Another Carboy Horror Story

[shawnstr71]

Well....it finally happened. I broke another carboy. The first time this happened to me it was empty. I was sanitizing it before racking my wort to ferment. It slipped out of my hands and hit the garage floor, and BLAMBO! Needless to say, I saved the wort and still had a great beer, but every once in awhile. I still find a piece somewhere.
This time....I wasn't so lucky. I had stored my carboy in the man cave closet, along with another plastic fermenter. When it came time to rack into the keg, I lifted the keg up (by the neck...I know I know) and the bottom 9almost in a perfect circle stuck to the floor. The rest of the carboy came up in 1 piece! and the beer, well all 5 gal.'s went into the carpet! I ran out and grabbed a shop vac, did as much sucking with that as I could, and the hurried to my buddys to borrow his shampooer. 4 shampoos and 2 days later, I think I saved the carpet! LOL. I just wanted to share my growing irritation with+ glass carboys! Is it just me? I doubt it. LOL

 

[Silentdrinker]

Sorry to hear... That, and among other reasons, is why I ditched all my glass for SS. Now I only ferment in these fermenters I made:



7.75gal for smaller 5 gal batched up to 15.5 for 10-12 gal batches. Best fermenter set up ever. I even sold a 15.5 blichmann conical in favor of these.

 

[donbrew]

Do you use hot water to clean the glass carboys?

That could be the culprit.

The last one I broke was sitting empty on the concrete floor of my unheated basement in the winter. My tennis shoe touched the bottom and kablooyie! I guess the temperature gradient was too much.

 

[AkTom]

The only problem I have with my 6 glass carboys, is they are all empty...

 

[drainbamage]

I guess my one worry about glass carboys is that I'll drink too much on a brew day and lose grip while taking it downstairs. I try to be careful though, and I put it on a pad on the tile floor for protection.

 

[kh54s10]

The only problem I have with my 6 glass carboys, is they are all empty...

That is the safest way to keep them......

 

[kh54s10]

Sorry to hear... That, and among other reasons, is why I ditched all my glass for SS. Now I only ferment in these fermenters I made:

View attachment 298043

7.75gal for smaller 5 gal batched up to 15.5 for 10-12 gal batches. Best fermenter set up ever. I even sold a 15.5 blichmann conical in favor of these.

Pressurized fermentation?

 

[Silentdrinker]

I guess my one worry about glass carboys is that I'll drink top much on a brew day and lose grip while taking it downstairs. I try to be careful though, and I put it on a pad on the tile floor for protection.

The other issue is braking while cleaning. The things break with no warning often. People get seriously hurt by the shards of glass. I've had a close call before, but lucked out.

Glass carboys are bad news in general. I know I like them better than plastic due to scratching, but they're still dangerous. SS is the only way to go in my opinion.

Pressurized fermentation?

Ya, I keep them sealed from pitch to glass. I use a spunding valve or sometimes a gas coupler with hose to a sanatizer bucket. I like taking advantage of carbonating naturally, so I mostly pressure ferment unless I think I over filled and will have blow off. I then force transfer to a keg. No worries about cold crash suck back, oxidization or damn fruit flies. They're fantastic fermenters.

I've even transferred a cream ale over, left the trub sealed in the keg, 2 weeks later pitched apple juice over it for a cider. It turned out excellent with no off flavors or infections.

 

[Gavin C]

Sorry to hear... That, and among other reasons, is why I ditched all my glass for SS. Now I only ferment in these fermenters I made:

View attachment 298043

7.75gal for smaller 5 gal batched up to 15.5 for 10-12 gal batches. Best fermenter set up ever. I even sold a 15.5 blichmann conical in favor of these.

Just a teensy weensy bit enormously jealous.

I've got 3 of the big ol' sturdy Italian made bastids. I treat them like they are made of glass.

Never set them on hard ground
Never carry by neck
Never thermally shock
Always hope I don't fall foul to an anomalous failure.

Was looking to go stainless steel but the company's fermenters had issues. I bailed.

Glass for the foreseeable future.

Three Hail Mary's and two Glory Be's and that should set me right each brew day

Edit: OP glad you came out OK. Was expecting to see some blood and gore from the thread title.

 

[drainbamage]

The other issue is braking while cleaning. The things break with no warning often. People get seriously hurt by the shards of glass. I've had a close call before, but lucked out.

Glass carboys are bad news in general. I know I like them better than plastic due to scratching, but they're still dangerous. SS is the only way to go in my opinion.

Without warning? You're not defusing a bomb with a sledgehammer.

There would have to be a thermal shock or something to cause a spontaneous shatter.

 

[Silentdrinker]

Without warning? You're not defusing a bomb with a sledgehammer.

There would have to be a thermal shock or something to cause a spontaneous shatter.

I would say having a carboy filled with fully fermented beer sitting there as if all is well, but only to have the bottom pop off the second you touch it is pretty much with out warning. No one disagrees the damage wasn't caused by something such as thermal shock, but thermal shock isn't always going to give you a warning sign the vessle is going to fail--hence the many, many threads about this exact topic.

He's not the first or the last that this has happened to.

 

[day_trippr]

Thermal shock is a carboy killer for sure and simply MUST BE AVOIDED.
The bottom falling out is a dead certain thermal shock failure mode.

