[Sca-cooks] use of soda bottles for storage

[Stefan li Rous]

Kiri replied to me with:
> My husband makes mead and always uses the 2 liter soda bottles...says
> that they have tight-fitting caps and can handle minor pressure.
Does he do still or bubbly meads? If the former then it probably 
doesn't make a difference since you don't want any gas buildup to be 
retained. Since the plastic bottles let the fizz out of the soft 
drinks, I think they would do the same for bubbly meads. I'm still 
uncertain whether the plastic is permeable to microorganisms and such 
things. If the plastic would let the beasties in which turn the mead or 
beer into a vinegar, then I think that would be a problem. But the 
plastic may do fine keeping them out, but not the smaller gas molecules 
in.
> He always sterilizes the insides with a solution of campden tablets, 
> along
> with the caps.  I do the same thing when I need to transport anything
> from broth to salad dressings to sauces.  We've never had any problem!
Well, how long have your kept these foods in the plastic soda bottles? 
If just a few days or weeks, I doubt that you'd detect much since it 
usually takes several months for the fizz in the soft drinks to leak 
out. Generally the fizz leaking out of the diet sodas isn't a problem 
since the Nutra-sweet seems to have an even shorter lifetime than this. 
And bad Nutra-sweet is much worse than flat soda. Bleech. At least you 
can mix flat regular soda and fizzy regular soda to get something 
drinkable.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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