Glass Bead Experience

[FrodeM]

Many of us know the importance of topping up the carboy to prevent air from ruining some good aging mead. Now, there are several ways to do this, but one of them involves using glass beads to fill in the gap. I used to do this as well, but I have encountered a slight problem.

Do not use glass beads to top up glass carboys.


On two occasions, I have had the bottom of the carboy crack some arbitrary time after adding glass pebbles. The crack was in one case big enough to cause a noticeable amount of brew to leak out.

I suspect variations in temperature is to blame, causing the glass to slighly expand/contract. This in combination with the beads arranging themself in a way that concentrates all the force from the mechanical presure to a few spots in the bottom of the carboy.

 

[IslandLizard]

Jeez, who would have thunk that!

I've used glass marbles in smaller (1-2 liter) glass bottles, but never liked how they hit the bottom. Maybe in a carboy that problem is emphasized and compounded.

Most if not all modern day carboys aren't what they used to be either. So many are China made now.

 

[Maylar]

I've never had a problem with small carboys.

 

[Baabaadoo]

I didn't know this was a thing. Maylar, what are you using? They almost look like river stones.

 

[fossilcat]

I don't use them in anything bigger than a 1/2 carboy and haven't had a problem yet. When possible I try to anticipate how many I need and add before I rack (lerry of the possible O2 addition by dropping them in). In any case I tip the bottle on it's side as much as possible trying to get them to slide in. They're not round, the ones I use are flat(ish).

 

[Maylar]

I didn't know this was a thing. Maylar, what are you using? They almost look like river stones.

Glass filler stones from the floral section in a crafts store. Intended to be filler for flower vases. Way cheaper than glass marbles like we played with as kids.

I have a variety of carboy sizes. A 5 gallon batch usually racks to 4 to 4-1/2 gallons, which fills a 3 gallon Better Bottle plus one or 1-1/2 gallon glass jugs. So the fillers I need are only to take up what doesn't fit in a 1/2 or 1 gallon jug. Never used them in a big carboy, so maybe the OP's warning is appropriate if that's what he's doing.

 

[WVMJ]

Cheap marbles made overseas where they have a lot of lead issues, putting them in a acid mead, no way.

Marble King in WV has cheap bulk plain clear American made lead free marbles you can buy by the pounds. http://www.marblekingusa.com/