Better Bottle or Glass Carboy

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grimzella

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I cant seem to figure this issue i have. Plastic is plastic.. it will scratch, it may harbor infection, maybe off flavor ect. So why do i read that better bottles are more in favor of GLASS carboys? Won't better bottles still get scratched? I read that the main complaints of glass carboys are BREAKAGE & injury. This seems strange to me.. if thats the only problem with GLASS carboys, accepted, i will be careful. as far as getting cut and bleeding.. i have stitched myself up quite a few times before.. and have used cat-tail or black pepper to clot the wound if i have no fishing line or thread. Beer seems more importaint to me than a little boo-boo or some pain. Is there any other reason to use one over the other? To me Glass would be better that plastic for obvious reasons. For one... i think beer in plastic bottles taste like crap compared to glass. and cans.. well forget it. i'll pass. Help my noobish brain figure this one out.

Thanks,
Dave
 
I've never scratched the inside of a better bottle.....How would you?????

A fermenter is a fermenter is a fermenter, glass, plastic, carboy, bucket, jerry can, keg, milk jug, ceramic crock, glass hurricane jar, stainless steel or plastic conicals, pet food storage vessels (vittle vaults), HD or Lowe's buckets, frosting buckets, water jugs, the old Mr Beer jug...All of those and anything you can think of, all work perfectly fine, and have been used by hundreds if not thousands of brewers...

No one type is better or worse than any other...good beer or crappy beer can be made in all of them, dependant onthe brewer, NOT what it's fermented in...

It's really just a matter of preference, nothing more....There's tons of arguments about glass vs plastic and whatever, but they're nothing more than internet masturbation....the yeast don't give a flying ****ady what kind of container the wort it is swimming in.

The biggest thing is whether or not the material is food safe. Generally speaking where plastic is concerned we look at <1> and <2> recycling codes, and whether it can hold the volume we're fermenting or storing the beer/wine/mead/cider in...

Anything else really is irrevelent. Just what works for you. Many of us don't like glass, there's a ton of discussions about injuries from them breaking, or just wasted beer.

I have a dozen different containers I ferment in, everything from 1 gallon wine jugs, to 6 gallon better bottles...and honestly I don't have a preference to what I use...I just grab what's empty.

Just use what you want and don't complain about what others would choose to use, because honestly it doesn't matter....Because for everything you don't like about plastic, thousands of folks hate glass for whatever reason, so it's really pointless.

Why is it that new brewers always think this stuff matters? Anything that is a -vs- really is just ABOUT PREFERENCE.
 
Yeah it's just choice. Although the little boo-boos you referred to are occasionally giant gaping gashes.
 
Yeah it's just choice. Although the little boo-boos you referred to are occasionally giant gaping gashes.

Yeah that's probably one of the most ignorant and offensive things I've seen written in a long time on here.

I bet the folks with severed tendons mentioned in THIS thread, some of them members here, won't think highly of some noob calling their multiple surgeries to fix tendon and other SERIOUS injuries, "Boo Boos.":rolleyes:
 
Yeah that's probably one of the most ignorant and offensive things I've seen written in a long time on here.

I bet the folks with severed tendons mentioned in THIS thread, some of them members here, won't think highly of some noob calling their multiple surgeries to fix tendon and other SERIOUS injuries, "Boo Boos.":rolleyes:

wow.. i guess my noob question just got trolled. sry for asking guys :)
 
grimzella said:
altho my main question was answered. It didnt need to be so harsh :p

That wasn't harsh! I have only been here a very short time and have seen this question like 5 times.
 
Better bottles don't scratch because they are hydrophobic, stuff doesn't stick to them the way it does to glass, so you don't need to scrub them like you have to scrub glass.
 
This jet bottle/carboy rinser

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And hot water/oxyclean soaks are all you need to clean out ANY fermenter regardless of what it's made of....especially glass and plastic carboys.
 
This jet bottle/carboy rinser

AAAACzG-45cAAAAAAbES2g.jpg


And hot water/oxyclean soaks are all you need to clean out ANY fermenter regardless of what it's made of....especially glass and plastic carboys.

ya, i did buy one of them too. i thought maybe a brush would introduce micro scars\marks on the inside of the plastic carboy. but seeing the oxyclean will get most everything out.. then a good spray with this device.. its still all new to me.
 
A friend of mine severed his femoral artery in his leg when a freshly washed glass carboy broke in his arms while he was carrying it! A several pound piece opened him up like a scalpel on the way down! If it weren't for his neighbor seeing what happened and quickly putting on a tourniquet and calling 911 he would have bled out right then and there! I gave away all my glass carboys the next day!

