"Blue" Carboy

**ShortSnoutBrewing** · 11-02-2007, 11:19 PM

So my wife's grandfather passed earlier this year. He was a pack rat of sorts and had a whole barn worth of stuff grandma didn't want hanging around anymore. While searching one day I found his old bottle caper and two carboys. I'm finally getting around to cleaning them today, but part of me is just worried that they've been around too long.

The one I'm cleaning now....the glass is a blueish tint and has trees all around it. The glass is in no way perfect (air pockets, etc) and there are some water stains the first round of cleaning didn't appear to get out.

Thoughts on if I should bother continuing to clean. Overall the one looks usable. If I clean well and sanitize the bejesus out of it, am I safe?

**Orfy** · 11-02-2007, 11:28 PM

It sounds old.
I'm sure it's safe.

Blue/Green tinge in old glass.

blue sounds fine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_blue

Green
arsenious oxide/lead.....
Worth looking at though.

Chris K · 11-02-2007, 11:52 PM

a little old lady who lived on my block passed away last year. her son last week was clearing out her home to get ready for sale.

he put two blue looking carboys like you describe (sans trees) out on the curb for the garbage collector. i approached him and asked if i could have them, but when he told me he stored some kind of acid in them, i had a change of heart.

turns out he was a high school chemistry teacher and stored some of his gear in her basement and garage.

**ShortSnoutBrewing** · 11-02-2007, 11:55 PM

Wow...I know I'm not in that same boat on these. We are all 99.9% sure he just used them to store water in the RV for trips.

fretman124 · 11-03-2007, 05:52 AM

I recently picked up some brew gear off of CL. One of the carboys I got was filled with gunge and covered with dirt. Upon cleaning I find I have an antique carboy, bubbly glass, blue tint. ferments beer just fine.

As far as the ones used to store acid. Once you clean them, what would be wrong with them?