Plastic bottles not conditioning as well as glass

[Frozenpuck]

Hey guys

New to the forum, some really good information here.

I just got back into brewing after failing multiple times in the 90's and have 3 batches currently down. The first batch is a west coast IPA which has been in the bottle for 5 weeks. Being the first batch I tried a bottle here and there after the 1 week mark to get a feel for the conditioning and "green" taste as the weeks went by. At this point (5 weeks in) I have noticed a significant difference in the conditioning/quality of the plastic PET bottles vs fliptop glass bottles. The glass bottles taste MUCH better than the plastic counterpart. I am noticing the same trend on a cream ale which is currently at the three week mark. An extreme noticeable difference. Has anyone else come across this?

Cheers

Frozenpuck

 

[GHawk]

Welcome to the habit... uh forum.
AND WELCOME BACK to brewing!

I have no experience in plastic bottles for beer (and I instantly skip reading any post starting with that kind of line). But I can only imagine, and I'm sure arguably, that it's not as impervious to O2 as glass. Secondly, I can't see the screw on lids being as efficient as an O2 crown cap.

Years ago I started to buy a Grolsch flip top on the way home from work and sometimes a 4 pack. I now have 90. THE way to go when bottling. Fill and Flip. DONE!

 

[Frozenpuck]

Thanks GHawk, I'm already hooked on brewing!!

I agree, the flip bottles are superior. I came across a guy selling 160 500ml flip tops. Grabbed the lot for a great bunch. I'll need to really ramp up production to make use of them all. I bought 2 dozen plastic bottles for the sole purpose of traveling to a buddies place so if I leave them there, no big deal. However if this trend continues where every plastic bottle is inferior to the glass, I'll have to toss them out.......the bottle I mean.......not the beer

Cheers!

 

[AkTom]

I try to bottle 3 or 4 of each batch in plastic. It lets me know when they are carbed up and I can take them to the beach or other public places and have a soda. I've never had any issues.

 

[Cyclman]

Are they the same size? If not, that explains a difference.

 

[Frozenpuck]

They are all 500ml which makes it strange. I can't figure it out for the life of me. The plastic bottles are Brand new where the glass bottles are quite old. If anything, I would have expected Ted the glass to turn out worse since there is an increased possibility of bad seals etc. They have the same amount of head space, or at least seem to. I use a bottling wand and fill right to the top, when I pull the wand out it leaves a nice amount of space at the top........very strange. Thanks guys.

 

[Frozenpuck]

Hey guys. Had a few more plastic bottles IPA's which have been sitting for 5 weeks now. They are not nearly as carbed as the glass bottle version. I highly suspect these bottles just aren't holding the carbonation as they should. Which is quite surprising considering the caps (appear) to lock on very tight. Guess its time to give these ones away and never use them again!!

Cheers