Better Bottles ever since. No chance of scratching them because you're not supposed to scrub them with anything. Hot, over night soak in pbw solution followed by a thorough rinse is all it takes to get the worst stuck on crap off of the PET plastic that BB's are made of.
 
now i see.. u like putting words in peoples mouths.. i never called anyone an idiot.. and u never said people get KILLED over carboys :) so i really dont know what to say about your reply.

You did not SAY that people are idiots for not using glass and are wimps about boo boos but that IS the way it was perceived.

Then to further things, when called out you used NOOB as a defense but still did not seem to understand the position of those who objected to your statements.

I for one will never use glass unless it is a gallon jug, maybe. My reasons are: 1) weight. I am not young any more and do not want to lug around heavy glass carboys being careful or not. 2) financial. I probably could not stitch up a cut myself and one trip to the ER, even if just for some stitches is too costly for me.

People argue that glass will last forever. I will argue that I expect my Better Bottles to last, well, almost forever. A soak, the bottle/ carboy washer and if needed a wash cloth swirled inside is all that is needed. IMO much easier that cleaning a glass carboy.
 
Welcome Grim. As already mentioned, it's usually a matter of personal preference. Just like electric or propane, batch sparge or fly sparge, secondary or long primary. No one way is better or worse for that matter. It's whatever works well for you. Don't be afraid to ask questions and read a lot. You'll learn a lot.

If you want a glass carboy, 6.5 gallons, I have one I will give to you for free, just pay for shipping and it's yours. I have switched to the Vintage Shop PET's. That's what I like.
 
I have one arm (hence the screen name) and I opted for Better Bottle to lighten the load. I've given in to the many benefits of assistive devices like auto-siphon clamps, bucket openers, etc. Really helps to move things along. Racked my lager about 3 hours ago. Whole thing from initial wash of the carboy to cleaning the FV took me about 45 minutes.
Quality wise I guess glass and plastic are about the same but I will probably retire my BB after 10 brews or so. It starts to look a little milky and blue-ish.
 
I have one arm (hence the screen name) and I opted for Better Bottle to lighten the load. I've given in to the many benefits of assistive devices like auto-siphon clamps, bucket openers, etc. Really helps to move things along. Racked my lager about 3 hours ago. Whole thing from initial wash of the carboy to cleaning the FV took me about 45 minutes.
Quality wise I guess glass and plastic are about the same but I will probably retire my BB after 10 brews or so. It starts to look a little milky and blue-ish.

I don't know how you do it. Excellent though.

I've used my BB for over 75 batches. Actually, since I have 5 of them, that's probably at least 25 or 30 each. Keep using those suckers.
 
I have one arm (hence the screen name) and I opted for Better Bottle to lighten the load. I've given in to the many benefits of assistive devices like auto-siphon clamps, bucket openers, etc. Really helps to move things along. Racked my lager about 3 hours ago. Whole thing from initial wash of the carboy to cleaning the FV took me about 45 minutes.
Quality wise I guess glass and plastic are about the same but I will probably retire my BB after 10 brews or so. It starts to look a little milky and blue-ish.

thanks for that reply. i was wondering that same thing.. do BB degrade.. fade.. ect.. glass is pretty much non destructable as long as its not chipped dropped or faulty manufacturing.. thats good to know. thats what im looking for.
 
I don't know how you do it. Excellent though.

I've used my BB for over 75 batches. Actually, since I have 5 of them, that's probably at least 25 or 30 each. Keep using those suckers.

If the end results still taste good, I will probably have no reason ta not to. :mug:
 
I've done 18 batches in 2 Better Bottles and 2 of them in buckets, so 8 in each BB. They still look brand new. I expect to get years of use out of them not 10 batches.

Like a suspect beer: don't give up on them too quickly!
 
thanks for that reply. i was wondering that same thing.. do BB degrade.. fade.. ect.. glass is pretty much non destructable as long as its not chipped dropped or faulty manufacturing.. thats good to know. thats what im looking for.
I've done 18 batches in 2 Better Bottles and 2 of them in buckets, so 8 in each BB. They still look brand new. I expect to get years of use out of them not 10 batches.

Like a suspect beer: don't give up on them too quickly!


I guess the point was, the BB is a bit lighter, less precarious, and less destructible than glass, but it's not glass. You know that cupboard full of plastic cups you have that you still reach for for the occasional soda or ice water, even though its a little dingy, beaten up, and warped from 5,000 washes in the dishwasher? Thats a BB. Gotta retire it after a while but glass lasts forever.
 
I switched to better bottles after seeing a friend drop a glass carboy on his foot. He was at the ER most of the day and ended up wearing a boot for several months. I decided that 1 trip to the ER would pay for a lifetime of better bottles if they scratched. I have 3 right now and never had any problems with them.
 
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