A friend gave me some bottles a while back, and I'm .. not sure about them. The 'dual layer' plastic means they are supposed to be oxygen-proof.
I've used them for a few different beers and...
- Dead easy to clean - really light means you can stack them on a 'tree'
- Really easy to damage. I frequently end up with small bubbles on the inside, which I assume means they won't be good for storage in future
- Quite cheap; about 60c per bottle, instead of 1.50 for the heavy flip-top bottles I was getting from AlPack
- Take up less room in a box, because the plastic is so much thinner
- All three beers I put in them had an 'off' flavour, but that could just be me brewing poorly
- If you prime them, you can feel the bottle getting harder, so you know when it's self carbonated
Anyone done experiments, where half of your batch was in plastic, the other half in glass ?
I've done half and half before. I squeezed the plastics so I knew when it was carbed. Worked out pretty well. No off flavours but you should be able to detect at bottling time shouldn't you?
Do they look like these ones?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coopers-500ml-Amber-Plastic-Bottles/dp/B008MBLVEI
If so they can be a bugger to clean at the bottom. It's harder to clean out any yeast that's caked on and in the past it took me a decent amount of time to clean our thoroughly. Flat bottomed glass is easier :)
I have about 40 of the coppers plastic bottles and about 50 glass bottles, all the batches i have brewed so far have been a mix of both. I havent had any off flavours and havent noticed any difference in flavour or carbonation levels.
I've bottled batches split between crown caps, flip-tops and ox-bar bottles. The only time I had a problem with the ox-bar bottles was when I forgot to tighten the caps and had to re-prime the bottles 2 weeks later. You can't blame the bottles for that though!
I was thinking of getting these so I could brew for electric picnic (no glass allowed on campsite). They sound ideal. Collecting them to bring home could be challenging though.