# General > General Chat >  Does alcohol go bad if contained in a plastic bottle?

## Fango

I poured alcohol (vodka) from a glass bottle to a plastic bottle, just for convenience, and I've let it be for about ten days. I'm not sure if I should drink it now or throw it away, because I don't know if plastic bottles are appropriate to contain alcohol. It tastes a lot more sour than I remember it..... also, there are some small green dots developing at certain point of the bottle. Yuck. Definitely makes me think twice.


So, does alcohol go bad if contained in a plastic bottle?

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## kilted exile

Well I wouldnt have thought you would have a problem with bacterial growth, especially with regards to spirits (a good antiseptic in an emergency) I think your problem is more likely that the bottle you put the vodka into was not as clean as it should have been and the previous contents have reacted with the vodka.

There are certain beers sold here that come in plastic bottles (Steelback variants) and although I would not deign to drink that brand myself (more of a lucky lager guy :Wink:  ) I have not heard of any problems with them.

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## papayahed

> Well I wouldnt have thought you would have a problem with bacterial growth, especially with regards to spirits (a good antiseptic in an emergency) I think your problem is more likely that the bottle you put the vodka into was not as clean as it should have been and the previous contents have reacted with the vodka.
> 
> There are certain beers sold here that come in plastic bottles (Steelback variants) and although I would not deign to drink that brand myself (more of a lucky lager guy ) I have not heard of any problems with them.


Agreed. Some Vodka's and other Spirits are packaged in plastic bottles, but I think it depends on the plastic and alcohol is considered a solvent.

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## Virgil

What a stange thread. I thought this was a title for a poem.  :FRlol:  

Probably would make a great poem!  :Tongue:

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## papayahed

> Probably would make a great poem!


I'll post one if you do. :Alien:

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## cuppajoe_9

> There are certain beers sold here that come in plastic bottles (Steelback variants) and although I would not deign to drink that brand myself (more of a lucky lager guy )


Lucky lager? Bloody luxury! Why in my day, we drank Mountain Crest out of a cardboard box and we bloody well enjoyed it!

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## B-Mental

> Lucky lager? Bloody luxury! Why in my day, we drank Mountain Crest out of a cardboard box and we bloody well enjoyed it!


Bah! We could only dream of cardboard boxes...Why in my day we would have the scalding hot white lightning poured into our bare hands to slurp it up...and if we didn't smile afterwords, why I tell ya, they would abandon us to live on our own...banished and never spoken of again.

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## papayahed

Kids, Kids, Kids, you haven't lived until you've drunk Sun Country Coolers from a two liter bottle.



(uhh anybody remember Sun country coolers?)

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## B-Mental

mmmm, or maybe champagne from a dirty shoe.

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## Koa

My friend kept some vodka in an Evian (water) bottle for a while, and I mean several weeks, and as far as I know it was fine. Your bottle definitely wasn't  :Wink:

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## cuppajoe_9

> My friend kept some vodka in an Evian (water) bottle for a while, and I mean several weeks, and as far as I know it was fine. Your bottle definitely wasn't


Now that you mention it, I knew a gentleman who also kept vodka in an Evian bottle, although that was for the purposes of drinking it in math class. I love Alberta. [/sarcasm]

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## Virgil

:Biggrin:  


> I'll post one if you do.


I'll give it a try.  :Wink:

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## Shalot

Alcohol in a plastic bottle is bad because it's in plastic bottle. It's seems like it would mess with the taste. But, yes, they do sell cheap gin and whiskey and some beer brands in plastics bottles and I think those are for the most desperate alcoholics who are afraid of dropping their bottle and breaking it. If it's plastic and they drop it, it won't break so they can keep drinking.

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## Moira

"Many are unaware of poisoning caused by re-using plastic bottles. 

Some of you may be in the habit of using and re-using your disposable mineral water bottles (eg. Evian, Aqua, Ice Mountain, Vita, etc), keeping them in your car or at work. Not a good idea. In a nutshell, the plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethylhydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must keep them longer, it should be or no more than a few days, a week max, and keep them away from heat as well.'

Don't know if it's just fals alarm or not .......

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## Nightshade

oops... I knew there was a reason I started throwing them out Id just forgooten about it oh well glass tastes better anyway.

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## papayahed

> "Many are unaware of poisoning caused by re-using plastic bottles. 
> 
> Some of you may be in the habit of using and re-using your disposable mineral water bottles (eg. Evian, Aqua, Ice Mountain, Vita, etc), keeping them in your car or at work. Not a good idea. In a nutshell, the plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethylhydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must keep them longer, it should be or no more than a few days, a week max, and keep them away from heat as well.'
> 
> Don't know if it's just fals alarm or not .......



That maybe the case for reusing with other types of liquids. At work my boss ordered a trial of one of those ultra purifying water systems. And everytime I and other coworkers refilled my water bottle it had a weird taste. It was said that the water was ultra pure and that it was potentailly leaching out some of the impurities in the plastic.

Bossman asked salesperson to remove the system, poor thing asked if she could demonstrate the purity of the product and talk to us about why we needed this system. Poor girl didn't realize there were a bunch of chemists (not me) not impressed by the pH and volt meters she brought. They went easy on her but the bottom line was that we didn't need or want that system.

