Carboy or Plastic....That is the question..

[hulsey24]

I'm a newbie and just now started my wine making endeavors. A guy I work with told me to only use glass carboys for fermentation. I bought 7 one gallon glass carboys for cheap and plan on making small batches of different recipes. Will it be alright to do the initial fermentation in a one gallon then transfer to another one gallon? Also what is a good bucket to use thats cheap? If I use the one gallon glass for initial fermentation do I need to put an airlock on it to start with or just put something over it? Thanks!

 

[BrettV]

From what I understand, plastic PET carboys (like Betterbottles) or food grade brew buckets are perfectly fine for fermenting. The amount of gas permeation is negligible next to the amount of air that gets in when you open the top. Plastic is lighter and cheaper than glass. Check out Brewmaster's Warehouse website or morebeer.com.

I don't know wine as well as I know beer, so I don't know whether you'd need to start with a blow-off tube during initial fermentation in such a small vessel, or if you could skip right to an airlock. You WILL need an airlock, though. Someone else will likely chime in on that.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Plastic doesn't shatter and jeopardize life and limb.

End of discussion for me.

Just made some incredible wine all in plastic. (pitched 8 months ago, cabernet with peppercorns and oak, 2 months in the bottle)

 

[user 21663]

Although I use my better bottles for beer, there's pictures of grapes on it. I guess they are good for wine

 

[summersolstice]

If you plan to use gallon carboys for your secondary you need to use 2-gallon plastic primaries. Make the primary slightly larger than one gallon to allow for lees and liquid left behind during racking. The foam during the primary will also necessitate a larger primary vessel. Try a bakery for the pails.

 

[hulsey24]

Thanks! I called my buddy who owns a pizza place today and he hooked me up with all kinds of various bucket sizes...