Sha-doobie Shattered, Shattered...

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Ponduke

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Boonville IN
I wonder how it would have tasted…

Well, I brewed Saturday. Made me an Ale I called “Brown Porter Wagner” 5 gallon full boil, specialty grain, etc. Got the wort boiled for an hour, chilled with IC, racked to fermenter, lifted the carboy to move to ice bath, didn’t double check the tightness of the wing-nut on the carboy lifting handle that clamps around the neck of carboy, carboy slips out of handle, falls to concrete garage floor, explodes like a wet, sticky grenade, and puts me, SWMBO, and my brewing buddy immediately into shock. We stare in silence at the wet floor and glass shards that now surrounds us for about 30 seconds, none of us moving or even breathing, we all just freeze in place, slowly letting the suck factor of this occurrence sink in. It literally took me 10 seconds to mentally process the fact that our time and money invested in this day’s brewing session was now being licked off the floor by our fourth brewing buddy, Tucker the dog. Suddenly my buddy and my wife break out in uncontrollable fits of laughter, I am slower to come around, but after realizing no one is hurt, I too begin to find the humor, albeit begrudgingly. Why cry over spilt wort! We reign in the dog to prevent the further disaster of a bloody paw or two, teamed up with brooms and the garden hose, and finally sat back with a homebrew (My second ever, and man that one turned out great by the way!) and talked about what could have been.

Lessons learned the hard way are the ones you never forget. I can assure you, that particular mistake will never happen again. There are plenty blunders I will make over the coming years of my brewing career, but a shattered carboy due to loose wing-nut will never again ruin brew day. This I declare!

Speaking of, next brew day will be this Sunday. Not sure what we’ll brew, but I’m leaning toward a nut brown ale that I think I’ll call “Wing-Nut Brown Ale”.
:D
 
That sucks. If it is one of those handles that just goes around the neck, it isn't safe for lifting a full carboy! The neck cant handle that much weight!
 
Nobody was hurt. Your brewing experience will grow faster as you rebrew. Ruining a few batches is part of the learning curve. ;)

I like the Brew Hauler (carboy web). I never handle glass without it, and I use Better Bottles and pails as primaries because I don't like the idea of a 6.5 gallon glass grenade.
 
+ 1,000,0000,000 on NEVER lifting a full carboy with one of those handles unless it's a plastic BB carboy.

All my glass has the Brewhauler on them.
 
After hearing the many horror stories involving glass carboy injuries, some of them first hand, I ALWAYS use the Brew Hauler and to move my full carboys. And that is just to lower or lift them out of a milk crate. If they're empty and I have to move them, I wear some leather work gloves. I know a guy who severed a bunch of tendons in his arm emptying the last little bit of out of a carboy. Didn't bang it or anything, it just disintegrated in his hands.
 
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