Pet Or Glass

[loikar]

lads, How's it Goin?
My name's BeerFingers and I'm a Beeraholic.

My first AHB question!

With my Kit I'll be getting PET bottles.
Now, without any knowledge or experience with these, my initial reaction is to not use them as it feels like blasphemy and un-natural to consume gods finest nectar from plastic (unless its in a 1 Litre+ stein, Jug or at an outdoor venue).

That being said, the Logical side of it would be that PET would be easier to work with, maintain, cap, etc...

SO, at the end of the day my decision should be based on flavour, yeah?.

Do the PET bottles influence the flavour of the final product?
What are the pros\cons of PET bottles?

And as a side question....has anyone had much success with Grolsh bottles?


Cheers Fellas

Love your work!

 

[raven19]

I use glass including the Grolsch bottles, and they are great IMO.

Clean & Sanitiation = no issues for me to date.

I have not used PET much at all, you could bottle some in glass, some in PET, then do a taste comparison later on.

Generally beer will last long in glass, PET will not last as long.

PET does give good indication of carbonation though by giving a squeeze.

Clear PET will need to be stored in a dark place (skunking).

Lots of discussion threads on this site discussing the above too.

IMO - If you are going for flavour go with glass, but you may as well use some PET's also to allow a comparison.

My 2c.
Beers!

 

[boingk]

PET bottles are dead easy to use and don't require the constant purchase of new caps, or a capper. THey are also very light and compact when compared to their glass counterparts. However they can be expensive to buy, can be degraded by very hot water, may hold tastes, lose carbonation over longer periods of time, and are not that great to drink from as you have already metioned.

The advantages of glass are that it is impermeable to gas and lets you store your brews for as long as you want, doesn't hold flavours, is resistant to high temperatures you may encounter whilst cleaning stubborn stains, and is generally pleasant to look at and drink out of. It may also be found for free at mates places and the local recycing depot...especially on a weekend morning. The disadvantages of it are that it is heavy and breakable, will need a good capper ($50 for a Superautomatica bench-style), and needs constant buying of crown-seals.

Its up to you, but most people find they tend to switch to glass before too long. I myself have done that in the last few months and am going to pass my PETs on to somone else. In response to the Grolsch bottles...they're highly sought after as they only need very occaisional seal replacement and impose a minimum of fuss on the homebrewer. Also, the half-litre size is a convenient point between a regular stubbie and a 750ml longneck.

Cheers - boingk.

 

[Katherine]

Im a fan of the coopers PET bottles, easy to stall and wash etc. Though I do always bottle a few into glass from each batch.

I have heard there meant to loose carbonation after 9 months but I have not had that experience.

You do need to replace the bottles after awhile I have being brewing for two years and have only lost a few PET bottles in the time.

Welcome to the AHB...

 

[wambesi]

The comments above are all good.

I use mostly glass now (kegs next week) but do at least 2 PET to gauge the carb levels, a quick squeeze takes care of that.
As for long term storage, apparently not the best but I was just given back a bottle from my parents I left there and it was just under 2 yrs old and still had perfect carbonation.

Taste wise I can't find a difference, nothing has leached onto the plastics in my use over the last 2 or so years.

But like a lot of other people, I prefer pouring from a glass then plastic, but at the end of the day it really doesn't make a difference.

 

[Spartan 117]

Grolsch bottles are fantstic, easy to bottle with easy to sanatize and easy to store, also I think they look pretty cool. I've used pet bottles in the past and recently i made a brew bottling with both grolsch and pet and it might just e my immaginatio but from the glass it tasted better. I'm brewing a 25 litre batch on monday and will be using grolsch and glass again so I'll be able to comparte once again

Aaron

 

[Effect]

All your questions answered here

 

[Effect]

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And as a side question....has anyone had much success with Grolsh bottles?

I love the Grolsh bottles. Easiest way to bottle, you don't loose lids and they are always snapped on proper.

As for PET. It won't change the flavour, have a read of the link I posted above.

I personally use glass (grolsh) for bigger beers or beers that need ageing of more than 3 months etc. I use the coopers PET for beers that I can drink young, like wheat beers, or beers that don't need maturation time, like a pale ale.

Hope this helps.

 

[loikar]

All your questions answered here

Perfect!

