I’ve been thinking about making mead for a long time, and the latest issue of Zymurgy convinced me to go ahead and try it. I was wondering, however, whether I should use glass or plastic for my primary. I’m a bit worried about the mead getting oxidized if it sits in the fermenter too long (more than 6 months.) Does anyone have experience with this?
plastic will be fine as a primary. If you are adding fruit it is almost required. after primary is done you will want to transfer to glass with as little head space as is possible (i have heard of people useing sanitized marbles to fill any remaining headspace) for long term bulk aging.
Headspace isn’t bad if it’s filled with CO2. Don’t let your airlocks run dry, either. Plastic is OK for primary, but I would rack it to glass after it’s finished. Make sure your plastic lid has a good seal. If you aren’t getting bubbles out of the airlock during primary, then you don’t have good seals somewhere.
We’ve been discussing along the same lines over on this thread [u]Large Volume MDPE (plastic) Fermentaion Tanks[/u]
There is quite a bit of good info linked to in that thread.