Thank god I spent $2.99......

So I am so glad that I spent the little bit of money on an over 6 gallon container. Glass carboy shattered and the pic explains it all. Reracked in a bucket and hoping for the best.

Good luck. I would have tried to save it too

i can't really tell what is going on here.

Looks like a bunch of wort sitting in it's own filth. Please explain what happened and what you did to save it. Me confused!

So, you re racked the wort from a shattered GLASS carboy? I would be concerned about tiny glass slivers in the final product.

Glass would be heavier than wort.

Not that I am saying it is a good idea..

I would do it

How?What? Why? Damaged and discounted? I would have thought about of restraining it,reboiling it and repitching it,depending how clean that basket was.

I'm lost ... what happened?

Just another reason a plastic bucket is my preference for fermentation.

seriously though...what happened??

looks like it just cracked and the beer seeped out into the surrounding container.

Atonk said:

I'm lost ... what happened?

Click to expand...

The op is going to simultaneously poison himself by infected beer while drinking shards of glass...

In all seriousness to the OP, how did the carboy break inside the tub?

nattron said:

View attachment 58411

So I am so glad that I spent the little bit of money on an over 6 gallon container. Glass carboy shattered and the pic explains it all. Reracked in a bucket and hoping for the best.

Click to expand...

Looks like your blow-off hose got clogged. I've read about that happening, but never seen a picture of it. Hard to believe that much pressure could build up, but there you go.

Swallowing shards of glass is bad enough, but passing them is something else entirely. No beer is worth the damage you potentially could do to yourself.

Filter really well if you decide to keep it.

bigbeergeek said:

The op is going to simultaneously poison himself by infected beer while drinking shards of glass...

In all seriousness to the OP, how did the carboy break inside the tub?

Click to expand...

I was doing my first parti-gyle and have two 6.5 gallon glass carboys - went to put the barleywine (4 gallons - 2 packs of SA 05) in my fermentation chamber (closet - only place I am allowed to keep my fermenting beer) when I set it down in the plastic container and bam-chug-drain-**%&#$. I think it hit the corner just right. I racked using my auto-siphon and a fine mesh strainer in to a sanitized bucket. I am not so much worried about the glass as when I move to secondary I will siphon above the trube/hop/glass mess (probably end up with only 3 gallons of beer) my main concern is that the plastic container holding my beer was rinsed out with water the day before but nowhere near sanitized.... I checked this morning and It is fermenting along with no bad smells so I am hoping for the best.

I will be going all plastic from now on.

nattron said:

I was doing my first parti-gyle and have two 6.5 gallon glass carboys - went to put the barleywine (4 gallons - 2 packs of SA 05) in my fermentation chamber (closet - only place I am allowed to keep my fermenting beer) when I set it down in the plastic container and bam-chug-drain-**%&#$. I think it hit the corner just right. I racked using my auto-siphon and a fine mesh strainer in to a sanitized bucket. I am not so much worried about the glass as when I move to secondary I will siphon above the trube/hop/glass mess (probably end up with only 3 gallons of beer) my main concern is that the plastic container holding my beer was rinsed out with water the day before but nowhere near sanitized.... I checked this morning and It is fermenting along with no bad smells so I am hoping for the best.

I will be going all plastic from now on.

Click to expand...

So you dropped it?

stompbox said:

So you dropped it?

Click to expand...

No - I literally just set it down - was not hard - I think it hit corner first and that was the end of that.

nattron said:

I think it hit corner first and that was the end of that.

Click to expand...

so you banged it around.

amandabab said:

so you banged it around.

Click to expand...

stompbox said:

So you dropped it?

Click to expand...

2 people who will realize the fragility of carboys only if and when it happens to themselves...

It looks like it could have been a ton worse nattron, your title says it all.

H-ost said:

2 people who will realize the fragility of carboys only if and when it happens to themselves...

It looks like it could have been a ton worse nattron, your title says it all.

Click to expand...

Agreed! I am now hoping that this near miss will have my wife rethink letting me buy a fermentation refrigerator. (she says we have too much plugged in as it is. 1 food refrig, 1 beer refrige, 1 kegeratior, 1 deep freeze and a wine frig - only the two of us and a 2 1/2 year old.)

I have two chest freezers as fermentation and aging chambers. Got them free off craiglist. A 5 gal corney keg works great as a fermenter although you can only do 4 gal of ale, lagers are ok at 5. We just attach a hose to the gas out (gray thingy). We have done this for years and the keg has handles is easy to move and will not break if you touch a corner. We have recycled 3 glass carboys. One full of wort. Boo hop hoo

I just switched to better bottles from glass carboys, and I couldn't be happier.

turkeyjerky214 said:

I just switched to better bottles from glass carboys, and I couldn't be happier.

Click to expand...

+1 to this. About a year ago I was at an AHA big brew event and saw someone shaking a glass carboy to aerate wort. They had it on towel, on a wooden workbench, and was just rocking it back and forth when the top 1/2 of the carboy seemed to come off in his hand.

I get the whole, but you banged it, you didn't treat it right, may have had a crack, etc, etc, etc...

