The day my Carboy BOMB Destroyed my basement

[WiseEyes]

I did not think that it was possible for such a thing to happen, but Murphy with his Law of Brewing was gracious enough to grace my basement last night. I had a beautiful 5 gallon batch of brew fermenting with wyeast 1056 and noticed that i had a vigorous fermentation going in the 6.5 glass carboy I was using for primary fermentation. So I replaced the bubbler with a blow-off tube to. Three hours later there was an explosion the carboy blew up sending glass shrapnel and sticky beer in all directions. I have never hear of this actually happening have any of you

 

[theschick]

Wow, that's horrible! Got any pictures of the aftermath?

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Yea Pictures!!!! I have some aftermath from an explosion but it wasnt a carboy... did your Blow off tube get kinked some how?? Damn glad to hear you are ok.

 

[D0ug]

Wow! Thank goodness you weren't hanging out in your basement as I often do! (It' the only place in the house I can smoke)

 

[TheCarnie]

Glad to hear you and yours are ok.
But it didn't happen without pics.

 

[snowman]

But it didn't happen without pics.

+1

esp as a first post

 

[jkreuze]

Due to my profession I gotta wonder if that fits into a standard exclusion in your homeowner's policy . . .

 

[WiseEyes]

Unfortunately, taken pictures of the aftermath never even crossed my mind but I'm sure I will continue to find pieces of that carboy for years to come. Does anyone have any experience using better bottles for primary fermentation and if so how are they about scratching

 

[IrregularPulse]

Gotta wonder how the blow off tube didn't give before the glass. I used a carboy for a bit when I first started so I could watch. Then I went back to buckets. I see no more perfect fermenter. Cheap, Light, and wide open top for transfers.

 

[samc]

I've used BB's and they are great. Much prefer SS kegs, Corny or Sanke, either is fine IMO.

 

[chumprock]

This doesnt make sense to me, and is worthless without pics.

 

[jacob1484]

wow i would have thought the lid/stopper/bung would have popped before the carboy exploded.

 

[WiseEyes]

jkreuze: do to my profession I was immediately thinking of who was more negligent Me or the manufacturer of the carboy (which was sort of a family heirloom) or my LHBS for selling me such a vigorous yeast or maybe even WYEAST themselves for producing such a active strain. Alas I am sure it was user error. Im fairly certain that the the blow off tube filled and clogged up with kreissen and the stopper was surrounded by sticky over fermented beer making it withstand higher pressure than that of the carboy=mess in my basement and a very angry fiance'

 

[BendBrewer]

The carboy had to have been compromised prior.

 

[WiseEyes]

This doesnt make sense to me, and is worthless without pics.

Well I will take a picture of the piles of glass that are on the floor of my basement for you. I mean it doesn't make sense to me either a freshman engineering major would know that the weakest point of the structure would be the stopper and the blow off tube and one would think those would pop out of the neck of the car boy long before the glass carboy would explode, but that was not the case. My grandfather told me he had a batch of cider explode on him once to so maybe this is more common than I initially thought

 

[humann_brewing]

 

[klyph]

I had a REALLY old carboy with some tiny bubbles here and there in the glass and it was a very light greenish tint. I thought it was really cool, until it exploded (luckily in a sink). I don't think the old carboy's are to be trusted.

 

[bja]

I had a REALLY old carboy with some tiny bubbles here and there in the glass and it was a very light greenish tint. I thought it was really cool, until it exploded (luckily in a sink). I don't think the old carboy's are to be trusted.

Something caused it to explode. Glass doesn't explode just because it's old.

 

[killian]

what size was the blow off tube? You can use a large tube, I think 1" fits snug inside the neck of a carboy.

 

[klyph]

Something caused it to explode. Glass doesn't explode just because it's old.

Well yes, but over time glass can become compromised, hairline stress fractures you might not see, scoring on the surface that promotes cracking, etc. Plus I don't think the older ones are as durable as the newer ones due to the design and composition. This is speculation.

 

[runs4beer]

If it went down as explained then the carboy was slight compromised and happened to go at that moment due to slight back pressure.

