That's my last glass carboy

I have lifted many of these things full, and I have the handle. I always support the bottom, and mainly use the handle to position it.
But tonight, trying to dump out the sanitizer just prior to filling it with wort, it slipped, and made quite the mess.
No real damage, except to the carboy.
My shoes were soaked, glass everywhere, and I had to drill a plastic lid and press an empty bucket into service.
So, nice try, Mr. Glass Bomb, but my brew is safely fermenting, and all I have to do is sweep up a few stray shards, and that will be the last time I deal with those things.
So instead of Red Ale Bomb or something else, I was thinking of Busted Carboy Ale or you make your suggestions. Thanks!!

hey, cool.

getting 'smashed' ale or rip off cracked canoe yoursv can be cracked carboy

Once upon a time, a woman was picking up firewood. She came upon a poisonous snake frozen in the snow. She took the snake home and nursed it back to health. One day the snake bit her on the cheek. As she lay dying, she asked the snake, "Why have you done this to me?" And the snake answered, "Look, b!tch, you knew I was a snake." - Old Indian Story from Natural Born Killers.

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QFT. Just replace snake with glass and I still choose glass>plastic.

BTW I am glad to here no beer or people were injured.

still youre carboy served you well prior to the incident? then it deserves a 21 homebrew salute

demonrichie said:

getting 'smashed' ale or rip off cracked canoe yoursv can be cracked carboy

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I like it.

Zamial said:

QFT. Just replace snake with glass and I still choose glass>plastic.

BTW I am glad to here no beer or people were injured.

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Ironically, this is an Irish Red Ale. Irony can be so ironic, yeah?

demonrichie said:

still youre carboy served you well prior to the incident? then it deserves a 21 homebrew salute

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Ready - Aim - Fire!!!!
Yes, up till tonight, it was no problem. Still, I have no need to scramble to find a fermentation vessel on zero notice.
If I had not had an extra grommet for the airlock, I'd be working without a net right now.
As it stands, I got a green pickle bucket with a Home Depot lid drilled out for an airlock with my Busted Carboy Irish Red ready for some Nottingham to feast on.
I bet this batch turns out super.
Just like my previous one, where the krausen somehow blocked the airlock, and the lid blew completely off. It ended up wedged between the wall and another fermenter. I washed everything off, reassembled, and prayed to the beer gods.
It is an awesome American Wheat.

This is why you have backups. I have six of the 6.5 gallon carboys with the intent of filling 3-4 at a time. Sometimes you just need to be prepared.

carnevoodoo said:

This is why you have backups. I have six of the 6.5 gallon carboys with the intent of filling 3-4 at a time. Sometimes you just need to be prepared.

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Since my batch is awaiting liftoff, I guess I was prepared. Now I have to get another backup ready.

I have been using glass carboys since 1994...I currently have over 20 of them.

I have never broken or even chipped one in all that time.

I also never handle them wet or full unless they are in a milk crate first.

One of the things I do with a full one is to use my auto-syphon to drain until it is half full then I will lift it by the crate to pour the remainder out.

Starderup said:

I like it.

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which one?

Thank you for that cautionary tale. This old alewife is going to stick to plastic for the time being, at least until I can lift 50 lbs. without any effort.

demonrichie said:

which one?

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Cracked Carboy

Starderup said:

So, nice try, Mr. Glass Bomb, but my brew is safely fermenting

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That's funny.

How about Car Bomb Ale (sort of a play on carboy).

homebrewer_99 said:

I have been using glass carboys since 1994...I currently have over 20 of them.

I have never broken or even chipped one in all that time.

I also never handle them wet or full unless they are in a milk crate first.

One of the things I do with a full one is to use my auto-syphon to drain until it is half full then I will lift it by the crate to pour the remainder out.

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+1

I have a dedicated tube for siphoning oxiclean-trub soup out of my full carboys. I also have some heavy work gloves that are marked "glass only" so I don't mess them up. I don't handle a carboy, dry or wet, even to move it 5 ft. without those gloves on. I always use the carboy handle(empty carboy of course) to reduce the chance of fumbling one. In a milk crate when they get filled, in the milk crate until they get emptied.

I heard Jamil ***** about the size of Better Bottles on the last Brew Strong. It drives me nuts too. Six gallons is way too small. 7 would be sweet.

I had that carboy for over ten years, and have picked it up many times full. It is just too big of a piece of glass for me.
I guess the moral of this story is that some people will continue to use them and swear by them, and I am getting off the bus.
Just be careful, everyone.

passedpawn said:

That's funny.

