Carboys: Glass or Plastic. Which is better?

I have always used plastic carboys for my homebrewing. The first was a plastic bucket. After that came the PET plastic carboys that are shown in the Northern Brewer video below.

The PET carboy is easy to clean because it is hydrophobic, so a soaking solution of Five Star’s PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) usually does the trick to clean up the fermenter. They are easy to grip when wet and much easier to lift when full and wet. And, because they are unbreakable (e.g. pouring hot wort into a cold carboy is not a concern for shattering a plastic carboy, but is for glass), they provide one less reason to go to the local emergency room.

So, I am a bit prejudiced on which carboy you should use. Here’s Northern Brewers take on the pro and cons of each:

Cheers!

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BrewingTV Reviews Heretic Brewing’s Evil Cousin

JZ on Mayhem (Photo credit: epicbeer)

It is great to see that Jamil Zainasheff‘s Heretic Brewing’s beers are now finding their way out onto store shelves. In this BrewingTV video Jake Keeler and Michael Dawson from Northern Brewer review Heretic Brewing’s Evil Cousin.

What they say makes me want to scour the countryside looking for this (West Coast) Imperial India Pale Ale (BJCP style 14c).

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• Best Breweries in Chicago (apartmentguide.com)
• Home-brewing notes: English IPA (patrickbeeson.com)
• The saga of the “Oh Well, What the Hell” Pale Ale. Off Flavors. (52beers.wordpress.com)