PET Bottles

[GeoffW]

Hi all, I'm a born and bred South Australian now living in NZ for the last 2 years. I was brewing for close to 20 years while still living in OZ and was just given a Coopers Micro Brewery Kit to get me back into brewing after sadly having to leave all my old brewing equipment behind. I had never used the PET bottles before only ever having used glass. I've been led to believe that the maximum time that one should mature one's beer in a PET bottle is 3 months. Is this the case and if so, why? When I was brewing before I had such a good rotation going that most beers I was drinking were roughly 1 year old, some I would have left for 2 on occasion, all were marvellous! If wanting to repeat this process should I return to glass? I'd love to know what the story is.

By the way, so pleased to find longnecks of Stout, Real Ale and Pale Ale so readily available over here in NZ, I can have a taste of home whenever I want, I'd kill for a feed of whiting though!

Cheers

Geoff

[Muddy Waters]

G'day Geoff - Nah you can keep the beer in PET bottles much longer than that, here's a bit from the FAQ secton of the website:

The majority of PET bottles are porous (a beverage held in PET will eventually go flat). However, Coopers

PET bottles have a nylon barrier that helps to prevent both the ingress of oxygen and the loss of CO2 for up

to 18 months. If you want to make a big ale or stout and age it for 2 years or more, you may choose to use

good quality glass bottles.

 

While I reckon Coopers longneck bottles are best I have recently been using more and more PET bottles for part of each brew and use the long necks for longer term storage. The longest I have had a beer in PET was 16 months and it was still perfect.