[Semper Sitientem]

While you won’t take a sip of beer and drop dead, I would not use this container to ferment. I don’t think that whatever overseas manufacturer making trash cans to sell at Walmart is using anything but the cheapest, and therefore the most toxic, plastic they can find. And you want to make acidic alcohol in it for consumption over and over again?
Please don’t do this, the data on the toxicity of plastic gets worse and worse. Buy a fermentation bucket and throw your trash in this bucket.

+1 100% and I’ll spare everyone my rant about consumer product safety.

[nvshooter2276]

Don't screw up your back... that ain't no fun at all.

I damaged my lower back in early August of 1973. Fifty years ago. I was fifteen years old. I've learned to live with it, but I have to be careful in how I move, how much weight I can lift and how much I can carry. Good thing I'm a truck driver: I spend the majority of my days on my assets with minimal physical movement.

[nvshooter2276]

I would be concerned about using something that I couldn't prove to be food-safe.

I'm going to go ahead and ferment in the garbage can. I'm not worried about it being or not being food-grade. I've been a truck driver for dam-ned near thirty years. I've driven through a bunch of winters, through many a Spring with high winds and an empty trailer, and have been through major American cities like Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Franfreako and many others many, many times. I used to jump from the swings at the apogee of the forward arc when I was in grade school. I rode a minibike in Italy when I was a teenager in the 1970s. I include that because Italians do not stop at stopsigns in residential areas. They just toot their horn and blast on through. As you can imagine, they have a lot of two-vehicle accidents and always blame the other guy for the collision. My parents were always worried that I was going to be injured or get killed on my little bike because of how reckless are Italian drivers. I learned on that bike to always expect the alpha-hotels in my immediate vicinity to do something exponentially-stupid within the next few seconds. It has served me well as a trucker since late January 1994.

[denny]

I would be concerned about using something that I couldn't prove to be food-safe.

I'm going to go ahead and ferment in the garbage can. I'm not worried about it being or not being food-grade. I've been a truck driver for dam-ned near thirty years. I've driven through a bunch of winters, through many a Spring with high winds and an empty trailer, and have been through major American cities like Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Franfreako and many others many, many times. I used to jump from the swings at the apogee of the forward arc when I was in grade school. I rode a minibike in Italy when I was a teenager in the 1970s. I include that because Italians do not stop at stopsigns in residential areas. They just toot their horn and blast on through. As you can imagine, they have a lot of two-vehicle accidents and always blame the other guy for the collision. My parents were always worried that I was going to be injured or get killed on my little bike because of how reckless are Italian drivers. I learned on that bike to always expect the alpha-hotels in my immediate vicinity to do something exponentially-stupid within the next few seconds. It has served me well as a trucker since late January 1994.

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard

[fredthecat]

I would be concerned about using something that I couldn't prove to be food-safe.

I'm going to go ahead and ferment in the garbage can. I'm not worried about it being or not being food-grade. I've been a truck driver for dam-ned near thirty years. I've driven through a bunch of winters, through many a Spring with high winds and an empty trailer, and have been through major American cities like Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Franfreako and many others many, many times. I used to jump from the swings at the apogee of the forward arc when I was in grade school. I rode a minibike in Italy when I was a teenager in the 1970s. I include that because Italians do not stop at stopsigns in residential areas. They just toot their horn and blast on through. As you can imagine, they have a lot of two-vehicle accidents and always blame the other guy for the collision. My parents were always worried that I was going to be injured or get killed on my little bike because of how reckless are Italian drivers. I learned on that bike to always expect the alpha-hotels in my immediate vicinity to do something exponentially-stupid within the next few seconds. It has served me well as a trucker since late January 1994.

im sure others will reply, and i dont want to make it sound like people are jumping all over you, but i sell industrial PPE and have experience when i was younger (a few decades ago) working in crappy jobs where/when people didnt give a rats ass about protective equipment, indoor pollutants, chemicals, waste, safety in general.

this stuff is super important, i know you seem to be a senior citizen, but toxins/contaminants/carcinogens are cumulative and you dont want to gamble on even increasing the likelihood of any of these things by any margin. the difference in cost broken down per pint of beer in buying proper, safe brewing equipment is going to literally be pennies if you brew often. a few cents,

and not just that you may get flavour and/or fermentation problems caused by plastic leaching or anti-microbial properties in the plastic. reconsider this, you can likely return it and just say "it turns out it was the wrong type" or something.

[nvshooter2276]

... you can likely return it and just say "it turns out it was the wrong type" or something.

It was cheap; only about sixteen bucks or so. I have also written on it with Sharpie markers. I've defaced it and as such, it cannot be returned. Still good for trash because I have yet to drill the one-inch hole for the spigot.

I have a ten-gallon fermenter that's 17 or so inches high; seven gallons is at about twelve inches high. Volume is 7.5 gallons at the step. Would the five-some inches be enough headspace for the krausen generated by fermenting seven gallons of wort? The seller says this fermenter is FDA food-grade approved, so there's that.


https://www.morebeer.com/products/wine-fermenter-10-gallon-fda-plastic.html?variant=WE505&msclkid=c66548eb728b19836da72b292f7bbcf8&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BPA%20-%20Items%20-%20Fermentation%20Equipment&utm_term=4577610507286372&utm_content=BPA%20Item%20-%20Fermentation%20Equipment%7C10-59%7CC%3A40

[nvshooter2276]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

[ynotbrusum]

There is nothing wrong with open fermentation, but you typically close up the vessel/ transfer to a closed vessel as it approaches completion, so as to form a CO2 barrier of protection from oxidizing the finished beer.  All transfers of the beer from that point should be done as oxygen free as possible.

[Rudy]

I use a 15 gallon sterilite container from Walmart to ferment my Hefeweizen in.  I transfer when the krausen has all but collapsed, but still covers the beer. 

This is the step that has made my Hefeweizen as good as those I drank while stationed in Germany.

[denny]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

Because beer isn't wine

[neuse]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

Because beer isn't wine

So Denny comes up with the indisputable scientific explanation.

[denny]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

Because beer isn't wine

So Denny comes up with the indisputable scientific explanation.

That's basically it, but if you want more it's because wine has a lower pH and higher alcohol content than beer.

[neuse]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

Because beer isn't wine

So Denny comes up with the indisputable scientific explanation.

That's basically it, but if you want more it's because wine has a lower pH and higher alcohol content than beer.

I liked "Because beer isn't wine" better - more succinct.

[denny]

That has to be the worst justification I've ever heard.

I've done many a thing in my life that could have resulted in me spending decades in a wheelchair or Eternity in a grave. We're all going to die someday. Some would say, "Don't rush your demise." I say, "I have no wife nor kids that I'd leave behind. No one would mourn after me. I've had my fill of government and other authorities of varying power telling me that everything I do or eat will kill me in the next twenty minutes, so I'm going to do it and to helsinki with the repercussions."

I will eventually make some beer in the garbage can. I'll report how it comes out, considering the vessel will not be tightly sealed. That raises another question: Why must beer be fermented in an air-tight container with an airlock, but wine (based upon what I'm reading) doesn't need such a set-up?

Because beer isn't wine

So Denny comes up with the indisputable scientific explanation.

That's basically it, but if you want more it's because wine has a lower pH and higher alcohol content than beer.

I liked "Because beer isn't wine" better - more succinct.

Which is why I initially posted it!

[ynotbrusum]

I agree on that, but the lines are getting blurred by some products, like, say Braggot or Oenobeer?