1 Gallon Carboys

I'm looking to purchase some 1 Gallon carboys soon. The stoppers I've all looked at clearly say "Not recommended for 1 Gallon glass carboys." Is this a problem with sizes? I'm confused. Can someone offer me some insight to these occurrences?

The gallon sized ones I have are just jugs with a typical thread and the little finger loop. The mouths of mine are quite thin glass. If you got a blockage during fermentation, I'm sure the bottle could easily blow apart. The only other thing I can think of is that a stopper that small has little give, and with some weight behind it, could probably break the bottle also. I have fermented juice in mine with a typical blow off tube, then stopper with airlock. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again, but I am careful of the delicate mouth

Here's a couple solutions Cheesepolp:

1) Learn to like (or tolerate) Carlo Rossi
2) Don't use a stopper with an airlock/blow-off. Aluminum foil FTW

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

Here's a couple solutions Cheesepolp:

1) Learn to like (or tolerate) Carlo Rossi
2) Don't use a stopper with an airlock/blow-off. Aluminum foil FTW

Click to expand...

Instead of #1, just buy apple juice and turn it into cider.

#6 rubber stoppers (just one size smaller than the 5 gallon carboy stoppers) work fine. Here's a picture of some of mine:



The 1 gallon jugs use #6 stoppers, the wine bottle stopper is smaller (I think #4, but check for sure if you want one!), and the 3 gallon carboy uses a #7 stopper, just as the 5 gallon carboys do.

As Reno said, drink Carlo Rossi- it comes in 4L jugs and the stoppers work great. Or go dumpster diving for them.

Don't BUY gallon jugs! They're about $6, and the Carlo Rossi wine is about the same price. You can use the wine for spaghetti sauce or to make Sangria. No need to spend money on empty jugs, when they come full for the same price!

i posted a list a while back about https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/rubber-stopper-sizes-107677/ this may help in the future

Buy apple juice. A jug costs like 5 bucks empty, or 6 bucks full of apple juice... Its a much better deal, make yourself a batch of apfelwein.

Orangevango said:

Buy apple juice. A jug costs like 5 bucks empty, or 6 bucks full of apple juice... Its a much better deal, make yourself a batch of apfelwein.

Click to expand...

They cost $16 here.

I got my jugs from Ernest and Julio Gallo.

VETO on both the number 5 stoppers, and the Carlo Rossi suggestions.

I had to shave a number five stopper. Go to your LHBS and ask him for something that fits a 1 gallon wine jug. He'll have what you need, and he'll probably hand it off for free.

Livingston Burgandy is a great table wine, if you've never had it before. It's cheap, and easy to enjoy. It comes in 1 gallon jugs, which are great fermenters. I heartily recommend it.

Maybe I'm confused but I think Rossi bottles use #6 bungs. They fit perfectly and Rossi isn't all that bad, people are making this sound hard. I've never had a rossi exposion or anything and I had a raspberry beer blow an airlock into my ceiling with much force, raspberries were 10 feet away! Use a 2 gal home depot bucket or a 5$ ss stock pot for a primary if you have fruit anyways, you will just blow your airlock off if you primary a bunch of fruit in a gallon container and also when you rack off the fruit you will have to top off way too much.

Yooper,
Why the 1 piece airlocks? I use the 3 piece (my lhbs carries them) but I am always cracking them or losing a piece, maybe ordering some like you use would be a good idea? Or maybe you are like me and just use what you can get as long as it does the job right...

+1 to Mr. Nice Guy. I blew the CRAP out of a Raspberry spritzer. Beer EVERYWHERE. But it was fine when I bottled it, and there was no explosion.

I like the 1 piece airlock myself. Nothing to break, less to clean, less stuff to futz with. It's louder bubbling though.

Mr. Nice Guy said:

Yooper,
Why the 1 piece airlocks? I use the 3 piece (my lhbs carries them) but I am always cracking them or losing a piece, maybe ordering some like you use would be a good idea? Or maybe you are like me and just use what you can get as long as it does the job right...

Click to expand...

That's just what I've used almost all the time for wines. I have both, but I just seem to like the one piece airlocks the most. They are $.89 at my LHBS, so that's probably the main reason. I have at least two dozen airlocks.

I have many #7, #6, #11 (I think- for the better bottles), and other assorted sized stoppers, too. I have several carboy caps, but don't like them after I had a red wine oxidize from using it for 6 months. So, I stick with the bungs and airlocks.

Cool, thanks. $.89 would rock, I have like $30 or $40 in airlocks at $1.50 each, lol.

I wondered about capping off wine, my concord wine has a cap, maybe I'll go ahead and bottle it.

I've got a bunch of these one gallon jugs which I use as a secondary for applewine, mead, and fruitwines:

1 Gallon glass Jug :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies

I use this number 6 drilled stopper with the S-type airlock:

Rubber Stopper- Size 6- Drilled :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies

For primary fermentation of the above, I use a 1.5 gallon plastic bucket drilled for an airlock. I would NOT primary in the 1 gallon glass jars myself.

I saw $16 gallon jugs at the brew store. I couldn't stomach that much jug wine, got tired of apple juice after two gallons, so I looked online and found this:

$3.85 per jug or $3.15 for more than 16... Also, I contacted them to verify that they are FDA food grade. (not sure if any glass is not food grade, but I wanted to be safe.)

http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item/G002

Necroed.

Vintage. I do find this useful though. Ive been considering small batches, or split batches at least, and these are cheap. Wonder what size stopper they use.

Never mind, ripoff. $10 "small order fee" (didn't know they hand made these to order...) and $20 to ship to me. They sound like a wholesaler that doesn't like selling to end users.

RainyDay said:

Vintage. I do find this useful though. Ive been considering small batches, or split batches at least, and these are cheap. Wonder what size stopper they use.

Click to expand...

As a general rule for the 4L/1Gal sizes the ones that have a round hole will take a 6-1/2 the ones like the Carlo Rossi, with a handle, take a 6. I have a 5L erlenmeyer flask that I use as a primary when I am not making a monster starter. And then secondary into the jugs. It works well for meads or small run wine/beer.

I use these and HIGHLY recommend them. They're amazing:

http://labelpeelers.com/38-mm-plastic-screw-cap-with-hole-p-2501.html

Doesn't every lhbs sell growlers for a few bucks?

JeffoC6 said:

I use these and HIGHLY recommend them. They're amazing:

http://labelpeelers.com/38-mm-plastic-screw-cap-with-hole-p-2501.html

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link to these. I'm new to brewing and this is what my current gallon kit has for a cap.
Want to keep my equipment consistent for when I get another jug.

EDIT:
Just realized I did a thread necro. Sorry about that guys! Forum noob mistake.