After that I'm all Better Bottle all the time. I've got better things to worry about than being uber-special-careful with large glass containers on brew-day.

i gave my glass carboys away after we had kids because i would have a panic attack every time i was carrying a full carboy from the garage into the house and my little girl would come flying out of the house yelling "i want to help you daddy!". lots of people use them for years with no problems but i won't do it while i have kids around.

Glass breaks, It is what it does. 99% of all glass is on a countdown timer to being broken. This is not isolated to carboys, look at the hydrometer and thermometer count threads. However you do not hear people freaking out nearly like when a glass carboy breaks. "Zomg you need a digital thermometer so you don't cut yourself." - never posted... I do realize that people HAVE been seriously hurt by carboys but the same can be said about automobiles yet 90%ish of us drive.

To date, I have BOTH of my original hydrometers and have only broken 1 thermometer and it was 100% my fault. I actually really miss that thermometer and have yet to find a decent floating thermo replacement...I believe this is the universe punishing me for my own stupidity.

What blows my mind is how people treat glass carboys. I have a 3, 6 and 6.5 and use them often. My mother has probably 10 5-6 gallon glass carboys. (She makes wine and is in her 60's) NEVER have we lost even 1...as of yet.

Following some simple steps should help YOU keep yours and keep you out of the hospital...

- Do not use the carboy neck handles. These will add unnatural stresses to the neck.

- Do not EVER move or pic up a carboy full of ANYTHING there is no need to do it, even to clean them, make yourself a carboy washer with a pump and a bucket (The DIY section has many posts on these).

- When you must move an empty carboy across a room/a distance use a milk crate. I prefer the milk crate over the brew hauler straps for the same reasons I do not use the carboy neck handles.

- When handling/picking up an empty carboy remove all jewelry prior to doing so and be cautious of hard buttons/zippers (like the ones on bibs/coats) and use both hands, one on the neck and one on the bottom, never bear hug it.

- Be ready/anticipate it slipping, be ready to let it go and jump back at any moment. The less time it is in your hands the better.

- Do not aerate wort/must by shaking, rocking or rolling it. Aerate prior to or on the way into the carboy.

- Never add any liquid that is not within a few degrees of the carboy and make sure the carboy is not in a place where a strange temp shift can occur (Like in front/on top of a vent.)

- Do not 1/2 submerge a glass carboy in a tub of ice water because of the temp differential with or without a t-shirt over it, same reason I would not use a brew belt (electric heater) on one.

- Do not use a carboy with a visible chip or crack, replace it immediately and recycle the old one.

I feel that glass carboys are better than Better Bottles because of sanitation and long term oxygen permeability. Do not get me wrong, I also use Ale Pails and my most favorite fermenters are sanke kegs, hands down. I use my carboys mostly for bulk aging wines because I do not want to tie up a sanke and do not trust an Ale Pail or Better Bottle for a year-ish of bulk aging.

I wish all safe and happy brews!

I like my glass carboy... I suppose I should start the countdown clock.

+1 Zamial, forwarned is forarmed or something like that!

Sheldon

Better bottles all the way. I understand the importance of being careful but I also understand the importance of Murphie's law.

Those carboy carriers! Not good. Mine slipped right out when the straps were wet. That is the day I lost my wort. One was just putting back into the milk crate empty. I just carefully and slowly put it back and it went to shards when it touched the bottom. No idea why. My grandfather raised sheep, and he said that they were an animal born looking for a place to die. Amen on the Carboy Countdown Clock.

One could obey all the rules in Zamial's very good post, full of very good advice...

Or one could buy plastic carboys instead and not worry about it. That's what I did (like eastoak, largely inspired by concerns for the kids) and I have zero regrets. It helps that I got started recently so I didn't have a big stock of carboys from the pre-BetterBottle days, but the risk just doesn't seem worth it.

For the cheapskates, find 5 gallon PET water jugs and use them as better bottles. I get mine for $6 deposit at the local supermarket.

the oxygen permeability of better bottles has been documented to be very, very low, too low to really matter here is a link to the better bottle site that also has links at the bottom to studies done on this issue.

So I am going all plastic now (almost) I am keeping one glass 5 gallon carboy for bulk ageing . I have a barleywine in there that needs 1.5 more months. I also have bought/build a refrigerator ferm chamber that will be in my shed out back so no more glass inside.

nattron said:

So I am so glad that I spent the little bit of money on an over 6 gallon container. Glass carboy shattered and the pic explains it all. Reracked in a bucket and hoping for the best.

Click to expand...

Here is the saved beer. Still green but tastes great!

nattron said:

View attachment 58411

So I am so glad that I spent the little bit of money on an over 6 gallon container. Glass carboy shattered and the pic explains it all. Reracked in a bucket and hoping for the best.

Click to expand...

Don't know about the pic explaining it all. It's to small for me to make out anyting but a carboy half full of something.

Grow a pair and start fermenting in kegs.

E-Mursed said:

Grow a pair and start fermenting in kegs.

Click to expand...

That would be safe.

nattron said:

That would be safe.

Click to expand...

Damn straight....130psi before they blow.

Try that with your glass carboy, bucket, or better bottle.

E-Mursed said:

Damn straight....130psi before they blow.

Try that with your glass carboy, bucket, or better bottle.

Click to expand...

Now all I need is some kegs I can buy for the right price.

nattron said:

Now all I need is some kegs I can buy for the right price.

Click to expand...

...holding breath...