Another Vote For Plastic instead of glass - Pics

Well...... tonight after I made 10 gallons of a Bass Ale Clone, I proceeded to put the 2 glass carboys into my freezer where I had 6 gallons of my FIRST wine fermenting. It was day 13 for the wine. I had 5 gallons of apple juice sitting outside the freezer on the floor which caused me to lean a little awkwardly whilst placing the 1st beer carboy into the freezer when it happened.... tink! Barely tapped the full 5 gallons of beer down onto the wine carboy and POP!!! I wanted to cry..... (really). It popped a hole in the upper corner of the wine carboy and I lost about a half gallon into the freezer.

I went ahead and transferred the wine to a sanitized bucket with a santized autosiphon just in case I could save it. I have a filter/sift that fits in the top of a bucket which is pretty fine. Should I try to rack this into another bucket when it is time and sift it as I am sure there is glass is in it?

I kept the auto siphon off the bottom and waited 30 minutes for it to settle some b4 I transferred it to the bucket. Racked 5 of the 6 gallons.

Here are some of the pictures:

Glass inside the carboy



Its new home



The filter/strainer I have that fits inside the bucket top-

Please be careful. Glass can float also. It won't all drop out.

I always use milk crates when lifting or transporting carboys (except when empty).

Is a batch worth abdominal surgery? I would call that one a loss.

I am so sorry. That would freak me out every time i had a glass. For me it's not worth the piece of mind. I know you probably got all the glass but the idea of "what if" would kill me.

Thats exactly what I was thinking. $70 down the drain, but it's not worth the risk. It sure smells so good!!

Where did you get the strainer?

richbrostrom said:

Where did you get the strainer?

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+1
where did you find that strainer? Is it a perfect fit for buckets without being held?

Wow, sorry to hear of your loss, but no need to sound the alarms!

The reasons your carboy's went "tink" is because they were full. An empty carboy would have given you the "CRASH" you were looking for.

I also find it funny on this forum that evertime there is an OMGMCBB (Oh My God My CarBoy Broke) thread... the ensuing pics feature a carboy handle. Not saying you used it to lift the cb/ but I know some do. Almost everyh OMGMCBB is followed up with a "Plastic from now on".

What's funny as hell, people actually take bags of ground up plastic and toss it into thier beer and wine to make it "better". You should thank your lucky god that you have your wine filtered with glass.

Trust me, rack and filter, you will be fine.


Everyone, keep up the carboy fear, eventuallyt the price will drop and I can pick up a few more at low cost!

Just out of curiosity, why is the thermometer strip on the bucket lid? Am I the only one who noticed this?

Trust me, rack and filter, you will be fine.

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I agree, if you put it through a fine strainer, like the one you have, you will be fine. A shard of glass any smaller than that would be equivalent to eating a grain of sand, any sharp edges on it would be much to small to cut you. You probably eat much more dangerous things for dinner. If you don't want it send it my way, ill drink it.

Sorry to hear about your troubles! The wine will be just fine, though as mentioned glass can float. To be perfectly safe I would go to your LHBS and rent a full filter when you come to bottling time for that wine. Quite often they will just lend them out and it won't cost you for more than just the filter pads. The strainer will probably catch most of it, but the filter will definitely catch all of it.

beerthirty said:

Is a batch worth abdominal surgery? I would call that one a loss.

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That is the only solution to this sad story, let it go man, let it go.

The strainer holes look small enough not to let any truly harmful glass pieces pass trough IMO.

But ****... that would probably have me wonder with every sip... dont know what i'd do really...

Like mentioned above, best is to always carry them in milk crates when full.
I even pad my milk crate with hard wood floorings under layer type of foam just to make sure.

That's a good excuse to buy a filter system right now. In a sense if it saves a $70 batch of wine it has paid for itself. If you filter that thing down to 1 micron there will be absolutly no glass in it...at all.

richbrostrom said:

Where did you get the strainer?

Click to expand...

EZ-Strainers™ - US Plastic Corporation

+1
where did you find that strainer? Is it a perfect fit for buckets without being held?

Click to expand...

Yes. Sits inside the top of the bucket. Theres a lip on it that holds it to the bucket.

Where would I find a filter system? My "Local" HBS is about 80 miles away.

Yambor44-

Can I ask what mesh size you are using? I see they come in 100, 200, 400, 600 mesh. That is exactly what I've been looking for for straining my cooled wort. Thanks for the link!

foxtrot said:

Yambor44-

Can I ask what mesh size you are using? I see they come in 100, 200, 400, 600 mesh. That is exactly what I've been looking for for straining my cooled wort. Thanks for the link!

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On the page the link takes you to at the heading it reads 200 Micron. Its a general description for all but the heading description is the one I got. Here is the page with the others if you want one that is finer or coarser. I will also post a picture of it in a bucket shortly as the new picture they have up on the site looks a little different.

EZ-Strainers™ - US Plastic Corporation

Yambor44 - You could try this setup (or something similar) NB is calling it their Vintage Shop Plate Filter System It looks like it's just a set of plate filters hooked up to a hand-pumped pressure tank. It's probably not the easiest way to filter the wine but it's got to be simpler than a 140mile round trip and it might be worth the peace of mind.