I’m wondering if there are any issues with bottling cider (still or carbonated) in plastic bottles. I wouldn’t do it with beer, but wonder if anyone ever does with cider.?. The reason I’m considering plastic bottles is because I want to ship about 1/2 the batch to someone out of state.
Why wouldn’t you do it with beer? It’s a great way to take beer to places that don’t allow bottles and if you’re bottle-conditioning, using at least a couple 2L PET bottles cuts down on the workload. I wouldn’t hesitate to fill one with cider.
I’m not talking about filling a 2 liter and bringing it to the beach or a party or whatever. I do that all the time. I’m talking about bottling the cider in smaller bottles, for someone to enjoy a glass every now and again over the course of weeks or months. I guess I wouldn’t do that with beer because I’m worried it would loose carbination and/or leech plastic flavors. Only time I put beer in plastic is when I plan to drink it in the next few days. But I’ve really never given much thought to it, which is why I thought I’d turn to others for advice/recommendations. Thanks.
Before I started kegging I would usually put half of the beer in 1L and 2L PET bottles which were then bottle-conditioned and stored cold for months at a time with no ill effects. After maybe six months there could sometimes be some oxidation showing up, and once opened you have to drink it all within a day or two for the same reason, and carbonation drops off each time you open it (just like a growler), so I would typically pour two pints at a time and only open it twice total.
I’ve never had an issue with a bottle not holding the carbonation. Maybe the cap will fail after a dozen uses? But they are easy to replace.
Great way to ship things to family/friends. No worries about broken glass bottles.
