First screw up... boy.. with pic

I'm a beginner with 10 batches under my belt. Today i had my first disaster.

After brewing for a few hours..I went to lower my carboy into my swamp cooler and "CRASH"!!!!! I must not have been gentle enough while lowering and the whole thing shattered.



I'm pretty bummed out about losing the 5 gallons of wort and the carboy (which i'm borrowing so i owe my buddy a new one). But at least it broke in the swamp cooler which minimized my clean up.. still had to do a lot of mop up but it could have been worse if the whole thing dumped.

Just wanted to vent... thanks for listening...

oh boy, my simpathy.

I've only got two under my belt, and this kind of thing keeps me up at night. Perhaps I should get a swamp cooler, rather than put it on my hard concrete floor.

If you can get a milk crate it makes them a whole lot easier to move around. I use carboys but have one bucket that is easier to use, but you can't see what is going on

wow, stuff like that makes me think I will never buy a glass carboy

sorry to hear man!
there are so many horror stories about glass carboys and breaking them horridly. due to the pressure of the wort pushing on the glass, and if it breaks, the glass comes flying out. Amputation, tenon slices, arteries blown out. nothing but plastic in my brewery! be greatful it was in there and not on the floor!
http://brewing.lustreking.com/articles/brokencarboys.html
http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25146&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://www.google.com/search?q=glas...&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1270&bih=660

A carboy carrier or milk crate works well. Don't use the type of handle that you had on that carboy, it isn't designed to pick up a full carboy.

Wow, those are some scary stories - my carboy slipped and landed a little hard when I was returning it (empty) to its cardboard box on the garage concrete floor yesterday. So I've been wondering whether I might have damaged it in some way that won't become evident until it's full. Is that a reasonable concern, or should I just RDWHAHB?

Milk crate for moving it? GREAT idea. Thanks! Lugging it around full has been a little difficult. Although now having read some of those stories, and wanting to keep my hands, I think I'll invest in a Better Bottle. Too scary.

Sláinte,
SGZ

Better bottles FTW!

Yikes!

I've had a couple milk crates in my possession for a few years that I've kept for some strange sentimental reason from my early years. Little did I know how handy they would be for lugging around carboys.

Happy your disaster wasn't too serious!

ChuckO said:

Don't use the type of handle that you had on that carboy, it isn't designed to pick up a full carboy.

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Wait... what?

Really?

pietaster said:

Wait... what?

Really?

Click to expand...

According to Northernbrewer, they are designed to have one hand on the handle and one hand under the carboy. ChuckO is correct.

good to know..

I'm heading out to the LHBS on Tuesday.. and buying a couple Better Bottles.

Seeing some of these posts made me realize i'm pretty lucky that i didn't get hurt and didn't get glass every where.

Thank god i have two homebrews on tap to calm me down.

I have 2 5 gal. glass carboys that were given to me and I've used 1 once. I wouldn't lift it with just that handle. If you have to move one around, I would use a brew hauler..

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-brew-hauler.html

But, I agree...plastic FTW...better bottles all the way or some buckets.

dnslater said:

According to Northernbrewer, they are designed to have one hand on the handle and one hand under the carboy. ChuckO is correct.

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That sounds more akward and difficult than just hugging the carboy. If I had carboys I would have milk creates, just seems like the safest solution

If you are going to use glass carboys, having one of these should be mandatory.



Edit: didn't read all the replies, but others agree.

I have broken two carboys in the last couple years. One from a drunken maneuver, and the other was thermal shock. Hot wort and cold concrete don't like each other.

Things like this make me even more glad that I ferment in stainless steel... :rockin:

Ouch man I'm sorry for your loss

I really don't get how hard it can be to carry a carboy. I've got a couple and only use them for apfelwein really. Buckets for beer since that's what fits in my fermentation fridge.

Grab the neck with your right hand, tilt over, put left hand under bottom and lift. Reverse to put down. Don't be lazy and drop it. I get it if your'e old or disabled or something but thats what they make buckets for.

Let's have a moment of silence for a fallen beer...

Certainly a lesson for me. I'm grabbing a couple of straps when I hit my LHBS next.

And I'm raising a glass of homebrew in salute. You'll forgive me if I don't "pour some" for my fallen hommie. This stuff's too good.

be glad you weren't seriously hurt. sucks balls though. I use glass a majority of the time, but I also have some BBs.

I'm betting thermal shock. Wort was still pretty warm, right? and the water in teh cooler was already icy, right?.... yeah, don't do that

this is why i use better bottles. I gladly accept that they won't last forever in exchange for knowing this will never happen. sorry for your loss, pietaster.

is the name a reference to the band?

discnjh said:

is the name a reference to the band?

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As a matter of fact, the name is in reference to the band, one of my favorite bands of all time :rockin:! In fact i'm planning on seeing them in concert this Saturday!

Now I'm wish I had some better bottles. Some of those injury pics on Google looked scary . . .

Am I the only one with a fleeting suspicion that some of these glass horror stories we hear about are fabricated by the Better Bottle makers to drive up sales?

BTW, I am about to start my first brew in a BB, but I did just order a glass Paklab carboy from Amazon.

While we are the subject of disasters... here is what happened to us.

Whenever I read on here about another dropped or broken glass carboy, I always think of this post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/carboy-dangers-potential-death-232037/

yikes, was that spent grain or a cooler full of sparge water?

FYI - check out a recent BN interview with the Trogner brothers. Nugget Nectar is alledgedly 80% Vienna. I've got a few 1 gallon test batches so see if I can reproduce.

We actually collected 6 gallons in our first runnings, so we ended up with a nice, high gravity, 5 gal batch. Thanks for the info, this was a recipe we found on Hopville.com, not an exact clone, but a good beer none the less (minus 5 gallons).

ChuckO said:

A carboy carrier or milk crate works well. Don't use the type of handle that you had on that carboy, it isn't designed to pick up a full carboy.

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OK, it's the only type I've seen. It's what I've been using. What should we be using?

Mike

Never mind, just reread what you wrote. Sheesh..Long day at work.

Sacrilicious said:

Am I the only one with a fleeting suspicion that some of these glass horror stories we hear about are fabricated by the Better Bottle makers to drive up sales?

BTW, I am about to start my first brew in a BB, but I did just order a glass Paklab carboy from Amazon.

Click to expand...

No, we've been around here long enough to see our peers hurt themselves and post pictures to prove it. Of course, it could be a long term conspiracy where staff at the BB company joins HBT, poses noob questions, becomes accepted and then a year later fakes the pictures using stage blood.

You've got to admire a company with a solid 5-10 year strategy.

All the more reason to use plastic buckets.

MoronBrothersBrewery said:

While we are the subject of disasters... here is what happened to us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekuOyFXBMLU

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Jeez man, I saw your buddy (or maybe you) was wearing open toed sandals when that dropped, a 155 degree mash is enough to do some damage, hopefully you didn't catch a burn. Total bummer on a grain bill that large..

Sympathies to the OP, thank goodness for the swamp cooler. It's never crossed my mind that a carboy accident while filled would explode outward, which makes total sense, just one of those things most people don't think about but now I will. Good topic.

You can't blame the carboy...thats like blaming a hammer for hitting your thumb. You can hurt yourself doing anything....If i post pictures of car accidents is that gonna make you order online instead of driving to the LHBS?

that sucks....

+1 to buckets and better bottles.

pietaster said:

As a matter of fact, the name is in reference to the band, one of my favorite bands of all time :rockin:! In fact i'm planning on seeing them in concert this Saturday!

Click to expand...

Come on everybody, come on let's get wasted!!!