Glass VS Plastic VS Stainless Steel

[Lufah]

I thought it would be fun to run a poll with all the talk lately about it. I personally use plastic for primary and glass for secondary. I may start using my corney though to secondary.

Travis

[N8]

I use mostly 10 gal cornies, then transfer into 5 gal for a secondary, if I'm going to do a secondary.
I will use glass if my 10 gals are busy.

[Bugeater]

I used to use plastic about 25% of the time for primary, now it is rare since aquiring another 6.5 gal glass carboy. Secondary is about 50/50 between glass and stainless (corney keg).

[Denny]

I use plastic primaries for 5 gal. batches and 10 gal. cornies for larger batches. Secondary in 5 gal. cornies.

[jmikec]

I use all glass all the time. My buddy that taught me to brew did that, and it has never failed me. Another friend I helped brew did his first batch in a plastic bucket (part of the starter kit his father in law gave him) and it was bad. He never used plastic again either.

[Denny]

I use all glass all the time. My buddy that taught me to brew did that, and it has never failed me. Another friend I helped brew did his first batch in a plastic bucket (part of the starter kit his father in law gave him) and it was bad. He never used plastic again either.

But was it bad because of the plastic? How did you know?

[hoosierhomebrew]

I started with plastic.. made my first 3 batches using only a plastic primary. Never used a secondary. When I decided to use a secondary, I moved onto glass carboys. The plastic bucket never stained but, it held an odor from a hoppy american brown ale. Can't get that odor out so now it's used to hold cleaning / sanitizing solutions. The carboys are more difficult to hold when full or wet. Cleaning isn't too much of a problem as long as you can keep the outside dry.

[Denny]

All of my buckets retain odors from the previous batch. Doesn't seem to affect the next batch, though.