Plastic carboy safety?!
Answers: I have been given a pair of five gallon plastic water jugs and think they'd make fine fermenters. I want to know if anyone else has any experience using them. I do have experience making mead and have plenty of cleaner and brushes.
They are marginal for fermenters due to the cheap plastic used. You run several risks:
1 - They scratch easily. When you clean them with your brush, the tiny scratches will create nice cozy homes for bacteria.
2 - The type of plastic used allows oxygen to pass through it, leading to oxidation of your beer during fermentation, which in turn leads to bad taste and reduced drinkable life.
3 - The cheap plastic absorbs flavors/odors which can carry forward to your next batch.
Personally, i don't think the free bottle is worth it, in light of the time and cost required to make home brew. Glass carboys are only $15 - $20 one time cost. Why cut corners when making a high quality craft homebrew?
There is a plastic carboy for home brewing called the "Better Bottle" and is made of a scratch resistant, oxygen impermeable plastic.
Personally I would never use a plastic carboy to ferment alcohol because alcohol will break down microscopic particulates from containers that aren't molecularly solid enough. Being that plastic is quite a porous material it should be avoided. The chemicals plastics leak into our bottled waters and juices are bad enough, so I definitely wouldn't want to produce an alcoholic brew in them.
I would not use plastic. I understand that your wine will take on the taste of the plastic.
they are perfect.
I had one for hard cider
Here is a fine equipment and supply shop.
http://www.thebeveragepeople.com
Two problems, at least. One is that you usually brew 5-gallon batches of beer. What happens when you start to get foaming? With an airlock, you get the cork blown out. You can get around the problem by using tubing that just fits into the neck of the carboy, running the other end into a container of sanitizing solution to take the blow-off. The other problem is that the beer can pick up off-tastes from the plastic. I have been known to use plastic (HDPE) for primary fermenters, where the wort stays only two weeks. I have not tried water jugs, though. Too tough to clean.