Plastic bottle carboys

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koda_ky

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Ok I tried the plastic 3 gallon carboys and at first I liked them until I got a glass one. I went to pick up my cranberry and the plastic jug let the water in the air lock suck back into my wine. I still may use them until I can afford to replace them with glass ones, also I shake to degas you can forget it in the plastic jugs. just my opinion.:d
 
koda_ky:

When you pick up the plastic carboy, try to support the bottom well. The air-lock liquid is likely to suck back in.

Shaking a plastic carboy is OK. I put a solid bung in it and hold it in place while shaking. Then release the gas.

BTW, I prefer glass carboys, although I do use a Better Bottle occasionally.

Steve
 
Oh no, I just know they is something sarcastic to say about releasing gas and shaking. My worry is that something worse can happen if you shake to hard!!ROTFLMAO.:D

Sorry, I can resist anything but temptation.

LOL

Troy
:b
:a1
 
besides that last ridiculous post, I am pretty much sold on the Better Bottle. As Steve said they lack rigitity, and I would prefer glass myself. However, when you consider about a dollar a pound US to ship anything here, the better bottle seems to be the way to go, at least for me.

And speaking of weight, they really are a whole lot easier to move around. I just bought a few better bottles from my LHBS for about 15/each. (3 gallon size). For a 3 gallon glass carboy the price was almost $30/each. I failed algebra three times in college, but, I was able to do the math pretty quick on that one. Time will tell. Their website insists they are fine for fermenting. I hope I don't get any off flavors from the use of these plastic carboys. They may lack in the rigitity part, but from what I have heard they are a pretty good product.

Steve, do you know of anyone who has actually allowed there wine to age in these for any length of time, racked it off, and was still able to clean them without any lingering off tastes.

How would you recommend cleaning and sanitizing these before the first fill? I filled mine with warm water. Shook it till I "de-gassed" (still lmao), dumped it, then rinsed it the same way with a K meta solution. Still not convinced I didn't detect an odor of plastic. (I hope it was plastic LOL)

We have had this discussion in here many times about plastic vs glass. But is there any evidence that these better bottles are indeed tolerant to fermentation and the plastic wont leech bad flavors into you wine?

These bottles have the "1" in the triangle on the bottom, but I have seen other plastics with the same designation.

There website is www.better-bottle.com

Please advise.

Troy
 
Troy the better bottels are fine for any part of win e making as they use a dble layer of heavier food grade plastic. I just dont like the collapsability of them and the fact that I cant degas my wine with my pump in them.
 
Troy:

There have been many disussions on the various forums about plastic carboys, mostly Better Bottles. (BTW when I ran the store, I used two other brands of plastic carboys.) There has not been, to my eyes, a conclusive answer wrt aging. I would be concerned about following a strong flavour (eg blackberry) with something delicate.

I have been using a product from Spagnols called Saniton as my cleaner since 2001. I believe that it is TSP based. I clean everything with that, then sanitize.

Steve
 
Just to clarify, the bottles I bought are the solid, non collapsible type. They are square shaped. In fact I believe this particular ones are new to their product line.

PS, just to make all our Canadian friends happy tonight I am drinking "MOLSON CANADIAN". Not bad but it was cheap!!!!LOL
 
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PS, just to make all our Canadian friends happy tonight I am drinking "MOLSON CANADIAN". Not bad but it was cheap!!!!LOL
If you're going to drink Canadian beer, you should drink something good. Like Rickards or Sleemans or ????? (gee thats about it) Sorry but Molson Canadian is one of my least favourite beers.

Steve
 
I've used many types of plastic over the years. As long as it is food grade. I've never had a problem.
 
I'm currently aging a wine that was forgotten in the barn ( bulk aging) in a plastic water bottle ( 3 gallons)...so far it was left 5 months to bulk age . I then 'saved it' into glass 1 gallon carboys..

I have kept notes and will give an impartial report early next year when I bottle it...as to whether there were any off flavours imparted.. or any other issues..

the wine was started in may 2009, finished /cleared/stabilised and bulk stored by late june. Located and moved to glass mid november.

