Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

doctor strangebrew said:

Yes... good ol Jimmy Carter. 100 gallons a year (plus another 100 if you have a mate in the household)

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Finally! A reason to not live alone!

day_trippr said:

I would not be surprised to read that ~80% of carboy failures happen with wet hands.
Then you have the dry-handed drops, random collisions with inelastic objects, and the thermal-shocked-bottom-fell-outs...

Cheers!

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That's how mine broke. It was a combination of things but dry hands would of prevented it. An uncluttered work area would of helped too.

A friend just gave me his old glass carboys (5 gallon and 3 gallon) They look just like the one I had 20 years ago so I am comfortable using them, especially the smaller 3 gallon. I will be extra careful because of the horror stories on this thread.

I switched back to buckets a few years ago primarily because I can clean them much easier, they stack, and they are cheap. i frequently have 3-4 fermenting at the same time and the cost for all 4 fermenters is still less than one glass carboy.
all my glass carboys have Christmas lights in them now and look very festive out on the patio

Mic Carp said:

I switched back to buckets a few years ago primarily because I can clean them much easier, they stack, and they are cheap. i frequently have 3-4 fermenting at the same time and the cost for all 4 fermenters is still less than one glass carboy.
all my glass carboys have Christmas lights in them now and look very festive out on the patio

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Be careful, the thermal cycling from the lights may cause a catastrophic failure....

kh54s10 said:

Be careful, the thermal cycling from the lights may cause a catastrophic failure....

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ha ha Jug light explosion

I have read through a few of those post, but I don't see anyone mentioning some kind of a rubber sleeve or container for glass carboys. Are those available, and would that resolve some of the glass challenges?

Cidre Breton said:

I have read through a few of those post, but I don't see anyone mentioning some kind of a rubber sleeve or container for glass carboys. Are those available, and would that resolve some of the glass challenges?

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There are various ways of dealing with the breakable nature of glass carboys, including milk crates, carriers, and neoprene covers. That last one is probably the closest to what you're suggesting, as well as one of the most expensive - might as well go stainless at that point, methinks. These all mitigate the risks of using glass, but nothing really eliminates the possibility of catastrophic failure. A dropped full carboy in a neoprene cover is almost as certain to shatter as an unprotected one, though the neoprene should contain most, if not all of the glass shards.

My sole carboy lives in an old brew bucket. My theory is that it not only makes it easier to carry, less likely to break, and less likely to cut me if it does break, but it should also contain the mess if it breaks in such a way that the bucket doesn't fall over.

brewed a 10 gallon batch of IPA and racked the wort to two glass carbouys. First is a classic 6.5 gallon carbouy and the second is a glass wide mouth bubbler. I intended to transport the carbouys from my brew space (garage) into my empty keezer loacted in my basement to complete chilling the wort while i finish preparing my yeast. Both carbouys were using brewhauler carriers for easier lifting. I moved 6.5 carbouy into the house and thought about the HUGE mess if i happen to drop a carbouy when decending the stairs to the basement. Then i picked up the WideMouth using the brewhauler and within 5 steps, the bucke of the hauler broke and out tumbled the carbouy to shatter on my garage floor. I will NOT be hauling carbouys to the basement anymore.

Oh dang that sucks !! ^^^^^

Btw is that a RC-51 I see there ?

On the plus side, I bet your garage floor is DELICIOUS!!

At least it happened in the garage....

Ugh. Feeling the pain in that picture. Sorry for your loss.
Time to whip up a replacement batch

Cheers! (I'm guessing there isn't a ringing endorsement of Brew Hauler forthcoming...)

At least the ants aren't out yet.

I started using my wife's flower pot carts to move my carboys around. Much easier on the back/safer

It's been >3 years since last post. There was a contribution to this weekly back then. I guess people are being more careful.

Have you seen the price of carboys now days

OleBrewing said:

Have you seen the price of carboys now days

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It's a bloodbath!!

Yikes, $78 for a 6-gallon carboy on Amazon (at least it's the better Italian-made model). I'm seeing $50-60 for the cheap Chinese carboys at brewing suppliers. If the brew store doesn't state where it's made, they're probably the cheap ones.

I got one glass carboy that is about 6 gal, I guess. It holds 5 gal with some headspace. I was wandering around in kind of a junk shop and they had a water cooler in the back with a glass carboy holding the water and an empty sitting next to it. One of the really heavy commercial ones with the rib pattern in the glass. I told the lady who owned the shop I would love to have one to use as a fermenter. She said, “They make me pay a $5 deposit on the carboys. If you really want it, pay the deposit and it’s yours”. That was probably 30 years ago. I always use a web carboy harness. I’ve never trusted those handles that lift em by the neck. I also rarely move it when it’s full. If I do it’s usually just up onto a table or something. Haven’t used it in a while tho. Siphoning sux. My go-tos are the Speidel and the Anvil stainless.

I just gave the three I had away to my buddy who makes mead. I'm make sure to tell him not to grease 'em up before moving them.

MaxStout said:

Yikes, $78 for a 6-gallon carboy on Amazon (at least it's the better Italian-made model). I'm seeing $50-60 for the cheap Chinese carboys at brewing suppliers. If the brew store doesn't state where it's made, they're probably the cheap ones.

