Dropped my glass carboy today...

....into the bathtub......it shattered..... "sigh"

in chimes the "get a better bottle"

I haven't dropped one yet, too scared to.

mdf191 said:

....into the bathtub......it shattered..... "sigh"

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Well, apparently no blood was spilled or you'd be in the emergency room instead of posting here. That's the good news.

Any beer or wort spilled?

I droped mine twice in one day outside on the lawn while cleaning it, I was scared it would break. I fixed that problem I went out and bought a conical.

"Brew Hauler" is all you need.

Hope you didn't get hurt or loose any beer.

Cheers

I posted this twice yesterday, but I think it's good to get the word out how dangerous that glass carboys can be. Glad you weren't hurt.

Here is a list of stories from people that have been seriously injured by glass carboys.

I love my Better Bottles. My back loves my Better Bottles. My arteries & tendons love my Better Bottles.

I'd invest in better bottles like Ed suggest. They are a lot safer and easier on your arms if you aren't buff. I enjoy the safe aspect and I'm not exactly a body builder so better bottles were an easy choice for me.

Were you carrying it without any kind of handle?

I have nothing against better bottles, in fact I've never used one, but I've never had an issue transporting glass carboys. What makes these containers heavy is the 5 gallons of dense wort that's inside of them.

I've never weighed a glass carboy (empty of full), but when you're hauling 40-50 lbs of beer around I wouldn't think that the few extra lbs that the bglass weighs is going to make that much of a difference.

Get handles for $6 each or get a hauler if you want to stay with glass. Or switch to better bottles.

Weight is a relative thing. I've seen people lift a full carboy over their heads and shake it. For me, the difference between glass and plastic puts me at the edge of what I can handle, so I stick to plastic. I buy 60 lb sacks of concrete for the same reason, can't handle 80's easily.

ohiobrewtus said:

Get handles for $6 each

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But NEVER use the handle to carry a full carboy!

+1 for the brewhauler - it makes things so much easier.

milk crates are life savers. I really only use my glass carboys for wine and small batches these days, but I've never come close to dropping one. The mink crate acts as a shock absorber too if you set it down hard.

I try to empty my glass carboys before I move them, keep the outside dry and hold them by the bottom. I do most of my fermenting in corny kegs with Pasties on them. But sometimes I will use a glass carboy, I am just very careful with them.

My girlfriend laughed at me when i bought a better bottle this weekend. She said "You should just get glass, it'll probably last longer and wont absorb odors of previous beers." and I said "yeah, but it wont shatter and kill me like glass when I drop it, and you know i am clumsy"

Who's laughing now?!

Also, sorry about your carboy.

firepunk said:

My girlfriend laughed at me when i bought a better bottle this weekend. She said "You should just get glass, it'll probably last longer and wont absorb odors of previous beers."

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That's the only reason I haven't invested in a better bottle yet. The plastic buckets I used to use for primary were bad enough about absorbing odours. Does anyone find that better bottles start to smell like sanitizer or old beers?

Yeah, and I was there with you, Judd, when we broke a glass carboy of Apfelwein and cut your foot up. And did a number on the flooring. And lost several gallons of Apfelwein.

And yet we still use glass. I just feel more comfortable with it. (With a BB, I'd always be afraid of infection living on in scratches, or chlorine lingering like it did in primary buckets, or whatever.)

That said, perhaps it's time to consider.

Kai said:

Yeah, and I was there with you, Judd, when we broke a glass carboy of Apfelwein and cut your foot up.

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I remember that. Good times.

rdwj said:

milk crates are life savers. I really only use my glass carboys for wine and small batches these days, but I've never come close to dropping one. The milk crate acts as a shock absorber too if you set it down hard.

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For even more safety, putting a few sheets of corrugated cardboard in the bottom of the milk crate softens the impact even more if it's dropped.

It seams like the key to avoiding injury from a glass carboy is, if you drop it don't react by trying to catch it, rather you should quickly move back away from where it is falling.

I love my BB. I use it rarely since I usually brew bigger batches and ferment them in stainless. However, it doesn't smell, and it has always made a pretty tasty brew. I make apfelwein in it now with no issues at all. As long as you don't scrub the inside, you won't get scratches.

Well thanks for everyones concern. And no i did not bleed out from the incident...didn't lose any beer either! It was actually and empty carboy I was cleaning out that I had just used as a primary. While cleaning I was sloshing water around in it and lost my grip. SMASH! It was more a problem of a shower/bath of broken glass to clean that was the issue.... the one place you will always not have shoes on, and I get it covered in glass! Took numerous sweeping, vacuming and scrubbings to get the little pieces out that wanted to cling to the wet areas! But when all was said and done, I suppose I had to have at least one disaster in my brewing career, and it could have been a lot worse! The beer from that primary is quietly and safely sleeping in my secondary as we speak!

z987k said:

in chimes the "get a better bottle"

I haven't dropped one yet, too scared to.

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I saw one better bottle crack. My LBHS was showing a customer how you can drop it and it won't crack and then after he looked and it was cracked......... oooops. He laughed and said well it finally cracked but this one is my demo and I have dropped it over 50 times and no crack until now. I know they are better than glass for cracking but not uncrackable.

