How To Make Beer in Milk Jugs
It may be hard to believe, but you can in fact use milk jugs to ferment beer---perfect for anyone who drinks a lot of milk and is on a budget when it comes to beer-brewing supplies. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Gallon milk jugs (glass or plastic)
- Odorless dish soap
- Sanitizing solution
- Siphon
- Jug-closing mechanisms (stoppers and airlocks or blow-off tubes)
Instructions
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1
Clean milk jugs with odorless dish soap. You could use almost anything to ferment beer as long as it is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. With milk jugs, you certainly don't want any residual flavors to get into your beer.
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2
Sanitize milk jugs with sanitizing solution.
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3
Boil wort according to the recipe for the specific beer you are making. If boiling 3 gallons for a small brew, you will need 3 1-gallon milk jugs; if boiling 5 gallons you will need five milk jugs.
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4
Once you have finished boiling the wort, use the siphon to transfer wort into each milk jug.
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5
Close jug. In order to keep your beer sanitized, and allow carbon dioxide to be released during fermentation, you will either have to close the jug with a stopper (rubber or plastic) and an airlock, or you will have to use a blow-off tube, which fits in the mouth of the jug and releases into a small bucket with water. If your aim is inexpensive brewing equipment, the blow-off tubes and buckets (or even coffee mugs if you have nothing else) are the cheapest option.
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6
Wait about 10 days for fermentation, then add priming sugar and bottle.
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Tips & Warnings
Most recipes for beer are for 5 gallon batches, which is why you'll need 5 1-gallon milk jugs. However, you could save a little time and effort by making a smaller batch, therefore using as many milk jugs and closing mechanisms as are necessary.
Plastic is difficult to sanitize and use for any long period of time. If you use plastic milk jugs, consider saving many, and only using them once or twice for fermentation, to ensure that your equipment will remain sanitized and off-flavors will not infect the beer.
