my free bottles and primarys

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fauxfly

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Hi all

I've been seeing a lot of posts on where you folks are getting your bottles and your fermenters.

Let me offer some of my personal experiences... as an electrician on a college campus with several resturants and several huge halls for weddings and entertaining, there are always wine bottles being gathered up and recycled in huge bins in our commons area. I have asked a few times the head chef to save them for me so as to store my homemade wine in them. He not only agreed, but was also very interested in the whole "home winemaking thing".

Needless to say i had several hundred bottles in boxes ready to go.

The other resource I've used at work is the main resturant, again talked to the guys who clean up and sort the different recyleables. I've got several food grade primarys in different gallon sizes. These are the square shaped plastic white buckets, they are the heavy walled ones for either salad dressings or frostings. Lots of 2 and 3 gallon glassware also.

I've used these for the last few years with no problems what so ever.

It did cost me the occasional bottle of homemade something for the head chefs.

Everyones happy.

Just my thoughts on where to get some free winemaking supplies.

Steve
 
Excellent resource in a restaurant. As long as those buckets are Food Grade they should be fine. I forget what the number on the bottom should be to be food grade......3 or lower? 2 or lower? Somebody will know.
 
If they come with food in them wouldn't that make them food grade ? or is there different grades ? I think like you said Steve as long as they are strong enough .I work at Tim's and we have buckets there but don't know if they are strong enough ,they come with fruit filling and already made icing in them .They are smaller then the 23 liter but I didn't check to see what size .
 
If they come with food in them wouldn't that make them food grade ? or is there different grades ? I think like you said Steve as long as they are strong enough .I work at Tim's and we have buckets there but don't know if they are strong enough ,they come with fruit filling and already made icing in them .They are smaller then the 23 liter but I didn't check to see what size .

Darlene: They are probably ideal for smaller batches or as cleaning buckets. I got some pails from the local ice cream shop. I use one as a cleaning bucket for wine making, another as a primary for one gallon batches, and a third is in the garage to use for outside cleanups. Plus a couple of extras, that I was going to use for onion or garlic wine, but haven't yet.

Steve
 

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