I've been carrying my better bottles full using a neck carrier. The guy at my LHBS said it was OK. Is that a bad idea?

eviljafar said:

I've been carrying my better bottles full using a neck carrier. The guy at my LHBS said it was OK. Is that a bad idea?

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The danger is there's a chance you can snap off the neck of the bottle when carrying it with a handle. How much of a chance, prob not much of one, however for a few $ more I'll use a brewhauler for my glass carboys.

That being said... I've got 4 better bottles and I love them.

Hate to sidetrack the thread a bit, but I would like to know a good way to get some milk crates, I like that it'd be easier to carry and would lessen an impact somewhat, and I'm really short on cash so the $15 for a brewhauler for each of my 3 carboys is a bit higher than I'd like to spend at this time. Thanks!

I got better bottles free from work at the water cooler. No one ever complained about one missing here and there. They never harbored smells or sanitizer, and I can't imagine a neck popping off of one.

cheezydemon said:

I got better bottles free from work at the water cooler. No one ever complained about one missing here and there. They never harbored smells or sanitizer, and I can't imagine a neck popping off of one.

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Those aren't the same as better bottles - different kind of plastic. I think (most) water bottles are oxygen permeable = bad for beer.

conpewter said:

Hate to sidetrack the thread a bit, but I would like to know a good way to get some milk crates, I like that it'd be easier to carry and would lessen an impact somewhat, and I'm really short on cash so the $15 for a brewhauler for each of my 3 carboys is a bit higher than I'd like to spend at this time. Thanks!

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Just get one brewhauler. You can move them between carboys very easy.

Lil' Sparky said:

Those aren't the same as better bottles - different kind of plastic. I think (most) water bottles are oxygen permeable = bad for beer.

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Yeah exactly. If those water cooler bottles worked, I doubt Better Bottles would be in business. Not to mention, they're 5 gallons which means bad for primary in most people's brewhouses. I guess they'd work for some short term storage but I'll stick to my BBs...

lustreking said:

But NEVER use the handle to carry a full carboy!

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I've done this more times than I can remember and never once had a problem. I've never even come lose to having a problem.

ohiobrewtus said:

I've done this more times than I can remember and never once had a problem. I've never even come lose to having a problem.

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. . . yet.

So many of us like to leave out that critical word when it comes to safety. I've been brewing for 15 years. I've hauled 5 and 6.5 gallon glass carboys lifted them onto counters or over deep freeze walls, set them maybe a little too hard onto the floor, banged a couple empty ones into walls, and lost control of a few empty ones in the tub while washing, but I've never broken one . . . yet.

Like the other folks said, Brew-Haulers cost something like $15, but you can use one for all your carboys (especially if they are the same size - it's a pain to adjust them). Better Bottles cost the same as a new carboy.

I've taken the plunge on a couple Brew-Haulers several years ago and a couple Better Bottles recently, and I haven't regretted it. ( no ". . . yet" there).


TL

firepunk said:

My girlfriend laughed at me when i bought a better bottle this weekend. She said "You should just get glass, it'll probably last longer and wont absorb odors of previous beers." and I said "yeah, but it wont shatter and kill me like glass when I drop it, and you know i am clumsy"

Who's laughing now?!

Also, sorry about your carboy.

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She probably knew that, you should keep an eye for suspicious activity from said "girlfriend".

Heh..

I love the milk crate! I use them all the time, the 5 gallon carboys have some room to move, but with a couple of towels or cardboard its no problem. The 6.5 gallon carboys have a nice snug fit. I like the idea of the cardboard on the bottom. I acquired my milk crates during spring cleaning, I saw them on the side of the road. The milk crates also work good for giving a boost to a smaller mash tun for gravity feed, I place one under my 5 gallon rubbermaid tun all the time, and I suppose 2 of them would work great for one of those rectangular coolers.

Soulive21 said:

Yeah exactly. If those water cooler bottles worked, I doubt Better Bottles would be in business. Not to mention, they're 5 gallons which means bad for primary in most people's brewhouses. I guess they'd work for some short term storage but I'll stick to my BBs...

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Just think, that little dent you got in your BB would have been a pile of shards if it were a glass carboy. I need to score a few more 6 gallon ones. I wish they'd come out with a 6.5 or even 7g version with a slightly thicker wall.

I have two glass carboys and one BB. Couple of adjustments I made in the brew shop:

1) Placed thick carpet swatches in all areas where I would be handling carboys.
2) Swapped out my metal hose sprayer for plastic (the sound of a metal hose sprayer clinking on that glass every time I sprayed it out made me shudder.
3) Use a pair of rubber gloves to handle glass carboys…insures no slippery grips.
4) Once rinsed out, carboys are drained and stored in milk crates.

Just bought 2 6 gal BBs saturday

Hrm perhaps this is the way to approach SWMBO about that conical I want... "Gee honey I could get hurt if I dropped one of these, I would be *much* safer if I had this nice conical....."


Don't think it would work, but hey it's worth a shot