Polycarbonate Water Cooler Bottles

[Willsbrew]

Anybody got any opinions on long term storage of finished brews in the big 5 gallon polycarbonate water cooler bottles?

I have happened across a few of them at work, and they look just like glass carboys/demijohns, but I am a little worried about oxidation, does anybody know if polycarbonate has similar oxygen permeability to HDPE? Can I mature my ciders in these polycarbonate bottles?

 

[MyQul]

@Clint dont you work with plastics? Or is that another forumite?

 

[Clint]

Sorry M...I'm more glues,resins, polyurethane...

 

[MyQul]

Sorry M...I'm more glues,resins, polyurethane...

Thanks anyway (at least I got the poly bit right. I'll take that as a win ) :hat:

 

[simon12]

According to this its worse than HDPE, better than LDPE and similar to PP http://www.faybutler.com/pdf_files/HowHoseMaterialsAffectGas3.pdf

 

[Willsbrew]

That’s interesting, looks like the answer is no then, much worse than HDPE which is what pressure barrels are made of... are fermenting bins LDPE? I’ve stored stuff in them for months with no ill effects

 

[MyQul]

That’s interesting, looks like the answer is no then, much worse than HDPE which is what pressure barrels are made of... are fermenting bins LDPE? I’ve stored stuff in them for months with no ill effects

Dunno what fermenters are made of, but I think (andtake it I'm deffo not expert here, just guessing) the difference between storing dry ingredient and have a liquid brew fermenting may be that its much easier for chemicals to leach into a liquid than dry ingredients

 

[Bigcol49]

are fermenting bins LDPE?

Hi!
All of my fermenting buckets are Code 5 - polypropylene.
You need to find out the rate of oxygen absorbtion for your plastic to make a judgement. It may be quite low.