BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Beer & Brewing Homebrewers - Help! - Glass or Plastic?

Help! In your opinion, what's better - glass or plastic? Some say glass is easier to sanitize. Some say glass is too heavy for a woman, which makes it less safe. What do you use?

We've used 6 gallon plastic carboys for our wines for several years now. We clean them well, give them an addition rinse with water with chlorine bleach added and rinse them again.

We rack the wines into glass bottles, though.

In Sam Calagione's book, "Extreme Beer: An Enthusiast's Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home," he notes some very good points regarding glass or plastic in brewing:

• Glass is a lot easier to clean and has less chance for contamination than plastic.
• Plastic fermenters work fine, but can be difficult to clean because they have a flat bottom.
• Plastic is usually more porous than a glass carboy.
• On rare occasions, ingredients may be larger than the opening of a glass carboy (especially when adding ingredients that are used in brewing extreme beers), and plastic buckets work better because of their large openings.
• Many types of plastic are permeable by oxygen.
• If using plastic, a newer type of carboy made from plastic called PET (polyethylene terephthalate) has recently been introduced to the homebrewer. PET is not permeable by oxygen.
• PET carboys are lightweight(1 1/2 lbs. vs. 14 lbs. for a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy)
• PET carboys won't break.
• You can more easily see how well your beer is fermenting and when it is done if you use a glass carboy.
• Plastic buckets do not seal as well as glass carboys.

Even with the pros and cons of each, Sam recommends an upgrade to a glass or PET carboy.

I think if glass is not too much of a burden, you should go for that. Of course, if it's making the whole experience a hassle, plastic may be 'the lesser evil' so to speak.