I’m sure this question has probably been asked several hundred times in the past, although I was unable to find it. Wouldn’t it be nice if the threads were searchable ;)?
Back to the task at hand. I’ve been using some plastic buckets that used to hold icing with sealed lids as fermenters, but I’m wandering whether glass carboys would be better. I have heard that there are taste variations with certain styles of beer between the two. What do you all think?
–>Darth Malt
The carboy/bucket question has been debated for years and comes down to your personal choice for the most part unless you are aging beer.
Buckets are light and easy to handle whereas carboys are heavy and cumbersome not to mention hazardous.
Carboys are transparent allowing one to view the fermentation whereas buckets are opaque. Carboys are impervious to O2 whereas buckets will allow O2 to eventually penetrate into the beer.
You can do some searches on this topic by selecting the search function above.
I’ve used both and I’ve never tasted any difference. It is just personal preference. Buckets - Pros> easy to clean, carry, and won’t break as easy Cons> can’t see fermenation activity without taking lid off, can scratch easy. Glass carboy - Pros> you can see fermentation activity, look cool, don’t scratch easy Cons> harder to clean, carry, and can break and slice flesh.
Thanks, guys. I thought the search would be close to the reply menu. My mistake ::).
–>Darth Malt
I have always fermented in plastic buckets, but my last 5 batches I’ve fermented solely in glass (all lagers so haven’t tasted any yet for results). I read “Wild Brews” by Jeff Sparrow and he has a chapter devoted to oxygen for wild yeast. He has a chart in the book that gives the following shocking oxygen diffusion through selected fermentation vessels:
Wine barrel 8.5 O2 cc/L/year
Glass Carboy (depending on stopper) 0.10 - 17 O2 cc/L/year
Homebrew Bucket 220 cc/L/year
I know it’s per year but the bucket is 13x more permeable to oxgyen than the glass! This changed my tune.
that still doesn’t mean it is a significant amount to change anything over the duration the beer was in the bucket. most buckets are hdpe as are some of the kegs that are now available and used by some of our current forum members for their business. granted turnover is different, thickness is different…
I’m a little skeptical of a single value for diffusion, since it’ll depend on temperature, surface/volume ratio, etc. To say nothing of the type of plastic/wood and its thickness.
Regardless, that’s ~300 ppm O2, whereas at room temperature the highest you can get is ~8 ppm. Extrapolating, you’d reach saturation after about nine days (assuming no more O2 is being metabolized by the yeast). And here we have all kinds of experienced brewers saying that storage in a bucket for several times that long isn’t resulting in perceptible oxidation.
So maybe the oxidation reactions take so long that oxygen ingress through the plastic isn’t the driving factor.
Diffusion is insignificant compared to the leakage through the bung or lid. And when the fermentation is generating CO2 and puching out of the container, there is little threat of oxidation. Once it subsides, its time to get it somewhere with less chance of air getting in and contacting the beer. Also, its more about the surface area in contact with air, and that is greater with a bucket unless you don’t fill the fermentor to near the top of the neck.
i am not so sure the oxidative reactions take so long but maybe, i remember how stale kegs would taste a few days after being tapped (you remember the old air pumps at house parties). i just think that in those cases you are actively pressurizing the keg with air which is 20% oxygen and after a couple days the small amount left in the keg would be stale. I think at STP,maybe the reaction is slower and there is not as much o2 diffused in a plastic bucket to make an issue. none that i have noticed.
I left a stubborn Belgian strong dark ale in buckets for 5 weeks once trying to get it to finish fermenting. A year later we were drinking the second keg and there was no indication of staling at all. I don’t recommend leaving beer in buckets for 5 weeks routinely, but I’m not convinced it’s bad either.
Let’s not forget the Better Bottle. Clear like a carboy, plastic like a bucket. The best of both worlds.
I ferment in these and love them. I also have many years of using glass and never had an issue, though there are some real horror stories about breaking carboys.
I’ve only fermented in a bucket once, and that was recently. It was very odd not being able to see what was going on, but the beer came out great. I didn’t let it sit too long, so I can’t speak to oxidation.
I started with carboys for t he first 4-5 years I brewed. AFter breaking 3 of them and losing 10 gal. of double decocted pils, I went to buckets and never looked back. I find buckets easier to use, easier to clean, and take up less storage room. In addition, they’re unbreakable.
Just curious, as I 've seen different opinions on this, but how how ferments will you use the same bucket for???
I have no idea…dozens at least. I don’t track it or worry about it. I’ve got maybe 10 buckets and usually 2-3 are in use at any moment. I look for scratches before I use them, and take them out of service if I find any. But in 10 years, that’s only happened once or twice.
Buckets don’t scratch that easily unless you abuse them. And I’ll overlook blemishes. Used buckets benefit from an overnight caustic soak like PBW to get the stains and residual aroma out. I use sodium hydroxide but oxyclean also works well if used properly.
And another benefit is that I’ve drilled out a 1" hole in my fermenting buckets to allow a plastic spigot. Voila! No siphoning just gravity. I haven’t siphoned once in five years.
Take care of your buckets and they’ll take care of you. 
Can you use a standard(green/yellow) with the rough(green) side to scrub them clean. And how high from the bottom of the bucket- say a six gallon one- would you center the hole for your spigots?
my spigots are as close to the bottom as they can be. i think the center of the hole is just over an inch off the bottom. any soft pad is fine for your bucket. i usually just use a wash cloth.
Never use the scrubby side, just use the sponge. Soak the bucket, carboy, or BB in water to soften the krausen that’s stuck high on the walls of the fermentor. Everything comes off with a simple wipe.
The plastic buckets and BB will still smell like hops/beer. I’ve tried everything but nothing really gets the white walls of the fermentation buckets completely white again, i.e., they remain yellowish.
Regarding spigot placement–two things:
1.) I recommend that you check your spigot first–you don’t want your spigot extending below the bottom of the bucket–if it does, it’ll break off when you set it down. You want to place it high enough so there’s some clearance when you set the bucket down or pick it up. I’ve cracked the bulkhead portion of a cheap plastic spigot by setting a full bucket of wort down and having the spigot take the brunt of the weight–lead to slow leak and some loss of beer, but, thankfully, not the whole batch. When I disassembled the spigot, it became obvious how close I came–the crack was nearly complete, I was able to snap the bulkhead portion in half with my thumb and two fingers.
2.) leave a good inch above the bottom of the bucket (as measured internally) to minimize trub and yeast cake pickup. You can always tilt the bucket towards the end to get the last bottle or two out.
I don’t use the “scratchy” side of the sponge. Gentle scrubbing/wiping please. Frequently I’ll use a piece of cheesecloth.
The bottom of the hole can be about 1" up from the bottom. This leaves the cake at the bottom of the vessel. You can go lower as long as the spigot’s nut fits and can turn and tighten.
You want to use something like this on\off spigot: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/cubitainer-spigot.html and not the bottling spigot. And don’t torque down on the nut. Finger tight is enough.
so true, so simple, so elegant…