Fermenters

Glass Vs Plastic!

Fermenters

Carboys Vs Buckets!
 The debate rages on!

Pros -Glass

  1. you can see the fermentation- lot’s of fun
  2. not permiable to O2, you can age beer/wine in it forever with out it going to vinegar (acetebacter, which creates vinegar is aerobic-likes oxygen)
  3. they look cool

Cons-Glass

  1. they can break
  2. hard to clean, can’t stick your arm in there and scrub
  3. can’t harvest the yeast in the kreusen
  4. they can break when they are full of beer, and cut you and leave you bleeding and mad, mopping up the “best” beer you’ve ever made creating the biggest stickiest mess on earth

Pros-Plastic

  1. they can’t break
  2. the lid comes off easy, allowing you to clean all the corners.. even the lid and..
  3. easy access to use a sanatized spoon to rake off the kreusen, or collect the yeast cake

Cons-Plastic

  1. you can’t see the fermentation
  2. are permiable to O2, not meant for long term storage
  3. scratch “easy” and provide places for unwanted critters to hide.

I have been a bucket guy for almost 2 years now.  I used my first carboy for 3 week primary fermentation of a Barleywine, but it’s now in a bucket clearing out and will be bottled in mid feb.  I am not worried about O2, but if I were to bulk age this beer for more than a month, I would use glass.  I now have one 5 gallon and one 6.5 gallon carboy.  I like them, I like to watch fermentation taking place, but scrubbing the dried crud all around the top of the carboy with a big bottle brush to is something I could do with out.  My preferred method is to rip the lid off and give my buckets a good (light) scrubbing.