Apfelwein, take two. Ferment in plastic jugs?

Fixmy59bug · 12-15-2011, 03:41 AM

OK, so I learned that when I thought i was making Apfelwein, I was actually making cyser.

So I am going to try this again.

But I am out of empty carboys. The apple juice came in sealed 1 gallon plastic containers. Can I just put the yeast and dextrose in the plastic container, attach the airlock and let it go?

I see my LHBS sells plastic carboys, so I am pretty sure the plastic container should be fine.

Right?

**nukinfuts29** · 12-15-2011, 07:44 AM

Yep you sure can. People argue back and forth, but if you search some you will get a ton of factual information showing there is no problem fermenting in plastic. If I may quote myself:

"Everyone has an opinion, except the alcohol, it don't give a damn."

**dinnerstick** · 12-15-2011, 10:40 AM

not all plastics are alike, but if juice came in it then at least it's food grade. the arguments are mostly about leaving cider/beer/wine in plastic long term, since some plastics can be porous to gasses, or about the small scratches that can accumulate with repeated use and cleaning, and these can harbor gunky stuff. but for fermenting there's really no problem especially in brand new bottles

hbtasdfg · 12-15-2011, 08:16 PM

this will work just fine. one thing to beware of though is if they are overfull you can have them overflow through the airlock due to lack of headspace so you might want to have 5 gallons plus some sugar spread into 6 1 gallon containers or so instead of trying to cram it all back in to 5.

Pickled_Pepper · 12-15-2011, 09:11 PM

I say you work with what you got. If all you have is plastic containers...do it.

If you taste it at 1 month and it tastes awesome...drink it. If you taste it at 6 months and it tastes like a rubber ball with notes of foot fungal and sherry on the finish...it's probably time to buy a glass carboy for long term storage.

(for the record, I don't know what foot fungal tastes like)

Gop · 12-16-2011, 02:26 AM

The best way is to give it a try! It could become your favourite recipe (not the fungus).