tenchu_11

Recipes 

I was told by some one that "you shouldn't interchange beer and wine equiptment". I'm not sure why that would be an issue I have 3 fermenting buckets and a car boy. Is there an issue if I put mead in a bucket that once had beer in it? I would of obviously sanitized it beforehand the only thing I could think off would be the amber color the beer stains into buckets after a while might rubb off on the mead. But then again if vigorous scrubbing wont take it off why would a stagnant liquid? I would hate to get more equipment to brew two different things, that pretty much require well the same stuff.

frogguruami

Recipes 

I do it all the time (beer, wine and mead). Didn't know I was breaking a rule!

I have never had any problems....

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AM, The Capricious Brewer

Special Hops

Recipes 

Was this someone trying to sell you more equipment?

MedsenFey

Recipes 

Well, I wouldn't try to cork a bottle with a bench capper, but other than that, I can't see any problem.

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"Our results are merely the result of carefully managing the transformation of bee spit into yeast excrement."
--- Wayneb

starrfish

Recipes 

I use my glass 1 gallon + jugs for experimental beers, cider, and mead. I've also used a 6.5 gallon carboy for the same. I Just stick to glass since meads need longer aging time.

Never used my plastics for anything other than beer yeast (I heard the same thing years ago) that being said I've never had a problem.... and I don't see a problem with plastic using wine/champagne yeast in there after ale or lager yeast.

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Yankee Sand Flea on a Southern Beach.

“Son, you are a walking violation of the laws of nature, but you’re lucky, we don't enforce them laws.”

Yooper

Recipes 

My equipment is dual use. Right now, I have a chokecherry wine in primary in an ale pail, and a cream ale in a different ale pail. I don't keep them separate, but I do try to keep them odor free by washing well after the fermentation is over.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

bubbachunk

Recipes 

I overlap all the time, just clean well and make sure there is no residual odor.

Beernik

Recipes 

Anything that isn't beer I do in glass for 2 reasons:

1) everything else has a more delicate flavors, so odors coming back in are more of an issue.
2) everything else tends to take longer to ferment and/or condition. So the oxidization through a plastic wall could be a higher risk.

malkore

Recipes 

I won't do any mean in plastic. That's me. Always glass, start to finish.

I'll do wine primary in a separate bucket though. Plastic absorbs odors, and things like hop aroma have no place in a red wine (or a sweet mead).

A braggot...that's a little different.

Mostly due to the time it spends in primary and secondary, i want glass since its not really permeable to air.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

Fletch78

Recipes 

Something to think about is how long the mead/wine will need to ferment out completely, generally much longer than beer. If you have two different setups, you won't be the guy saying "Can I go ahead and bottle it now?" because you want to start a batch of something else.

Other than that, I don't see why you wouldn't use the same equipment.