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## cuppajoe_9

> "Many are unaware of poisoning caused by re-using plastic bottles. 
> 
> Some of you may be in the habit of using and re-using your disposable mineral water bottles (eg. Evian, Aqua, Ice Mountain, Vita, etc), keeping them in your car or at work. Not a good idea. In a nutshell, the plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethylhydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must keep them longer, it should be or no more than a few days, a week max, and keep them away from heat as well.'
> 
> Don't know if it's just fals alarm or not .......


Pure urban legend. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to make containers for food and drink out of known carcinogens.

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## papayahed

On one of the talk shows they did a test of plastic bottles. Specifically reused water bottles. I think they found 5 randon people at a gym and asked them how/if they clean the bottles before reusing and asked if they could test their bottles for bacteria. The only one that came back within limits (I don't remember what agency specified the limits) was this woman who cleaned her bottles by adding a tiny bit of dish soap to the bottle, rinse with the hotest water her hands could stand, then air dried the bottle completely and ran the caps through the diswasher. All the rest of the bottle came back with very high bacteria counts.

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## Koa

Well I do recycle my bottle for a few days, never more than a week... bottled water is not cheap, considering that you use it every day (it's almost the only thing I drink, except at breakfast or when I happen to buy juice. I also ran out of tea  :FRlol: )

I think this is the best topic ever. The title makes me giggle every time I see it. I want Fango to be member of the week for the next 6 months at least!  :Biggrin:

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## Virgil

> Pure urban legend. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to make containers for food and drink out of known carcinogens.


Great job Cuppa in straightening that out. Now this is related to the fear of microwaving food in a plastic container. I've heard that also is carcinogenic. Is that true?


Edit: I found it myself: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

Son-of-a-gun.  :Flare:  I've been avoiding microwaving in plastic ever since I read that somewhere. And admonishing my wife.  :FRlol:

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## cuppajoe_9

I would imagine that if the plastic container is marketed as microwave safe (as Tupperware and all other such containers are), microwaving it should be generally non-fatal  :Biggrin:

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## kilted exile

> I would imagine that if the plastic container is marketed as microwave safe (as Tupperware and all other such containers are), microwaving it should be generally non-fatal


Agreed, the only concerns I have heard is regarding the use a soft low quality plastic such as a margarine tub, as even the results for these have shown no definable link (at least when I last looked at the data.)

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## Virgil

> Great job Cuppa in straightening that out. Now this is related to the fear of microwaving food in a plastic container. I've heard that also is carcinogenic. Is that true?
> 
> 
> Edit: I found it myself: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp
> 
> Son-of-a-gun.  I've been avoiding microwaving in plastic ever since I read that somewhere. And admonishing my wife.


Oh sorry you guys. I edited my post before you posted and found the info. You probably didn't notice my edit.

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## cuppajoe_9

It's a good bet that if the FDA lets you store food and drink in it, it doesn't contain carcinogens.

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## Nightshade

> I would imagine that if the plastic container is marketed as microwave safe (as Tupperware and all other such containers are), microwaving it should be generally non-fatal


But odd about supposedly microwave safe tubs? they are allways melting on me or changing colour ...So now its glass or nothing for me as I cant afford to keep buying contatinors

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## Fango

Oops, sorry for the late reply. I actually poured it all away... it was too disgusting... I ended up giving up on alcohol and quitting my ANNOYING job which made me drink in the first place. Thank goodness I'm in a much better place now. No more vodkas for me. 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback...glad it somehow spurred a discussion  :Smile:

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## Scheherazade

> I ended up giving up on alcohol and quitting my ANNOYING job which made me drink in the first place.


May I ask you what your job was?

I am considering a career change...

 :Biggrin:

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## Fango

Heh, I was an English tutor in Wall-Street... you're underpaid and promote a system where people pay thousands to use a software all day long. You end up being tech-support more than a teacher... wasn't worth it. I might start private tutoring here in Israel soon, though...

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## Moira

I can see the relation to the vodka :Smile: ).

I agree with Koa, best topic .......

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## GIGObug

> oops... I knew there was a reason I started throwing them out Id just forgooten about it oh well glass tastes better anyway.


Glass, most certainly tastes better. I purchased Bacardi in a plastic bottle once. ONLY ONCE! That plastic taste ruined the rum. :Banghead:

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## Llä RËmØ MÅðçÂ

GROSS.....

I dont drinkt obegin with, but yeah, bad idea.

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## soundofmusic

For whatever reason, alcohol tastes terrible after it is put in a plastic bottle, even cheap wine. No matter how clean the bottle. If you have some glass containers, use those.

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## DocHeart

My friends,

We must all learn something from this thread. NEVER put alcohol in a plastic bottle. It can have truly disastrous results, as was the case with our brother here, who was driven to giving up drinking by this mistake.

Bless you all,
DH

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## Atehequa

Having drank enough brew and hard spirits to fill a large mill pond in years long past, I don't drink all that much anymore, a couple of holidays and camping trips a year. 

Going bad in plastic ?

Ha ! Bad from the start when someone decided to bottle liquor in plastic containers. I would never consider pouring from a plastic bottle let alone consume any liquor from a distillery that bottles in such a manner. 

Just doesn't seem right.

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## Paulclem

Unconvinced. Plastic, glass, ceramic... whatever. 

I have no taste though...

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## Dave Garcia

Glad to see I'm not the only one. I came here cause my vodka seems to be taking a toll on my water bottle. Does that mean the vodka is going bad? I know it'll **** my liver for sure, so a water bottle ain't ****

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## rogerferring

Based on the quality of plastic, alcohol reacts with that and becomes bad for health. So please check or avoid alcohols filled in plastic bottles.

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