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many years ago the best ones seemed to be made in Mexico. They had the least amount of air pockets and heavier thickness of glass. those 15 gallon demijohns are scary but never had an issue with them as long as lifting with the basket.

still have the glass but for short ferments i will use buckets and replace every so often. glass is still a great long term storage solution but with the price of 5 gallon kegs for that purpose it is mute.

MaxStout said:

Yikes, $78 for a 6-gallon carboy on Amazon (at least it's the better Italian-made model). I'm seeing $50-60 for the cheap Chinese carboys at brewing suppliers. If the brew store doesn't state where it's made, they're probably the cheap ones.

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Dang. I just struck GOLD in my outdoor shed! I’ve got ten or more glass carboys from 2½ to 6 gallon capacity. Some I got in the 70s from a bottled water place in Maine for $3 deposit. Half a dozen Big Mouth Bubblers and Speidel fermenters to boot. SWMBO’d has been nagging me to thin the herd. Somebody make me an offer so I can finance a Clawhammer kegmenter.

OleBrewing said:

many years ago the best ones seemed to be made in Mexico. They had the least amount of air pockets and heavier thickness of glass. those 15 gallon demijohns are scary but never had an issue with them as long as lifting with the basket.

still have the glass but for short ferments i will use buckets and replace every so often. glass is still a great long term storage solution but with the price of 5 gallon kegs for that purpose it is mute.

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You’re right. The only thing I use glass for these days is bulk aging wine. Currently have four 6 gallon carboys aging red wines in a sub-grade basement area closet: dark, no vibration, stable temperature 60F +/- 5F year round.

Brooothru said:

Dang. I just struck GOLD in my outdoor shed! I’ve got ten or more glass carboys from 2½ to 6 gallon capacity. Some I got in the 70s from a bottled water place in Maine for $3 deposit. Half a dozen Big Mouth Bubblers and Speidel fermenters to boot. SWMBO’d has been nagging me to thin the herd. Somebody make me an offer so I can finance a Clawhammer kegmenter.

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Let me know how much you want for the Big Mouth Bubblers / Speidel fermenters.

skunkape said:

I got one glass carboy that is about 6 gal, I guess. It holds 5 gal with some headspace. I was wandering around in kind of a junk shop and they had a water cooler in the back with a glass carboy holding the water and an empty sitting next to it. One of the really heavy commercial ones with the rib pattern in the glass. I told the lady who owned the shop I would love to have one to use as a fermenter. She said, “They make me pay a $5 deposit on the carboys. If you really want it, pay the deposit and it’s yours”. That was probably 30 years ago. I always use a web carboy harness. I’ve never trusted those handles that lift em by the neck. I also rarely move it when it’s full. If I do it’s usually just up onto a table or something. Haven’t used it in a while tho. Siphoning sux. My go-tos are the Speidel and the Anvil stainless.

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30 years ago I got two glass carboys. I got them in Mexico & paid $6.50 each. The glass is very thick with ribbing. Never had a problem with them. I never worried too much about them. I stopped using the when I went with SS fermenters & never looked back.

I don't think I would be brewing beer if my only fermentation vessel choice was a carboy, glass or otherwise.

"Brewing In Glass Since 2004"



All six of my fermentors are 6.5g Italian carboys...

Cheers!

I have a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon, which I haven’t used for years. Probably a good thing too since I’m finding hairline cracks in the bottoms of my fermonters presumably from bumps during cleaning. Of course I‘ve always been much more careful with the glass. SS needs some careful handling as a wouldn’t want to dent the thin Anvil bucket, though.

bike2brew said:

I don't think I would be brewing beer if my only fermentation vessel choice was a carboy, glass or otherwise.

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Man, I have brewed a lot of stuff in that glass carboy. And I have used it as a secondary many times. But, yeah - I was happier brewing in a bucket than a carboy. But I do miss seeing the action thru the glass.

fwiw, I treat my carboys like live munitions Most importantly they have never experienced significant delta-T° events, which aside from impact events is what I believe causes a lot of the horror shows illustrated on HBT when the bottoms fall off.

For example, today I filled four kegs after having cold-crashed the carboys for a couple of days. They were sitting at 36°F, and after filling the kegs, I set them all on my sink-side bench for a few hours to thoroughly warm up to room temperature before cleaning them with room temperature water.

It's a minor inconvenience, but I've been using 5 of my 6 carboys for 20 years now, one having been tossed after I nailed it in its 19th year with a dangling camlock which put a nice star in the sidewall...

Cheers!

Here's a few more that aren't in the thread above.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/broken-glass-carboy-horror-stories-compendium.376523/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/thank-god-i-spent-2-99.323311/#post4019407

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/carboy-vs-thumb.334851/

Love the pictures of the bloody hands and scars. That said my 1st fermenter was a plastic brew demon and I also loved watching the fermentation action and krausen formation. However my SS brew bucket is much more convenient and easier to clean I am glad to have it and can't imagine going backwards. Not taking anything away from experience of using the plastic bucket or glass carboy just glad I started brewing in this era rather than the good old days.

Cool! The last "Ketchup Movie" I saw was during Driver's Ed in junior high school...

Cheers!

I banned glass vessels from my home brewery about 4 year ago. I almost had one of these horror stories and realized there was no reason to use glass carboys in an age when we have so many other safer and more convenient options.