How do you know that a bucket is food grade is there a number code or something or can you use any clean (unused) plastic bucket ie homedepot bucket?

I asked this same question a while ago...I dont think you can use the buckets at home depot because they are not 'food grade.' I believe they have chemicals in them that may bleed out and into your beer.

Buckets that you can get from restaurants are food grade. The cheapest place online that I have found to get buckets are at high gravity. http://www.highgravitybrew.com

They also have cheap grains and etc. I think their prices are good.

I believe you could also ask restaurants if they have any food grade buckets that they didn't need and maybe they'd give them to you free.

SWMBO obtain several buckets for FREE from wal-mart's bakery. Icing came
in them so they smelled sweet but cleaned up nice. I have yet to ferment
in them but do use em for grain storage.

Free is good.

WOw, that is a great place to look for buckets! I will ask them next time I go.

Try wal-mart. Restaurants will probably only give you pickle buckets.

My buddy recently bought the plain white buckets from Home Depot. He called the company and confirmed that the HDPE buckets are indeed food grade.

What's wrong with the ones found online. More expensive?

There's almost always a label on the bottom- that recycle thing will tell you what it is. My fermentation buckets have that with HDPE under it.


http://www.xomed.com/images/recycle.jpeg

Bryan, out of those insignias is HDPE the only one that means food grade? I noticed PETE as well, which I thought might be food grade.

I couldn't find a good list. Most are food grade, I think. But then there's permeability to consider. PETE should be fine there, but I don't think they make it thick-walled enough for a fermenter, bottles- yes.

I can't vouch for this site but a quick google search on "food grade bucket" I came across this site....

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/plastics.html

It looks fairly detailed and lists some uses types and things to look for in food grade buckets. I did notice it suggest to NOT use dry pet food containers (seen posts here regarding their use for grain storage) or hdpe food grade buckest that once contained chemicals or paint....

Makes me think the brewery I come across online that uses former life pool chlorine buckets for everything except the boil kettle might be an issue.

For the most part, all HDPE is food grade. The only ones that wouldn't be is if they specifically add ingredients to change the properties of the plastic. That would make the plastic more expenisve and the lat thing most bucket manufacturers want. I would even use the HD orange buckets but they would make your beer look ugly.

PETE is polyethylene terephthalate. Basically what is used for soda bottles. HDPE has better O2 barrier properties but then in a fermenter, that doesn't mean anything. I would keep beer in them for 6 months though.

The recycling logo is only for recycing. It has nothing to do with whether it's food grade. In 20 years in the Plastics industry, I have never seen a plastic material not meet FDA requirements for food contact. Even PVC is approved although they don't like the plasticizers they're using these days.

>The recycling logo is only for recycing. It has nothing to do with whether it's food grade.

definitely not, my only point was that you can usually tell what TYPE of plastic it was from the codes, if it doesn't explicity say it right underneath.

I got some 16? gallon HDPE tubs at w*m to store my bulk grain. It'd be nice to find a cheap source of 8 gallon buckets. Right now I'm paying about $20 a pop with a grommeted lid.

I've noticed the inside of my brewing bucket is incredibly smooth. Could that have something to do with being a food grade bucket? It seems to me that a regular bucket might be slightly more porous on the inside? This is just speculation on my part but it seems to make sense.

>I've noticed the inside of my brewing bucket is incredibly smooth. Could that have something to do with being a food grade bucket?

Nope. The surface finish is related to the plastic type, process (mold temp, injection speed), and polish of the mold surface.

Contrary to homebrewers belief, plastic is not pourous from even a microscopic view point. It's permeability to gasses is probably similar to steel's permeability to x-rays.

Well, unless you consider the 8th dimension, Buckaroo.

I was looking around the archives, and read this thread. Is anybody out there in tasty brew land using buckets that you'd buy at a home depot or lowes or any place similar?

I am gathering from the info in this thread that I can go and get a bucket that had HDPE on it and use it as a fermenter. Yes, no?

I've bought FDA approved food grade buckets for pretty cheap from US Plastics. Not all of their buckets say they are food grade but they have some that specify it. I get the buckets and lids from them and then drill holes and get spigots and grommets from my lhbs. I specifically wanted buckets to secondary ales that didn't have the head space of the usual primary buckets.

I have a few 1 and 2 gallon white plastic buckets purchased from the Home Depot that I use for fermenters for small highly experimental batches (what happens if I try to make a beer with 60% corn). I also have a 5 gallon that I use as a bottling bucket. Never noticed any off colors, textures, or flavors from the bucket.

If a bucket says "hdpe" on it, it is food grade. Most companies only make 1 type of bucket and then sell it to different companies for different uses. As in, the same buckets home depot gets labeled "paint bucket" are the exact same buckets that gordon food service get labeled "food grade". Some buckets are made especially to hold certain chemicals, I dont know the properties of these. look for HDPE.

I found this on a recycling website. The number inside the recycling logo indicates the type of plastic so its easier to keep the plastics seperated for recycling.

1 PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) some waterproof packaging
2 HDPE (high density polyethylene) Milk, detergent and oil bottles, toys and plastic bags
3 PVC (polyvinyl chloride) Food wrap, vegetable oil bottles, bubble wrap
4 LDPE (low density polyethylene) Many plastic bags, shrink wrap, garment bags
5 PP (polypropylene) Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops, some carpets, some food wrap
6 PS (polystyrene) Throwaway utensils, meat packaging, protective packaging
7 Other (mixed plastics) No recycling potential - must be landfilled.
(Society of the Plastics Industry - SDI)

As you can see, all types show food-contact items with the exception of #7.

Even recycled plastics can be food grade as long as certain FDA protocols are followed.

I don't think there's an issue using any HDPE buckets for brewing as long as you're sure what was previously in them. On the other hand, you may be concerned with adding off flavors to your beer from the plastic.

All plastics are food grade within usage parameters. HDPE is no longer food grade over a certain temp. I cant think of a single of the 'big 7' that isn't used for some food somewhere or another. Its not like they add a special chemical to make it food safe.

Interesting. Good info. I really don't want to waste a batch of beer on testing a bucket from home depot, but maybe I can test half a batch, with some fruit in the beer or something, and see how it comes out.

"Most companies only make 1 type of bucket and then sell it to different companies for different uses."

Perhaps the same company that makes the 'ale pails' for brewers makes the same buckets for home depot and etc. Hmmm.

I will have to disagree with Mr C as not all plastics are food grade (regardless of usage parameters) however the big 7 all are as he noted. Most naked plastics are food safe so in spirit, he is correct. It's amazing how many base polymers there are. I have worked with probably about 60 of them and that doesn't include the various blends, alloys and compounds that are available.

I would trust any new bucket that is of a light enough color that I could determine that the plastic looks clean and free of crap. Once they start adding colors, it gets real easy to add scrap plastic which is not trustworthy.

Ropak makes a lot of the buckets out there and yes, they make a much larger quantity of them for other food use.

"I will have to disagree with Mr C as not all plastics are food grade (regardless of usage parameters) however the big 7 all are as he noted."

Yes I shouldn't say that all plastics are food grade, that is very wrong. I was meaning that all the big 7 recycled plastics are. Thank you for catching my misnomenclature.

yes, the same company that makes the ale pail also sells the same bucket to resturaunts to keep cottage cheese in, the only difference is that it costs about $10 more to have "ale pail" printed on the side. HDPE is safe to about 195 degrees.