Just wondering what people think is better for homebrew wine, i've got a couple of glass 1 gallon demijohns but want to start doing larger batches of wine.
Any major differences in a plastic fermentation bin, a glass demijohn or a plastic demijohn? Looking at 5 gallon variety.
Plastic is possible, but... over time, no matter what you do it or what kind of plastic it's made from, the surface accumulates tiny scratches which means that your disinfection agent no longer wets those parts and bacteria thus have a refuge. Topnotch wine kits can cost about £120, and after you toiled for 7 hour to put an all-grain brew together, it really sucks if your plastic bucket poisons your brew
Buy a stainless steel 10 gallon corny keg (they do exists, I have one), they are easy to clean (just roll on the floor) and safe. Or if you can't find one, get a large stainless steel stock cooking pot from a professional kitchen supply shop, and you have to option of opening a soupkitchen in a pinch
Plus you can disinfect that one on the cooker, very handy.
Don't buy a large glass demijohn, as nice as they look, they are dangerous and the brewing lists are full of people who ended up in hospital with huge gashes and sliced tendons etc. Plus 23l+ of wort on the floor is a serious mess. If you *really* have to have one, buy yours from brouwland.com in Belgium, they sell them up to 54l with a basket, which is a bit safer than without. That said, it costs over half of what a keg or cooking pot costs, so, the keg/pot is not unattractive here, at least you can't smash it (and sometimes glass just goes *ping* just standing there).
My way of doing things is to ferment the 30 bottle wine kits in the big corny keg, and then fill it into 5 1-gal glass demijohns for secondary, keep one empty one about so you can move the wine alone as you rack it. I prefer the small DJs simply because it's easier to move about for me without making the yeast swirl up, and if I goof, then only a small part of my batch is lost.
