PET carboys for sour/mixed beers

[Bubbles]

Howdy.

I'm looking for some opinions from experienced sour brewers. I'm looking to do some mixed fermentations and thinking about investing in a couple of PET carboys to do the long-term aging? Is this a good or a bad idea?

I'm not keen on the idea of glass carboys, so would rather the plastic alternative.

Plenty of opinions online, of course, but I'd appreciate some firsthand experience from the NHC.

Cheers!

[Simon_]

I'm not that experienced but I'm pretty sure you'll be told they are o2 permeable. So your options are glass or cornys for long term aging. With cornys you can flush them with co2.

Demi-johns are great. The same glass advantages but lighter, more mobile and less likely to smash on you than a massive carboy. You can spilt batches. I think with sours you don't necessarily want 27L of the same. I might want one straight, one on cherries, one with different bottle dregs etc

[Leann ull]

why not glass?
As somebody commented recently cornys are the same price and better still you can put a co2 blanket on them and they are in the complete dark

[molc]

Yeah with the price of cornys I'm getting tempted to just use them all the way through the process.

[Bubbles]

Thanks for all the comments lads. The permeability of the PET carboy is a concern, and although a little oxygen ingress is desired for the beers I have in mind, I do want to be somewhat in control of this.

CH, I don't want the hassle of glass. There's the safety aspect too, I'm a fairly cack-handed sod, and I know I'd break one of those things as soon as look at it!

I'm just so used to the plastic buckets for fermentation, and they've never done me wrong.

Fair point on the corny kegs. I actually have a brett beer conditioning in a corny, but I don't want to dedicate many cornies to the aging of sour beers. Plus I want to be able to see the pellicle.. 

[Pheeel]

Thanks for all the comments lads. The permeability of the PET carboy is a concern, and although a little oxygen ingress is desired for the beers I have in mind, I do want to be somewhat in control of this.

CH, I don't want the hassle of glass. There's the safety aspect too, I'm a fairly cack-handed sod, and I know I'd break one of those things as soon as look at it!

I'm just so used to the plastic buckets for fermentation, and they've never done me wrong.

Fair point on the corny kegs. I actually have a brett beer conditioning in a corny, but I don't want to dedicate many cornies to the aging of sour beers. Plus I want to be able to see the pellicle.. 

As someone who once cracked a full (water thankfully) glass carboy I try and stay away from them if possible!!

[imark]

I use cornies. They work great and you can use them for regular beer in future if you give them a good clean and possibly change of rings if you want to be thorough.

[Leann ull]

I'm fairly kack handed and have yet to break one through rough handling, boiling water and blowing over in the wind yep

[Dr Jacoby]

PET carboys are a great choice. They are light, durable, transparent and only minimally oxygen permeable. Check out the comments at the end of this mad fermentationist post:

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/05/aging-sour-beers-in-better-bottles-and.html

I would rank PET carboys above glass carboys (mainly for ease of use) and alongside cornies. Aging sour beers in cornies ties them up for a long time but they do make transfers easy. PET carboys are great for long term aging as long as you are careful with transfers not to introduce too much oxygen.

[armedcor]

I have a lambic and a flanders red in Pet carboys. the lambics been in it for nearly 18 months now and there doesn't seem to be any problems, off tastes etc.

As Dr Jacoby said the mad fermentationist has been using pet carboys almost exclusively for the last few years I think.

[molc]

Where do people keep their aging beer in PET clear plastic carboys to make sure light is not an issue. Would a black plastic bag over it do or do we need to be more thorough...

[Hop Bomb]

I use PET vintage shop carboys for sour aging as they mimic the the 02 permeability of barrels. You just need to fill them pretty full & seal them with a carboy cap completely. Keep the cardboard box it comes in as you can stick the full carboy back in for aging & not have to worry about sunlight.

There are a few threads on this about the internet. Some lads even stick paired down oak staves into the vent of the carboy cap.

[Dr Jacoby]

I keep mine in an old chest freezer that I use exclusively for sour/funky beers (it's broken so I can only heat it up - I try to keep it at about 16C).

I reckon a bag or blanket would be fine.

[armedcor]

I have a big chunk of oak floating in my red right now. Hopefully it'll come out easy enough  Colm I just keep mine in empty press which is hardly ever opened. A black bag would be graand

[Bubbles]

Thanks for all the comments lads. Great to see a couple of ye recommend the PET carboys for this purpose.

The advantage of cornies is that I don't have to worry about covering up the beer to prevent it being lightstruck (not a big deal, I know..) and that the size of the corny just about matches the volume of beer I plan on aging, 18-19 litres. But is the complete lack of oxygen permeability going to detrimental to say, a Flanders Red?

The PET carboys are around 23 litres too - is this too much headspace to age ~19 litres of sour beer? Will the pellicle not protect it anyway?