How to add permanent volume markings to glass carboy (illustrated)

This method uses glass etching cream. The hardest part is taping off where you want the marks to be. Highly recommend reviewing the directions for the etching cream.


BEFORE adding volume markings

5 gallon glass carboy


Etching Cream

Simple glass etching cream from amazon or a craft store. It takes less than 1 oz so buy the cheapest container unless you plan to etch 100 carboys.

Stencils

Same local craft store. Adhesive and re-usable, perfect for this project.

Tape it off

I simply poured in one gallon at a time and taped it off as I went. Be mindful of what angle to view your carboy from while taping. The refraction of the thick glass walls can really change how the water level appears. I recommend being eye level with the liquid while taping.

Apply the etching cream.

I use a Q-tip because I love Q-tips obviously. Instructions say it only takes 60 seconds to make a permanent mark, which I found to be quite true. I left mine on for 90 seconds and was quite happy with the results. Then, take sponge or wet cloth and soak up all the etching cream. Make sure you rinse the area very well or you can end up etching areas of glass you didn't mean to etch.

I was very happy with the results


Camera doesn't do the greatest job capturing the results, but you get the idea. They're actually incredibly clear and visible in person.

Awesome - great idea and thanks for sharing.

Where did you get the etching cream? I cannot find it around here.

spartybrews said:

Where did you get the etching cream? I cannot find it around here.

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amazon/michaels

Careful with that stuff! It may contain hydrofluoric acid with some paste to make it gooey. Use eye protection.

Glass carboys are extremely dangerous as it is, I personally would not be comfortable making them potentially even weaker by etching them like this. Please be careful, theres been enough carnage from these liquid time bombs.

masonsjax said:

Glass carboys are extremely dangerous as it is, I personally would not be comfortable making them potentially even weaker by etching them like this. Please be careful, theres been enough carnage from these liquid time bombs.

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Wow!!

South River Brewing Company

This type of etching is not going to weaken the structural integrity of a carboy.

Really? You'd stake your life on it, and the lives of others? I've seen what an exploding carboy is capable of, it's no joke. This process removes material from an already delicate vessel (granted, some much more than others), but how does that not impact it's integrity?

any craft store will have it.

Brings back memories as a kid of leaving messages on peoples windows. Too funny


as for changing the integrity of the glass, don't see that. It just a surface mark.

do a test. Get a couple bottles and some panes of glass. Mark it up then break them.

I tried this(exact same product & stencils) and the etching was very light.

So I did it again and let it sit for about 5 minutes... for science!!!

Turned out much better! Now it is as noticeable as the pictures posted in this thread. It didn't etch very deep at all either. It's not a very strong acid. Just enough to make a decent etching.

Oh... and it won't weaken a carboy's integrity. That's ridiculous.

Ridiculous or not, glass carboys are dangerous, especially with the new lower quality ones being sold in recent years. All I'm saying is be careful, I care about my fellow brewers. I almost lost a friend to a carboy detonation, and there's no shortage of similar stories out there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broken-glass-carboy-horror-stories-compendium-376523/

masonsjax said:

Ridiculous or not, glass carboys are dangerous, especially with the new lower quality ones being sold in recent years. All I'm saying is be careful, I care about my fellow brewers. I almost lost a friend to a carboy detonation, and there's no shortage of similar stories out there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broken-glass-carboy-horror-stories-compendium-376523/

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People have been doing this on here for YEARS! When I first joined I saw people doing this to carboys. Do carboys break? Yes, they are glass and sometimes even the slightest thing will make them crack and break. He isn't the first to do this and I haven't seen any pictures of one of those amongst the broken ones (not saying it hasn't happened).

I've had 2 explode / break dramatically in my 20+ years of brewing. The second was from my being careless and letting it bang into something and it shattered. Not much danger but a huge mess. The first was when I was draining one after cleaning. It was 2/3 full and I picked it up, inverted it, and poured it out too rapidly. A vacuum was created and - bam! - it imploded. Cut my hand a little, but it could have been worse. Now I syphon any liquid out.

I still use glass carboys because I have them and I trust them to easily sanitized. But I am very careful. I only lift them with a carboy sling, or roll them on a dolly. I ALWAYS wear long leather gloves. I haven't had a problem in ~15 years I think.



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I am excited to try this! Thanks for posting!

k1ngl1ves said:

Oh... and it won't weaken a carboy's integrity. That's ridiculous.

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I agree.

That's cool, I just use scotch tape with sharpie written on it for marking... Works well and is cheap. It stays on even after letting the carboy sit in a swamp cooler for a week, and washing it.

Did this over the weekend and works like a charm. Thanks so much!

BroStefan said:

I've had 2 explode / break dramatically in my 20+ years of brewing. The second was from my being careless and letting it bang into something and it shattered. Not much danger but a huge mess. The first was when I was draining one after cleaning. It was 2/3 full and I picked it up, inverted it, and poured it out too rapidly. A vacuum was created and - bam! - it imploded. Cut my hand a little, but it could have been worse. Now I syphon any liquid out.

