plastic secondary

[timgman]

Can I use a second ale pail for a secondary ior does one always use glass. I have a 5 gal glass carboy but It seems like a PITA to deal with.. I want to step it up a notch and get more clear beers but the glass think seems like a PITA...
timg

 

[bradsul]

If you're not going to secondary for more than a few weeks there is no problem at all. Really you can just leave your beer in primary for a month and then bottle/keg, you don't need to secondary most of the time. Look into better bottles if you want to keep the carboy concept but don't want the hassle of the glass.

 

[Yooper]

Well, plastic for clearing and aging isn't the best idea, due to the huge amount of headspace. The carboy has a very narrow opening, and works great for clearing.

I don't know why it would be a huge PITA though. It would be the same as a bucket, except a bit smaller. Maybe dryhopping would be a bit more difficult, but I don't seem to have any problem. Glass is actually easier to sanitize, I think. You can see any crud, and then see that the entire surface is covered with sanitizer.

 

[Revvy]

Actually with a carboy it's not that much more difficult than using anything else...you use the same autosiphon whether you are transferring it to a bucket or a carboy...

I just skipped the secondary step on my last batch and just left in the primary for a couple extra weeks after fermentation was complete...

 

[timgman]

The PITA part is the cleaning and possibility of a break.. I'm quite accident prone... maybe I can get someone over at the classifieds section to swap a second pail for my 5 gal glass carboy.. and just do 1 steps...
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[Yooper]

I wouldn't give up on it. Especially if you want to do a wine someday or a "bigger" beer. I am a 135 pound klutz, and have never had a problem. Eventually, I'm going to get rid of all the plastic buckets I have and switch to glass. Glass is super easy to clean and santize- buckets will scratch and hide "nasties" in the scratches. Of course, it's up to you- but almost every brewer would love to give you a bucket for a carboy!

 

[hnefatafl]

One-and-a-half words for you: OxyClean. Man, I don't know how I did without it. A scoop of OxyClean, fill the thing up with water, and let it sit for an hour.

Having said that, I'm slowly switching over to Better Bottles, but still using OxyClean.

 

[Revvy]

The PITA part is the cleaning and possibility of a break.. I'm quite accident prone... maybe I can get someone over at the classifieds section to swap a second pail for my 5 gal glass carboy.. and just do 1 steps...
timg

Get a Better bottle to replace the glass carboy, quite a few of us have switched to them to replace the glass....And regardless of glass or betterbottle, Oxyclean make cleaning it a breeze....I haven't had any gunk in a carboy that enough oxyclean and hot/warm water could clean out.