homebrewandbeer.com

Hey all,

I've heard from an HBS guy that plastic bottles as found in HB packs are prone to splitting after 6-8 uses. Is there any truth to this?

Regards

Beer Canuck

I've heard that after repeated use the plastic in PET bottles breaks down and release cancer causing toxins into your liquid

regards

Michael

I think if you are dosing them with hot water (160 + F)it will cause the plastic to become brittle as it is outside of the temp spec for them. I have used a chlorine based (bleach) sterilant and never had a problem.

Not to sure about the cancer part but I find unlikely otherwise human outpouring would have changed it a long time ago. Look where it is used. Regardless, I use glass rather than plastic so I am safe

Dogger

Check out this reference from Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference Pages: Reusing plastic water bottles can cause them to break down into carcinogenic compounds.

Cheers,

Oliver

Yes, if it was true I should have been dead years ago. Have been drinking water out of recylced softdrink bottles for years.
Steve

You can't age the beer long in a plastic bottle - they gradually let the CO2 out so they'll go flat after a year or two. So you're stuck with drinking young beer -- which isn't necessarily bad.

That said I've made about five brews using the same set of PET bottles (Cooper's) and they look none the worse for wear.

Thanks for the info good to see I'm safe,

have to day though noting feels better then a ice cold amber bottle from the bottom of an esky. Still plastic is a lot easier and cheaper

have reused my plastic bottles heaps of times-no problems.
Never been able to age a brew longer than 10 weeks anyway.
i always bottle in the plastic ones first because I hate the way they bounce around the garage floor if not stored properly.