I'm a bit tired of the whole 'hearsay' argument re water bottles used for bulk storage.

So putting my wine where my mouth is and going to to give you guys the result of my experiment.

this is an 'apple wine' btw..

Allie
 
Got this from another Wine forum

According to our water delivery guy, he asked at his office, the plastic in the standard water bottles is permeable to oxygen, IE it lets oxygen in.
Use at your own risk. Really, Less than $30 for a brand new food grade plastic carboy from one of many major on-line retailers is pretty dang cheap.[/
SIZE]
 
I'd rather have some vodka sucked in through my airlock when I pick up the carboy than have wine and shards of glass all over the floor if I drop it. As clumsy as I can be, I guarantee you I will drop one someday. :)
 
Got this from another Wine forum

According to our water delivery guy, he asked at his office, the plastic in the standard water bottles is permeable to oxygen, IE it lets oxygen in.
Use at your own risk. Really, Less than $30 for a brand new food grade plastic carboy from one of many major on-line retailers is pretty dang cheap.[/
SIZE]


again.. it's 'hearsay" Tom..

I'm gonna go with actually storing wine in it myself and being able to present you with my own facts in this one instance.

How much oxygen is getting through?.. if oxygen gets in why isn't the C02 getting out?.. the apple wine I had stored was still gassy after 5 months.. did that protect it?

Who knows?.. give me til about february next year.. and I might have some answers..

hehehhehe

I'm willing to risk my 3 gallons of apple wine on it anyway..

Allie
 
Just to clarify, the bottles I bought are the solid, non collapsible type. They are square shaped. In fact I believe this particular ones are new to their product line.

PS, just to make all our Canadian friends happy tonight I am drinking "MOLSON CANADIAN". Not bad but it was cheap!!!!LOL
OK Artic, Moose Juice????? that is like drinking decaf coffee, why bother
 
again.. it's 'hearsay" Tom..

I'm gonna go with actually storing wine in it myself and being able to present you with my own facts in this one instance.

How much oxygen is getting through?.. if oxygen gets in why isn't the C02 getting out?.. the apple wine I had stored was still gassy after 5 months.. did that protect it?

Who knows?.. give me til about february next year.. and I might have some answers..

hehehhehe

I'm willing to risk my 3 gallons of apple wine on it anyway..

Allie

I read some Better Bottle specs *somewhere* that said they do let o2 in. They discussed it like it's a good thing at the small amounts in question.

I'm pretty sure an oak barrel is also permeable to o2 to some degree.

Here's the link: http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html
 
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Better Bottles (whick look a LOT like water jugs) are made of different plastic than water jugs. Yes they may both be made from PET (recycling code 1) but that means absolutely nothing, because there are thousands of different PET plastics all with different characteristics.

Take a look at a Pepsi bottle and a cheap water bottle. Totally different PET plastic used in each.

Steve
 
I keep my glass carboys in wooden crates I built myself. Have done that since clinking a 5 & a 6 together and losing the 5. Fortunately they were empty, but a crate would keep you from squeezing the plastic bottle when lifting, avoiding sucking in airlock water. Just a thought.

Your own taste buds will tell you if something is being leached in large enough quantity to taste but only a lab will be able to tell you if smaller amounts are present. Plasticizers are insidious.
 
Bob, I don't have time to look through that link right now, but I will, but that sure looks like it'll provide the answers to the questions regarding concerns about better bottles. Thanks for posting the link.
 
I keep my glass carboys in wooden crates I built myself. Have done that since clinking a 5 & a 6 together and losing the 5. Fortunately they were empty, but a crate would keep you from squeezing the plastic bottle when lifting, avoiding sucking in airlock water. Just a thought.

Your own taste buds will tell you if something is being leached in large enough quantity to taste but only a lab will be able to tell you if smaller amounts are present. Plasticizers are insidious.


Mud that would work thanks.:try
 

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