Thanks Everyone, sounds like I'll be getting the lads to buy and drink a box of Grolsch each for me (That'll give me about 6 box's worth).
I'll keep the PETs for testing like you guys suggested.

Love your work guys and gals (for Katie) ....I'm loving this forum!

 

[wakkatoo]

I keg and put the remainder into PET's. I have a few bottles lying around but haven't used them as I find the PET's easier. There are some who believe the plastic affect the taste, I'd hazard a guess that these people refuse to buy screw top wine bottles for the same reason

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the forum. I use, and have exclusively used, 2L PETs ex ALDI cola. Bottling is a breeze and each PET yields a handy three pints which is a nice session on a hot day.


However after using them since June I can say that:

Don't use them if you intend to keep your beer longer than 3 months as you will start to get the odd flattie
Always keep them in the dark, I buy the cola by the carton so that's where the PETs live. I don't drink the cola, it gets tipped
I have started to collect some Coopers PETs because I am now entering competitions, and they are handy to take places like birthday parties etc
I am also collecting some nice 500ml Bavaria bottles for comps etc when I do lagers in the winter.

However for my UK bitters and drinking pale ales that all get drunk young, I'm sticking to the 2L PETS. To me they have few of the hassles of lots of small glass bottles and I even think of them as being 'mini kegs' for dispensing endless streams of golden delight :icon_drool2:

 

[Katherine]

You are so proud of your cola bottles Bribie.... now i have always wondered what you did with all that cola.... and now Im wondering more as you dont drink cola....

 

[thylacine]

re: 'Drinking from ANY kind of bottle?'


eg. How to taste beer...? http://beer.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.h...ure-200002.html

 

[Bribie G]

You are so proud of your cola bottles Bribie.... now i have always wondered what you did with all that cola.... and now Im wondering more as you dont drink cola....

Caffeine crazed fish in Moreton Bay jumping into people's boats.

 

[shayne]

I was curious to know if there's any difference with the glass bottles. i read (somewhere?) recently manufactured glass long necks are thinner, and more prone to breaks (explosions). does anyone know if this is true? is there any way to tell? i found a bunch under my house and in an effort to increase the collection want to use them - they say "do not refill" near the bottom, i wonder if there are other commercial bottles out there that don't have this (older or otherwise). seems to be alot of people flogging 'home brew bottles' on ebay, with VB and fosters labels... here i've been chucking them in the recycling bin all these years...

EDIT: note, i do not drink either VB or fosters..

 

[Wolfy]

Thanks Everyone, sounds like I'll be getting the lads to buy and drink a box of Grolsch each for me (That'll give me about 6 box's worth).

Grolsch are now available in 'normal European' 330ml crown seal bottles, and stocks of the swing-tops are harder to find.
So make sure you give your mates some directions as to which bottles they should be getting if you insist on Grolsch - the bottles are cool, but I'd not generally drink Grolsch given alternate similar choices.

If buying to drink and then reuse, my preference is Schwelmer Pils, both in terms drinking the contents and then having amber-500ml swingtops to reuse.
There are also a few other choices if you look at the amber-500ml swingtops ... depending on where you're looking.

 

[MAUOMBO]

whenever I read this question, it alwys seems like glass is assumed to not have the bottle caps that the plastic soft drink have. And this seems to be the major benefor of PET.

but I have been collecting glass bottles which accept the PET screwing lids.

is this ok? I havent used them yet

my plan was to use glass bottles with the ease of the PET lids

thanks

MAUOMBO

 

[shayne]

but I have been collecting glass bottles which accept the PET screwing lids.

is this ok? I havent used them yet

my plan was to use glass bottles with the ease of the PET lids

I don't know, but what a great idea - i'll tell you in a few weeks when i crack one!

 

[Barramundi]

but I have been collecting glass bottles which accept the PET screwing lids.

is this ok? I havent used them yet

my plan was to use glass bottles with the ease of the PET lids


MAUOMBO

have done this in the past and it works just fine , having said that the beer that was in it wasnt store for a huge amount of time , so i can say as for lenghty storage time but i dont see why not its the same little bit of rubber under the cap as with a crown seal thats doin the work ...

 

[MAUOMBO]

excellent - I shall continue to collect

still working on my sanitizing bin to keep them in until bottling day...

I have a chemist friend who I'll ask on the w/e

MAUOMBO