Just an FYI- I've been an advocate of NOT bottling in anything other than bottles for a long time, but I had an interesting experience lately that made me want to remind everyone.
We store our harvested yeast from the 3bbl fermenters in glass growlers, the standard screw top variety. Anyway, the more they sat, the more we noticed that trapped CO2 was escaping from the slurry (foaming/popping when opened for a repitch). This particular growler of slurry had been in the yeast fridge for about a month (longer than we like to leave slurry under beer).
Anyway, we got back from a family event and noticed the place smelled like beer. Not good. Upon inspection, a small river of beer was flowing gently from the fridge. Opening the fridge confirmed what we had feared- one of the growlers had let go. I wish I had pictures, but we spent the next two hours cleaning up so there wasn't much time for a photo op.
There was (still is) glass EMBEDDED in the walls of the fridge, and the force from the explosion had taken out another growler of yeast, two bottles of beer and several mason jars with washed homebrew pitches. If anyone has ever seen a growler let go, you would know that had anybody been handling the growler, they would have certainly been seriously injured, and honestly I think someone could have been killed by this bomb. The force that it threw the big hunks of glass was really scary. I'm considering throwing out the freezer because I'm not sure I can get all of the tiny, paper thin shards out of the walls and nooks/crannies.
In any event, we weren't even CARBONATING in these growlers, and they exploded with some seriously violent force. One thing that surprised me was how EXTREMELY inconsistent the thickness of the glass in a standard growler is. Wall thickness ranged from over a quarter inch to probably around a sixteenth of an inch, just on the sides of the growler. These things are NOT DESIGNED TO HOLD PRESSURE.
Anyway, nobody was hurt and the bottle of Westvleteren 12 I had right next to the growler that exploded survived unharmed, albeit with a smudgy label. Please be safe y'all.
tl;dr Was storing harvested yeast in growlers, they exploded in spectacular fashion, could have seriously injured someone
We store our harvested yeast from the 3bbl fermenters in glass growlers, the standard screw top variety. Anyway, the more they sat, the more we noticed that trapped CO2 was escaping from the slurry (foaming/popping when opened for a repitch). This particular growler of slurry had been in the yeast fridge for about a month (longer than we like to leave slurry under beer).
Anyway, we got back from a family event and noticed the place smelled like beer. Not good. Upon inspection, a small river of beer was flowing gently from the fridge. Opening the fridge confirmed what we had feared- one of the growlers had let go. I wish I had pictures, but we spent the next two hours cleaning up so there wasn't much time for a photo op.
There was (still is) glass EMBEDDED in the walls of the fridge, and the force from the explosion had taken out another growler of yeast, two bottles of beer and several mason jars with washed homebrew pitches. If anyone has ever seen a growler let go, you would know that had anybody been handling the growler, they would have certainly been seriously injured, and honestly I think someone could have been killed by this bomb. The force that it threw the big hunks of glass was really scary. I'm considering throwing out the freezer because I'm not sure I can get all of the tiny, paper thin shards out of the walls and nooks/crannies.
In any event, we weren't even CARBONATING in these growlers, and they exploded with some seriously violent force. One thing that surprised me was how EXTREMELY inconsistent the thickness of the glass in a standard growler is. Wall thickness ranged from over a quarter inch to probably around a sixteenth of an inch, just on the sides of the growler. These things are NOT DESIGNED TO HOLD PRESSURE.
Anyway, nobody was hurt and the bottle of Westvleteren 12 I had right next to the growler that exploded survived unharmed, albeit with a smudgy label. Please be safe y'all.
tl;dr Was storing harvested yeast in growlers, they exploded in spectacular fashion, could have seriously injured someone