I still use glass carboys because I have them and I trust them to easily sanitized. But I am very careful. I only lift them with a carboy sling, or roll them on a dolly. I ALWAYS wear long leather gloves. I haven't had a problem in ~15 years I think.



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My experience was very similar, but my second one got me a few stitches on my foot. I still use glass but with more care.

On topic, this looks like a great DIY, very clean with the stencils. Like Pint glasses. Cheers

BroStefan said:

The first was when I was draining one after cleaning. It was 2/3 full and I picked it up, inverted it, and poured it out too rapidly. A vacuum was created and - bam! - it imploded. Cut my hand a little, but it could have been worse.

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Thanks for sharing! I would not ever have given a thought to inverting a glass carboy or thinking that a resulting vacuum would be enough to shatter/implode the vessel. I'll be much more careful in how I drain them in the future for sure.

This has been described multiple times. Here's the big thread on it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/marking-your-carboy-63174/

The amount of stories of never an incident after using glass carboys with proper caution for decades is far greater. People like to make it sound as if it's a bomb just waiting to go off at any second.

You are awesome!

I am so doing this. After I do my kettle

Thanks for your posts!


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Hi,

Any idea where I can get this cream to ship to Quebec/Canada?
Michael's and Walmart don't have it.

Ebay/Amazon are just too expensive or do not ship here.

Any suggestion?

Thanks!

masonsjax said:

Ridiculous or not, glass carboys are dangerous, especially with the new lower quality ones being sold in recent years. All I'm saying is be careful, I care about my fellow brewers. I almost lost a friend to a carboy detonation, and there's no shortage of similar stories out there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broken-glass-carboy-horror-stories-compendium-376523/

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when your etching glass your literally only taking at most tenths off the glass, were are talking in the order of 0.0005 at most that's NOT going to affect the structural integrity of anything! i know because i'm an engineer, there's always a reason for something failing.

for using glass carboy's you should be safe and be smart. like some have said siphon instead of pouring, don't subject to huge rapid temperature changes, if possible carry by the bottom and support the entire thing, don't place on a hot or extremely cold surface.... those types of things.

There you have it folks, an engineer signed off. Glass carboys are always safe. There's no such thing as manufacturing defects, China has only ever produced perfect products that epitomize safety standards. Go ahead and scratch up your delicate carboys. Maybe get a pet tiger to babysit for you while you're at it. If anything goes wrong, the only explanation is that you caused it yourself.

I'm trying to humorously highlight the point that bad things can happen. Glass has that potential. I've seen it happen. Ultimately each is responsible for his own decisions. I personally choose to err on the side of safety first and will not use glass. Please be careful. That is all. Sheesh, flame a guy for caring.

Considering the cost of shipping for glass (it is heavy, after all), I've always done my fermenting in plastic Ale Pails, and then I bottle from there. Not much in way of safety concerns that way, and the plastic does have the volume markers right on it

But when I return to Ottawa, I do think I shall do this

masonsjax said:

There you have it folks, an engineer signed off. Glass carboys are always safe. There's no such thing as manufacturing defects, China has only ever produced perfect products that epitomize safety standards. Go ahead and scratch up your delicate carboys. Maybe get a pet tiger to babysit for you while you're at it. If anything goes wrong, the only explanation is that you caused it yourself.

I'm trying to humorously highlight the point that bad things can happen. Glass has that potential. I've seen it happen. Ultimately each is responsible for his own decisions. I personally choose to err on the side of safety first and will not use glass. Please be careful. That is all. Sheesh, flame a guy for caring.

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Whoobuddy! i NEVER claimed they were always safe or there were no things such as manufacturing defects or china has ever produced perfect products. i work in the manufacturing industry and see what your talking about on an almost daily basis.

what i said is by removing tenths of material off of glass or anything else for what it's worth, that material removal is not going to affect the structural integrity of the object, vessel, what have you. if there is a defect in the glass or manufacturing process or countless other ways of creating a potential failure like some have mentioned in some of the links that were provided then yes it could break and injure someone. heck if you hit raw glass at just the right angle it will break with nothing being done to the glass.

there are countless number of people who have done countless number of batches of beer with out an issue. if etching was such a "hazard" then why are so many companies and individuals offering personalized etching of glasses and other glass items, if it was that big of a hazard it would be illegal.

we all appreciate the word of caution that something bad can happen by using glass, point taken. out of all those exploding glass carboy's how many were etched vs non etched? i was not flaming you, i was just saying etching is not going to cause a failure. material defect - sure, manufacturing process - sure, quality of the materials going to make the glass - sure, many other ways of human error accidentally causing glass to break - sure. taking tenths off of glass or any material - no

Neat idea.
Even if you don't believe Masonsjax, don't go getting bent out of shape for him warning people about the possibility of injury. I work with glass in a production setting on a daily basis and know that if you don't cool it carefully the internal stresses can cause it to shatter spontaneously (immediately or days/months/years down the road). And the thicker the glass is the easier it is for those stresses to be imbalanced during cooling. Then you go etching the surface (even only a few 0.0001s) and you alter that stress state, possibly making it more likely to crack. I'll stick to measuring my water in Ale Pails and just use the carboy as a container.