Carboy or Plastic Bucket

I am going to be starting my first batch of mead today and have the option of beginning in my plastic bucket or in the carboy. I plan on keeping tabs on the fermentation adding nutrients and oxygenating for the first part of the process and would like to know the pros and cons of each choice. Any advice?

Ian

Iridium-192 said:

I am going to be starting my first batch of mead today and have the option of beginning in my plastic bucket or in the carboy. I plan on keeping tabs on the fermentation adding nutrients and oxygenating for the first part of the process and would like to know the pros and cons of each choice. Any advice?

Ian

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I don't think it really matters, I like to start almost everything in a bucket because it's easier to whisk in more air in the first few days.

I prefer glass and only ferment in glass but that is because I like to leave PBW in to clean it and you can scrub glass without fear of scratching it. (I have never done mead before and so far have only done beer) As Inner10 stated, it is easier to work with and if you are going to be doing additions or anything that requires access to the mead then I would presume plastic would be better.

Thanks guys, pitched yeast about 2 hours ago and oxygenated with stone and snapped the plastic lid on, once I get it racked to the glass carboy ill probably start a wine or a beer. I've been wanting to get something going for a few years now and I'm happy I finally did. I figured mead would be about the easiest thing to start with. Next comes either beer or wine.

Ian

Congratz hopefully it all goes well for you and you get a wonderful final product!

Iridium-192 said:

Thanks guys, pitched yeast about 2 hours ago and oxygenated with stone and snapped the plastic lid on, once I get it racked to the glass carboy ill probably start a wine or a beer. I've been wanting to get something going for a few years now and I'm happy I finally did. I figured mead would be about the easiest thing to start with. Next comes either beer or wine.

Ian

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Nice, I'm no mead pro but for my wines I just let the lid rest ontop for the primary. Lets the wine breath easy and avoids killing your fingers opening the lid to mix it up.

Iridium-192 said:

Thanks guys, pitched yeast about 2 hours ago and oxygenated with stone and snapped the plastic lid on

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Be careful "snapping" the lid on unless it also has an airlock in it or at the very least an opening for one, the pressure that will build from CO2 will blow the lid off and likely cause some mess

Iridium-192 said:

I figured mead would be about the easiest thing to start with. Next comes either beer or wine.

Ian

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Be careful throwing the word easiest around. Not that mead can't be a simple reciple and made without too much frustration, but it can turn around and bite you too...don't want you jynxing yourself first time out of the gate.

moved to a new thread

Inner10 said:

Nice, I'm no mead pro but for my wines I just let the lid rest ontop for the primary. Lets the wine breath easy and avoids killing your fingers opening the lid to mix it up.

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I'd second that. My most recent batch I chose to not snap the lid on at first. Since you will be going into your bucket twice a day for degassing, aeration, and nutrient additions it just makes it that much easier. At the 1/3 sugar break you can snap the lid on as the conventional wisdom currently is to stop adding O2 at that time (you should be done with your SNA by then as well).