If you can't handle that, switch to plastic...

Cheers!

 

[shawnstr71]

I don't know if it was thermal shock, a previous "bump" I didn't realize was that bad, or a team of tiny evil beer knomes with diamond tip glass cutters. All I know is glass will be strictly for secondary from now on, unless all my plastic is full, and I HAVE to brew for some special reason. It is glass. It gets washed, scraped, contents that pressurize, and moved from point A to pint B, over and over. You cant expect it to last 4ever. I will invest in another to replace. I WILL WIN! LOL

 

[shawnstr71]

Doooood! Those are sweet! Nice work!

 

[ben229]

Sorry to hear... That, and among other reasons, is why I ditched all my glass for SS. Now I only ferment in these fermenters I made:

View attachment 298043

7.75gal for smaller 5 gal batched up to 15.5 for 10-12 gal batches. Best fermenter set up ever. I even sold a 15.5 blichmann conical in favor of these.

That looks pretty cool. Do you have a write up on you made those bad boys?

 

[griffi]

OK, noob here. I've just started using a 5 gal glass carboy and planned on cold crashing in it this weekend... Should I just rack into the keg and crash there?

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

I will take a brief moment of silence for your fallen carboy. My condolences brother.

 

[RmikeVT]

OK, noob here. I've just started using a 5 gal glass carboy and planned on cold crashing in it this weekend... Should I just rack into the keg and crash there?

I am guessing you will be OK because you will be gradually decreasing the temperature. But I don't know. I had a 6g glass carboy break on me once and I stopped using glass. I was swishing around a gallon of sanitizer and set the thing down VERY gingerly on my concrete patio and it broke into long sharp shards that could have done some damage to me or my dog who is my brew buddy.

 

[kombat]

I set the thing down VERY gingerly on my concrete patio and it broke

Yah, I'm pretty paranoid about never setting my glass carboys directly onto a hard surface. In my basement, they sit on wooden shelves for storage. When racking from the kettle in my garage, I set them on scrap cardboard boxes, flattened down. Treat 'em with respect and you'll be fine. They're great tools, and very affordable, if handled properly.

 

[RmikeVT]

Yah, I'm pretty paranoid about never setting my glass carboys directly onto a hard surface. In my basement, they sit on wooden shelves for storage. When racking from the kettle in my garage, I set them on scrap cardboard boxes, flattened down. Treat 'em with respect and you'll be fine. They're great tools, and very affordable, if handled properly.

I wash washing out one of my better bottles, and granted, I'm not as careful with them, but I was shaking it over the sink and it slipped a little and hit the side of my granite counter and I was just thinking, "oh man, if that were a carboy it would be toast." Although, I probably wouldn't be shaking a glass carboy in the air over my sink with liquid in it. But you still have to get all the trub and crud out of them, so how do you flip the thing upside down and swirl around the trub to get it to pour out with out risking breaking the carboy.

 

[Gavin C]

I wash washing out one of my better bottles, and granted, I'm not as careful with them, but I was shaking it over the sink and it slipped a little and hit the side of my granite counter and I was just thinking, "oh man, if that were a carboy it would be toast." Although, I probably wouldn't be shaking a glass carboy in the air over my sink with liquid in it. But you still have to get all the trub and crud out of them, so how do you flip the thing upside down and swirl around the trub to get it to pour out with out risking breaking the carboy.

It's made of glass not gelignite.

You wash it like you would a large glass object; with care.

A gallon or so of hot oxiclean. swirl it all up drain, rinse. repeat if needed. rarely needed.

 

[blizz81]

Although, I probably wouldn't be shaking a glass carboy in the air over my sink with liquid in it. But you still have to get all the trub and crud out of them, so how do you flip the thing upside down and swirl around the trub to get it to pour out with out risking breaking the carboy.

I'm sure lots of people shake their carboys like an unwanted baby (myself included)....I just make sure I have a bear hug on the things.


I will suffer death by carboy. Some day. (Though I use half and half glass / PET anymore, so it may take some time)

 

[sfish]

I will take a brief moment of silence for your fallen carboy. My condolences brother.

Agreed, silence has been respected.

For those that remain in use I suggest keeping them in a milk crate for protection.

 

[wsmith1625]

I bought my first secondary a few weeks ago for a peach hefe I brewed and bought a PET bottle because of all the horror stories with glass.

 

[E-Rodge]

Someone mentioned earlier not to carry them by the neck....have you guys heard of many carboys breaking at the neck while carrying? I have carboy handles on all mine with no issues to date. Do not have huge temp swings to worry with here with the glass getting hot/cold too quickly.

 

[kombat]

how do you flip [a glass carboy] upside down and swirl around the trub to get it to pour out with out risking breaking the carboy.

I wear leather work gloves. It gives me a better grip, and protects my hands in the unlikely event of a breakage.

 

[Roadliner]

I almost never lift them by the neck.. particularly if they are full.. that is a lot of pressure on a small amount of glass. All about the nylon carboy carriers.. those things are the way to go. I've been lucky so far with all of mine. pretty much all I use, though I did get some of the aforementioned messed up SS fermenters to try out. If I like those I plan on going with a few SS Brewtech Brew Buckets. Still a little worried about keepingthe spigots clean enough.