Making a glass carboy shatterproof?
 

Another brewer and I were talking about taping the carboy glass or wrapping it in cling wrap, so if dropped it would be more like shatterproof glass? And not blow big shards of glass all over. Anyone have some ideas?

There's actually a thread about this from several years ago. A guy tried several different things.

If I can manage to come up with a key word to do a search I will. It was a fascinating thread.

Use a plastic milk crate for a holder/carrier. Makes life easier and less dangerous for you and your carboy.

There is only one way....and it involves a hammer.

The longer I brew, the more I wonder why anyone would ferment in a breakable light whore.;)

I actually had my bucket sitting wher the sun hit it for a few minutes. I moved it.

I am wierd though. I brew, seal it up with airlock and don't peek until I syphon. No samples, no readings, no peeking.

Search for a thread about plastidip. You paint it on the carboy and dries like a plastic coating. Won't be waterproof, but will protect your limbs from gravity accidents.

Found them. I remembered that one of the solutions was "Plasti-dip"

Here's one of the threads. Trying to solve the carboy problem

And in there I actually had linked two other discussions I had recalled. But they never went anywhere. The one above did.


http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/carboy-protector-12749/

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/clear-plasti-dip-glass-carboys-119405/

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_YoNM1L6XmGI/Sn...0/PICT1131.jpg


https://www.bunzlpd.com/images/P/317644751.jpg

If I were doing this, I think I would first glue some window mesh around the glass to contain any shards if it did fail, like using fiberglass mesh when working with that stuff. Heck even clear plastic packing tape if it didn't react with the plasti-dip. THEN I would apply a ton of plasti-dip in multiple layers.

Hey, why not doing fiberglass over them?

Lol, how do you really feel about glass carboys?

Before I dipped a whole glass carboy in plasti-dip or wrapped it in auto film or duct tape, I'd consider a Better Bottle. It's one of those things that makes me wonder.

After the extreme fascination of studying my first few beers as they fermented and buying as many glass carboys as my wallet and fermenting closet could handle... i became a little more practical and switched to plastic buckets.

i no longer care to hurry up and watch every day as my carboy creates krausen. i dont enjoy lugging them around, i dont like cleaning them out, especially if i have dry hopped or added some adjunct in the secondary stages, and i was tired of opening the closet to find that my fancy polyurethane bung had rocketed off into one of the coat pockets leaving the opening of my carboy exposed.

i dont keep anything in buckets for longer than a few weeks, i put it in the closet and forget about it until i'm ready to keg it... i always catch it at what would be an acceptable FG because im not in a crazy rush anymore..

back to your question though, the thread revvy linked will give you an option or two as far as making them a tad bit safer, but do yourself a favor and just switch to buckets, it makes you life a hell of a lot easier and adds to some peace of mind...

Easy fellas.

Pondering making a 6 gallon glass vessel break-proof(;)) is the first step in denial. It wil soon lead to acceptance, and hopefully, to buckets.