Bringing Old Boilers Back To Life

[TJM]

Hi all,
I'm new to AHB. I've come back to Australia and back to beer making after many years wedged into a tiny London flat. I've dusted off my old kit and started brewing again and have since inherited a few bits and bobs from friends. My dilemma is I now have three fermenters that are missing their original lids including one nice white/clear 15 litre model. They all have airlocks and taps etc just no lids. Two are the 80's era black Olinda variety and the smaller is possibly a Coopers fermenter. My question for the wiser and more experienced among you is this. Is it worth holding onto these drums in the hope of finding tops in secondhand stores or home brew suppliers or should I just chuck them and buy new. I'd like to bring them back to life as I try to live by the Womble code of "making good use of the things we find." A search on eBay didn't produce many results are there any other options? If there is insufficient avenues to hunt these relics down I'll give the barrels a proper retirement as pot plant holders. Cheers. TJM.

 

[stux]

Use glad wrap instead of a lid

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showarticle=131

 

[wombil]

A few beers usually livens up my old boiler a bit.

 

[Rowy]

A few beers usually livens up my old boiler a bit.

Your a terrible man Oigle!

 

[Lecterfan]

Use glad wrap instead of a lid

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showarticle=131

Do this. Clean and sanitise and then do this. Laughing.

 

[manticle]

I would recommend running some boiling water through them, letting it cool a bit and tasting the water. Plastic can degrade, particularly in UV light. Not sure what the 80s black ones are made of - HDPE is preferable but if you can't taste any plastic type flavours from the water, then the resulting beer will probably taste OK (might contain uranium by-products, DDT and lead but should taste alright).

Also - glad wrap, as mentioned, is the solution to all your problems.

 

[TJM]

Thanks for the feedback. I did considered glad wrap briefly, but dismissed that idea owing to the question of how the gas would escape. The article lays that question to rest. Also appreciate the suggestion about tasting the water. I'll give my drums a good scrub and then go with the see-thru lid method. Cheers all.

 

[pist]

I would ditch the old black ones. I am led to believe that these are not made from food grade plastic and may contain carcinogens that could leech from the plastic.

 

[DU99]

the gas creeps out under the layers..depending where you live you can pick up new ones for about $10

 

[ledgenko]

Just want to clarify you are not using a scourer inside the fermentor are you ?? Bad karma to do so ... I suggest the purchase of new fermentors if there are any infection issues with your first brews as previous owners may just have scratched the shithouse out of them and allowed bacteria to hide in the scratches ..



Call me a little anal but its how I roll ...



Welcome back to Aussieland BTW ....