Bottling Buckets vs. Carboy

I've been brewing for a little over a year now. I've done 8 different beers, and they've all tasted great, no problems with off-flavors or contamination. I also only use bottling buckets for my primary and secondary fermentation.

Is there a reason I should get a carboy? Is there something I'm missing out on? It seems like I've done fine so far without one, and using one will just add more complexity to racking. (As opposed to just opening the spigot on the bucket and draining thorugh the hose!)

I'm curious if anyone else is only using bottling buckets, or if I should tempt fate and get a carboy. Thanks all.

I use a bottling bucket for a primary, and 5g carboy for a secondary. I like the idea of using glass for the secondary in case I leave it in there a long time. I may get a 6.5g carboy in the future for primary fermentation just so I can watch the show, but I'm in no rush.

The arguments are:

1. Plastic is more oxygen permiable than glass. For the relatively short amount of time our beers are in either, I suspect this is mostly a non-issue.

2. Plastic scratches and the scratches harbor bacteria or other nasties. True: plastic gear will eventually need retiring whereas glass carboys theoretically last forever.

3. Glass is see-through. Although I normally do my primaries in plastic, I have to admit that glass primaries are an awful lot of fun because it's so cool to watch what's going on in there. The advantage for secondaries is a little more tangible, IMHO. Since the primary purpose of a secontary fermenter is clarification, it's definitely easy to tell when that clarification has been achieved in a glass carboy than in an opaque or transluscent plastic bucket.

So, yeah, there are some tangible advatages to glass, but I think it's largely style. Glass is also breakable, more work to transfer from one container to another, and it's really hard to get an ounce of whole hops into a carboy.

If you are fine with fermenting in buckets, you can stick with it. I started using carboys because I was told it would be better. I also bought the infection argument, but don't think that bucket fermentation is actually that bad and that infection prone. I have done primary fermentations in the bucket w/o problems. I just like the fact that I can see the fermenting wort when I use a carboy.

Kai

The other advantage to using a carboy is that it frees up a bucket that can be used for sanitizing all the odds and ends that need to be sanitized on brewday.

-a,