I am working on a project and I need your opinion.
What is your ideal glass carboy for a primary fermenter?
I am thinking along the lines of a 8 gallon glass carboy amber in color.
Since 6.5 gallon carboys are no longer available I think an 8 gallon is more able to contain the foam. The amber color is to protect the beer from UV the same way an amber beer bottle protects the beer more than clear or green bottles. Less skunkiness.
LOL- it seems that the first question we women come up with is "how heavy is it?". I tell you, 6.5 gallon carboys are already heavy, and an 8 gallon carboy scares me. I love the idea (color and size) but the weight might be a real issue. As Nurmey said, does the carboy hauler work? Milk crates?
LOL- it seems that the first question we women come up with is "how heavy is it?".
Bah. You both have men in the house. Whatsamatter? You can't bat your eyelashes and look pretty? It's BEER! Men will help.
Forrest, I like the idea of the larger carboy but I wouldn't want it anything other than clear. I like to see what's going on so I just keep it out of the light. Even a brown carboy will skunk eventually if left in UV.
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How about a 7 gallon carboy? Still a good size, but maybe not as heavy as an 8 gallon would be. And I like the amber glass idea- when I make wine, I look for lees, so I need to see inside but don't want clear.
It would be amber but not so dark that you can't see what happens. Lets don't talk about the weight. Why cant the carboy be placed on a shelf so that it doesn't have to be moved? I think the most important thing would be the right size. I am not stuck on the amber color I just thought that since it was possible maybe it was a good idea.
Microbreweries don't make smaller batches so the fermenter won't be so heavy. They use the size they really need. So, what size do you really need? I know that the 6.5 is too small. Why use a blow-off and loose all of the beer? I know you had to in a 6.5 gallon.
Try doing some market research, market research survey asking what features people want and what features they are willing to trade off for others (Look up conjoint analysis). Don't forget to take price into account when designing your survey questions and see what people really want and what they are willing to pay for it.
Some people always want all of the bells and whistles for like $15, and are not willing to pay for what something is worth, so you have to make a product that speaks to the majority of the market. The right market research can help with this.
Additionally you may want to get the HBTers here to do a focus group for you they are not to hard to set up and require a little extra technology to do a web conference focus group.
But take what I say with a grain of salt, I do this for work all day long and it is almost second nature to me. You can probably do a lot of this yourself by creating survey questions and using an online tool like survey monkey. There are also many companies out there willing to do this type of work for you, just be warned it can get expensive.
My boss charges about $250 an hour for my time and we only take 10k+ projects, but it is not overly difficult and something a reasonably intelligent business owner could do on their own if they have enough time to invest in learning all of the techniques.
__________________
No matter how rich you are, you can still only drink 16 or 17 liters of beer a day.
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Thanks for the input from an expert. Hopefully there are enough people here to respond. I just need an inkling of feedback. All I know is "Size does matter" the women have already chimed in on that.
I always thought it was a good idea to put the carboy where you want it and then fill it up so you don't have to move it before you transfer or bottle. Lets say you put the carboy wher you want it so that moving it isn't an issue. What size would be the ideal size for a glass carboy as a primary fermenter?
Forrest
Last edited by Austinhomebrew; 07-23-2008 at 03:01 AM.
Help - I need your opinion (bigger carboys?)
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