How about Car Bomb Ale (sort of a play on carboy).

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Appropriate for an Irish Ale, I guess!

Starderup said:

I had that carboy for over ten years, and have picked it up many times full. It is just too big of a piece of glass for me.
I guess the moral of this story is that some people will continue to use them and swear by them, and I am getting off the bus.
Just be careful, everyone.

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I hear you man. I will continue to use them, but I've heard enough horror stories, so I respect how dangerous they can be. My nieces' hockey coach had three tendons torn up in his wrist. Five gallon, totally empty, disintegrated in his arms.

I was washing out my carboy the other day, picked it up to dump the water out, and whoopsie daisy, slipped and fell right onto the concrete

It was plastic, so it scuffed the bottom and I finished dumping it out

No regrets going all plastic

I like the Better Bottle idea, but they are way too expensive compared to a regular bucket. My local store has a Fermenter 6.5 Gal (w/ Lid/Spigot) for $ 12.95. I could buy two of those for the price of one Better Bottle, including tax.

Starderup said:

I like the Better Bottle idea, but they are way too expensive compared to a regular bucket. My local store has a Fermenter 6.5 Gal (w/ Lid/Spigot) for $ 12.95. I could buy two of those for the price of one Better Bottle, including tax.

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I don't consider another an additional $10 "way too expensive". But I guess that is relative to the observer.

I thought I was going to be reading about how you bought a conical of some sort...

I made the switch to better bottles and love em. They are nice and light and when they do slip, they bounce! I want a conical though...

Keff said:

I made the switch to better bottles and love em. They are nice and light and when they do slip, they bounce! I want a conical though...

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Naw, you don't want a conical. They don't bounce when you drop them.

I can't really complain about the BB's since I switched over to them from glass a while back. I loved the look of the glass carboys but the weight issue is what did me in. Lugging a 6+ gallon glass carboy up and down 2 flights of stairs was a killer. I now lug my 6 gal BB using a Brew Hauler and it is much, much easier. Cleaning the glass was also a PITA because of the dimensions of my wash basin. Again, the weight issue makes it easy to handle the BB in a wash basin. I never really worried about breaking the glass although it always was a distinct possibility I suppose. Montanaandy

passedpawn said:

I don't consider another an additional $10 "way too expensive". But I guess that is relative to the observer.

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I might not be getting the lowest price quote, but my LHBS has the un-ported 6 gallon BBs at $27.99, more than twice the price of a 6.5 bucket. Hence, the "way too expensive". Plus, with a spigot, no siphoning, and you leave behind the sediment a whole lot easier.

Starderup said:

I might not be getting the lowest price quote, but my LHBS has the un-ported 6 gallon BBs at $27.99, more than twice the price of a 6.5 bucket. Hence, the "way too expensive". Plus, with a spigot, no siphoning, and you leave behind the sediment a whole lot easier.

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Are you talking about spigotting from your primary to a secondary and/or bottling from your primary through the spigot? If so, I think you may have some issues with the yeast cake...

The spigot on my bottling bucket is above the yeast cake by a half inch or maybe a full inch. My only worry would be if the spigot leaked. Also, I could borrow a trick from the Mr. Beer fans, and tip the fermenter away from the spigot during fermentation. When it comes time to rack, you just gently level it, and leave all the sediment behind.

Starderup said:

Plus, with a spigot, no siphoning, and you leave behind the sediment a whole lot easier.

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Spigots are very convenient, true. I don't trust sanitizing around them, though. I have one on my bottling bucket and it always makes me a bit nervous. I disassemble it occasionally for cleaning.

Regarding siphoning, I do pretty well with this DIY autosiphon holder:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/autosiphon-holder-solution-revisited-163373/#post1887097

Good thing you weren't injured. I broke a 6.5 gal carboy a year or so ago, and that's not something I care to do again (wasn't hurt, but shards of glass literally coated my basement floor).

passedpawn said:

Spigots are very convenient, true. I don't trust sanitizing around them, though. I have one on my bottling bucket and it always makes me a bit nervous. I disassemble it occasionally for cleaning.

Regarding siphoning, I do pretty well with this DIY autosiphon holder:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/autosiphon-holder-solution-revisited-163373/#post1887097

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That just made me feel really stupid for flailing around like a moron last week trying to pump the autosiphon and make sure the hose was still in the bottling bucket and not stir up a crapstorm of trub. Thanks.

I don't know about THIS batch, but the next one should be a "Blanc de Shardless"

Touche!!!!