I when using CO2 to rack out of a glass carboy I was told to never push more then 3 PSI but I was told that most new carboys are rated to 14 PSI but I can find nothing to back that up (any one?).

Someone I know had a carboy pop a month in to aging. Other then lighting strike (in the February, in NY) there was no reasonable explanation (but there were pics!).

 

[dogtailale]

Not to change the subject.

Last summer I watched my mother park her mid 90s caravan in the garage. the rear window was intact. A few hours go buy I go in to the garage the glass is shattered.

A couple of years ago I poured a glass of milk as I was putting the milk away the glass shattered.

IT happens.

About 20 years ago I was build a demo derby car. ALL the glass has to be removed from vehicle amougest other items, Well there was this one piece of glass that just would not break, finally went down with a BFH.

When you what them to break they dont.

 

[motobrewer]

Not to change the subject.

Last summer I watched my mother park her mid 90s caravan in the garage. the rear window was intact. A few hours go buy I go in to the garage the glass is shattered.

A couple of years ago I poured a glass of milk as I was putting the milk away the glass shattered.

IT happens.

those were probably due to rapid temp swings. also, he said it didn't shatter, it exploded.

the op temp didn't change at all. somehow, once he put the blow-off tube on, the carboy started building pressure. the tube must have got kinked/clogged.

the tube gets pretty stuck in there. it makes sense to me that the carboy exploded before the blow-off tube came off. not to mention increasing pressure in the carboy would expand the tube making it "stick" more to the wall of the carboy opening.

 

[therealrsr]

Useless? I don't need a pic to tell you the glass was already compromised in some way. Sorry to hear about your trouble.

 

[ultravista]

how much pressure do you need to blow a giant glass jug apart? Wouldn't the rubber plug pop out first before reaching the point of enough pressure to break thick glass?

 

[vast_reaction]

You should post your recipe, that might help. Did it contain sulfuric acid, nitric acid, sawdust, paraffin and/or glycerin products? It's possible that you accidentally brewed Dynamite. Just sayin'. Be careful with that.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Well yes, but over time glass can become compromised, hairline stress fractures you might not see, scoring on the surface that promotes cracking, etc.

+1 on this. I dont' think it's that rare to have repetitive minor trauma result in microfractures that eventually cause the glass to fail. Sometimes the "final straw" seems pretty trivial. IIRC you could have had it annealed to alleviate that risk, but I can only recall that being done on expensive lab glassware.

I have a 10 gallon batch in Better Bottle primaries now. They work fine. They won't lacerate your arm if they fail. There have been a few threads about these, and plenty about the risks of glass.

Depending on your batch size, these might be no more costly that two Better Bottles: http://www.tank-depot.com/product.aspx?id=854

 

[musick]

... Plus I don't think the older ones are as durable as the newer ones due to the design and composition. This is speculation.

I believe the inverse.

I have a 6.5 from 1999 and it is heavier (so my thinking leads me to believe its thicker) than a 6.5 from 2006.

 

[klyph]

I believe the inverse.

I have a 6.5 from 1999 and it is heavier (so my thinking leads me to believe its thicker) than a 6.5 from 2006.

Ah, the one that broke on my was from the 60's or 70's.

 

[Gregscsu]

I once had a beer glass break on me. I had just filled the glass with some homebrew and when I set it on the counter it literally split into two perfect halves. It looked like some one sawed it in half right down the center. The glass just fell to the sides and the beer gushed out onto the counter.

Also my 6.5 gallon glass carboy manufactured in 1961 has been treating me well.

 

[LuckyRVA]

I once had a beer glass break on me. I had just filled the glass with some homebrew and when I set it on the counter it literally split into two perfect halves. It looked like some one sawed it in half right down the center. The glass just fell to the sides and the beer gushed out onto the counter.

Also my 6.5 gallon glass carboy manufactured in 1961 has been treating me well.

I've had this exact thing happen as well. It really did look like someone sawed it in half from top to bottom.

I also had a water pipe/hookah break in the same fashion. I was carrying it from the neck when the base bottom just broke off leaving a completely even break all around the bottom of the base (and glass all over my floor!). Very odd.