Carboy choice -- glass or plastic?

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 09:55:03 -0500, Robert Bainbridge wrote (in article ):

Plastic scratches very easily and is very hard to clean because of it. You may get yeast from a prior batch that you really don't want. Also plastic isn't an oxygen barrier like glass is.

Compared to the weight of the liquid inside the carboy is only 2% of the overall weight of a full carboy. Your not going to save that much weight by using plastic.

A PEP carbouy is actually not a typical 'plastic' material. PEP products are specialized food grade type material that has a complete 100% oxygen barrier at ambient temperatures for brewing. At about 180 degrees it is only 99.99987% effective as an oxygen barrier. The PEP material is used in many hospital and restaurant plumbing applications because of its inert properties.

As I understand it the PEP carbouys have been on the market for about two years. The real advantage is that they will not break -- set it down too hard and it is OK. Consequently it can be handled more agressively during cleaning since it is not fragile or breakable. Price is about a 20% to 30% premium over a glass equivalent.

I would appreciate some views from those who have used them

I have mead several batches in food-grade plastic buckets. They work fine. They do scratch easliy, which means you have to watch them, and replace them when needed. Glass has a much longer useful life, but for the cost of a glass carboy, you can buy several food grade buckets and make more than one batch at a time.

Glass, but is biznatchical spectacle to clean. I say that because coke always tasted 150% better in a glass bottle when you could find them. So really it is a trade off; do you want something easy to clean; or do you want something that tastes a little bit more clean.

I've used them.

They were "free" to me so I gave it a try. Works about as well as glass. No noticeable affect on the brew. The neck wasn't as well formed as the glass ones so my airlocks had a tendency to leak a bit.

Cleaning was another matter. The yeast residue clung to the plastic with tenacity. The carboys I had were embossed with a few ridges to add to the strength of the plastic - that made cleaning much harder. I didn't stay with it long enough to get the insides scratched, so I don't know how many batches they would have gone before replacing would have been desirable.

I'm staying with glass - easy to clean, easier to see what is happening inside. With glass I know it is clean - with plastic I was never sure.

I worry about breakage but haven't broken one and I've been using a few since 1990. (all have carboy handles) If my physical condition gets to the point where I break some - I might go to plastic before giving up the hobby. In the meantime I'd think about building a carboy dolly and/or jack (elevator).

Most of the stuff that could hurt my back is on wheels these days and I've made ramps and a drawbridge to get the stuff moved around. An ounce of prevention beats a week in traction . . .

My priorities are: taste, cost, convenience - in that order.