, whereas l do them for £3. They make money though, because their containers are good for lots of haz-chems as well as any foodstuffs, and of course they supply their containers brand new. As with any manufacturer though, they have a minimum quantity, which if l recall was 50-100.

 

[Vossy1]

B do you ever get any up to 75/80 ltr, opaque?

 

[Barrelman]

Not at present. I imagine it would be difficult to find opaque containers for that capacity.

 

[Vossy1]

HB shops go from 60ltr to 120 ltr....quite a jump for me.
I could do with 80ltr jobbies, 100ltr at worst...due to space constraints in my fv cupboard...the search goes on

 

[Barrelman]

Oh right, in that case l know the containers you mean. They are well pricey, you know! Really nice looking though, with the CO2 vents and taps. If you had a drill, some silica gel, a plastic tap and a hard plastic tube you could effectively do the same with one of the cheap 50-litre barrels l supply . Oh by the way, l think the other supplier l mentioned did the 30-litre ones in the £6.50 range for 100, but they did it cheaper for 500 quantities. I'm well tired now though, good night!

 

[Vossy1]

I have the 60ltr ones of these, bottom of page clicky
There are 2 x 60ltr ones on top of each other next to the 120ltr one.....why can't they do something inbetween

G'night mate