Anyone use non food grade buckets for cleaning and/or sanitizing purposes?
I’ve bought buckets from Lowe’s for various purposes. The little blue 5 gallon ones.
I use the orange buckets from Home Depot.
I use an old Rubbermaid Water cooler to keep hot water run off warm for cleaning the boil kettle and related items. I guess it is food grade, but I don’t use it any more for mashing, so it serves a purpose worth keeping it around. I wouldn’t hesitate to use the big box Home Improvement buckets for this purpose, though. (Mine are typically filled with something like parts and tools).
Same here
I use Homer buckets for weighing grain and milling grain. Once it is in the mash the wort/beer never touches the orange buckets again.
They work great for clean up jobs like holding wet, spent grain and catching waste water to mop the floor with after everything is put away.
Paul
I’ve used the orange Home Depot buckets for years to store bulk grains (2-row, Marris Otter, etc), but I’ve always wondered if I should be doing that. Any strong opinions one way or another on this? I thought about replacing them with “food grade” but wasn’t sure if it was worth it.
I think for dried goods your risk is a lot lower than say if you used it as a fermenting bucket containing liquids, but it is still non-zero. Non-food grade HDPE can either contain a non-food grade dye, or a non-food grade release agent to help free it from the mold. HDPE is slightly porous and can leach these out over time. In addition, if the HDPE is recycled it can contain traces of whatever was stored in it previously (paint, pesticides, who-knows-what-else). That being said, the dose makes the poison. For short-term storage of dried goods, I personally don’t think it’s a huge risk. For liquids, or for long-term storage of dry foods, I personally wouldn’t risk it. YMMV based on how risk-averse you may be.
That being said, I’m currently in the reverse situation as others here. Since I’ve moved to fermenting in kegs, my old bucket fermenters are getting repurposed for use around the garage, yard, as chicken waterers, etc.
Thanks. It may be my push to switch to food grade containers for long term grain storage. How about Gamma Seal Tops? No contact with the grain, but should I be concerned?
The orange homer bucket is only used to clean and sanitize.
I personally wouldn’t use the bucket to store grains, without
some sort of liner, or a food grade bucket would be used.
The price of one is worth the piece of mind.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leaktite-5-gal-70mil-Food-Safe-Bucket-White-005GFSWH020/300197644
Food grade storage for grain is definitely the safe way to go. You can find them pretty easily. I use the pet food storage containers that I get from places like Tractor Supply to store my base malt (since I buy between 50-55 lbs of it at a time). You can also find smaller food grade storage buckets from places like U.S. Plastics (I use these to put my specialty grains into). I also keep the specialty grains in a plastic bag when putting them into the buckets since it keeps the grain fresher longer.
I use Vittles Vault pet food containers (they have the gamma lids). I follow homebrewfinds.com, and I’ve grabbed them at PetSmart when they have a good deal going on. For specialty grains, I usually keep them in the bag in a cereal box sized Rubbermaid/Tupperware container. Gamma lids on top of a fermentation bucket work pretty well, too.