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crimsondrac

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 11, 2010
84
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Houston, TX
Hi All,

Just wanted to post about the new clear buckets I purchased. I mentioned them in another thread but thought I would share them in a new thread. I was anticipating a more shallow rectangular bucket. I am pleasantly surprised that they are fairly square and tall. About the same height as a normal 5 gallon round bucket. The plastic seems sturdy and scratch resistant. I plan on only using plastic or wooden stirrers and utensils so I do not think there will be an issue with scratching. The lid seals very well. I have not tested them yet to see if they are water tight, but I am satisfied with the seal. Gonna buy a some small grommets at the hardware store and drill a hole for the airlocks. Now, gotta get some honey and waiting for the K1V to arrive in the mail. Looking forward to using them.

Some visuals:
5.5GalBucket_01.jpg

Added standard sized wine bottle for point of reference.

5.5GalBucket_02.jpg

Side shot

5.5GalBucket_03.jpg

Close up of lid seal and bucket lip.

5.5GalBucket_04.jpg

Frome above
 
Nice....

How are you thinking about mounting an airlock ? if at all ?

As for a "normal" wine bottle for scale....

That ain't no "normal" wine bottle..... It looks like a cross between a champagne and burgundy type - plus that's one major custom colour......

Those bucket though, brilliant. A good view of what's going on, a good view so you can see about racking etc with ease....

Apart from the ? about needing extra lids so you can "punch" a hole for an airlock grommet, excellent.....

regards

fatbloke
 
Well, I was just gonne drill a hole in the lid of one and buy a rubber grommet at the hardware store and mount the airlock inot the grommet. That is what I did on the 1 gallon glass jars I used for my first batches of JAO. I only plan on drilling one for an airlock. The second will be for bulk aging. Though, if I ever need to cap that hole, I suppose I could just tape some plastic wrap down over the hole. Probably even plugging the hole with wax would work or a small cork.

As for the bottle, these are hock style bottles I picked up from midwestsupplies.com. They are a bit more expensive then the green, amber or brown bottles, but I have always like the cobalt coloring. They may not be standard wine bottles, but they are standard height and that is all they were in the pics for.
 
crimsondrac said:
Well, I was just gonne drill a hole in the lid of one and buy a rubber grommet at the hardware store and mount the airlock inot the grommet.

Just be careful when you drill, some of those plastic's are quite brittle and will crack on you with to much pressure + or speed. I would have a piece of wood under the lid where the hole is going to avoid stressing the lid.
Click to expand...
 
Yea, I have busted a lid like that before. You only ever do it once. Always use some backing material, drill slow with moderate pressure. Then a piece of sand paper to remove any burrs or nicks.
 
wayneb said:
Hey, fatbloke! Those "cobalt blue" bottles are actually somewhat popular here, although they are produced in sufficiently low numbers that they aren't consistently available in your LHBS - you have to watch for them!
Click to expand...
Ah, well, I like the idea of the Chinese tradition of not eating in the flashy restaurant, because the man who runs it probably spends too much on decoration and not enough on the quality of his food..... So we leave those places to gullible "gwai lo".......

Damn, they're loud enough to give you hearing damage.....

regards

fatbloke
 
fatbloke said:
Nice....

How are you thinking about mounting an airlock ? if at all ?

As for a "normal" wine bottle for scale....

That ain't no "normal" wine bottle..... It looks like a cross between a champagne and burgundy type - plus that's one major custom colour......

Those bucket though, brilliant. A good view of what's going on, a good view so you can see about racking etc with ease....

Apart from the ? about needing extra lids so you can "punch" a hole for an airlock grommet, excellent.....

regards

fatbloke
Click to expand...

Had to go back and re-read my original post to be sure and no where did I call it a "normal" wine bottle. I did say a standard sized wine bottle. It may not be a 'standard' wine bottle (argueable) but is is a 'standard sized' wine bottle. And the shape seems pretty common, at least on all the Home Brew sites. A Hock shaped bottle can be bought at just about all of them.
 
wayneb said:
Hey, fatbloke! Those "cobalt blue" bottles are actually somewhat popular here, although they are produced in sufficiently low numbers that they aren't consistently available in your LHBS - you have to watch for them!
Click to expand...

My local place always has the cobalt bottles in stock, that's what I used for my wedding wine last year, only a couple bucks per dozen more expensive than green or clear, I think they were $16-something instead of $12-something like the other bottles. Same shape as crimsondrac's bottle too, they only carry that one shape. I was weird and put my red wine in them because I the green they had in stock was a different colour from the bottle out on display and I didn't like it...
 
Ah ha!, you lot should remember, that here, there's a market for such frippery, but being next door to France, means that our market tends, very much, to stick to "the norm" i.e. burgundy and bordeaux type bottles in the main most HBS will keep bordeaux type (often offering to order burgundy type on demand).

Surprisingly enough, champagne bottles are quite hard to locate new (from HBS etc - so most will try and source them used from restaurants/bars/recyclers) yet I've transported them by the truck load from a bottle supplier to commercial winemaker (English sparkling white, seems often to be compared to champagne and gets greater reviews - much like the California business of the 70's/80's).

Your market might have the "loud" blue bottles (and possibly other colours) easily available, even for just a small increase in cost, here they'd be considered brash and/or a novelty.......

regards

fatbloke

p.s. yet it seems only Wayne has spotted the intended levity in my 08-03-2010 11:05 PM post.......;):o:eek:
 
fatbloke said:
Your market might have the "loud" blue bottles (and possibly other colours) easily available, even for just a small increase in cost, here they'd be considered brash and/or a novelty.......
Click to expand...

Well there's the reason that us folks in North America refer to Europe as the "Old World"...buncha crotchetty old bitties.....we probably play our music too loud too eh? ;D
 
keepitlow said:
I'm using these.

http://cool.cambro.com/Translucent_Rounds_Round_Storage_Containers_and_Lids_Storage.ashx

If I go for big batches someday will use 5 gal buckets. A guy I talked with used plastic trash cans for fruit wine. Scares me, it is not food grade.
Click to expand...

Wow, wish I had seen the round ones before I bought the square ones. I am sure either would work fine, but the round ones just seem more normal. I looked around and they make the clear polycarbonate type as well. Same clear material used for the square ones I bought.

Getting ready to brew up a batch of show mead in one and gonna save the second bucket for a pumpkin wine I wanna try in October, when the pumpkins are ripe.
 
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