ChshreCat

Recipes 

He probably could, if he tried hard enough.

cheezydemon3

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Pointing out that they can break, once I was proven wrong on the "hard to clean" point. Just messing with you.


I don't oxy my buckets, and I can hardly get the lid off when there is wort/beer in them, but I may take more steps to make sure he can't get to them for a number of reasons.

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justwhatthehellareYOUlookingat?

homebeerbrewer

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A word of caution, DO NOT use hot water in glass carboys.

Oxyclean is great though.

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cheezydemon3

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And don't wash them after midnight...

Sorry fellas!!! Glass is elegant, you radical "I also like to live dangerously" freaks.

Buckets are cheap, spicketable, WORK, don't shatter dangerously (I think a carboy full of beer breaking anywhere but outside in the yard would be grounds for SUICIDE) and require minimal caution.

I respect you all, but for me.....

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justwhatthehellareYOUlookingat?

maggiethelab

Recipes 

I've never broken a glass carboy, but I thought I came close a couple times. I finally switched to a 10 gallon corny keg which lets me move it around without fear, and I can move beer under CO2 instead of siphoning out of a carboy. I pop the poppet valve out of the gas intake and put a 1/2" tube around the fitting with the end sitting in a jar of water/idaphore for a blowoff. I cut the outflow tube off about 1 1/2" so it sits on top of the trub, so I don't get much if any gunk. Works great, no glass anywhere, and my beer never touches oxygen after it gets into the primary.

bja

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Nobody ever said that they couldn't break. The point was that you need to be very careful with them. If for some reason you're clumsy and don't trust yourself, or you make a habit of getting fall down drunk while brewing, then yes, you should probably use buckets.

I have 5 glass carboys and 2 buckets I ferment in, but I rarely use the buckets. Usually only when the carboys are full.

Hint: Get some plastic milk crates to keep your carboys in. They make it very easy to carry them when full.

rico567

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I am not -that- clumsy, and I don't ever drink while brewing. I use buckets because they are cheaper, more convenient, easier to carry, and, IMHO, inherently safer.

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“Malt does more than Milton can / To justify God’s ways to man”

-A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad , 1896.

fc36

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I think what he means is, do not use BOILING water in glass carboys. Hot water from the faucet at about 110-120 (or whatever your hot water heater is set at) should be fine. However, boiling water, when poured into a confined space like a carboy with a small opening requiring a funnel tends to produce steam and that coupled with the normal air that your displacing tends to create a large spout of boiling hot water as they try to escape back through the water filled funnel. I tried this once for fun and was wearing an apron and raincoat with gloves and it soaked the whole basement with boiling ass water. Kinda cool, but also very dangerous. Clearly, if you wanna learn how not to brew, then I'm your man.

homebeerbrewer

Recipes 

Actually, I meant hot tap water. The only way you could safely use hot water at any temp would be to pre heat the carboy evenly before filling it. The stresses caused by uneven heating is enough to break a carboy. Think about it, you start filling the carboy with hot water, the bottom starts to heat while the sides are still cool, the expansion of the glass at the bottom is faster than the sides. This could cause a failure, and possibly a trip to the emergency room.

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BrewMoreBeers

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PBW + warm tap water + hour = clean carboy.

No scrubbing, no PITA.

I do not like the deflection in the BB when they are moved. I do use buckets for primary, but for secondary and lagering i like the limited head space of the carboy.