Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

That ain't how that works.

 

When I took motorcycle safety, the instructors talked about learning how to prevent a wreck and how to minimize the damage when you fall. They were very specific: it's not "if", it's "when". You have to behave in a manner that makes the assumption of "when". You might go through your whole life never wrecking on your bike, and you might do the same with a glass carboy, but act as if it is always possible that you will eventually, and you might come out alive.

 

Yep. Always act as if disaster is around the corner when brewing and you're likely to live to brew again.

 

I have been wanting to move to fermenting in cornys for a while now for several reasons. I pretty much resigned to the fact that I would do that when I broke my carboy somehow. Anyways, I was sanitizing my carboy on sunday during brew day and let the thing down a little too hard and broke it. 5 minutes later I got it all cleaned up and had a keg full of starsan sanitizing instead. Only got a little cut on my ankle. got off lucky and have a few dozen brews done in that carboy. RIP carboy but I don't think I'll regret moving to keg fermentation.

 

If no one has suggested it already, for those that insist on using glass carboys, perhaps a wrapping of something like this is in order.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GSIK40S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

Why not just buy a PET fermenter, they don't cost much more than that roll of film. Though it does appear you could wrap 2 carboys.

 

Yeah, I agree. I use a HDPE container. Just thought if you need to use one wrap it.

 

Ick

 

There isn't much insisting on using glass. It seems more like a lot of folks insisting others use plastic.

 

What do you do if you wanna' clean the carboy, after wrapping with this stuff?

The outside would look like hell!

 

Yet people are still using them.

 

Glass or plastic?

 

The outside might look like hell but it could save you from severing arteries!!!!

 

True that!

And I can see you continuing to brew in it, with the outside looking as wrinkled as a sack full of a$$holes.......

 

Glass. At least if stubborn folks wrap their glass carboy they might avoid serious injury.

I agree the best thing is not to use one, but failing that the wrap seems like a possible safety measure

 

Or you could just be careful and pay attention to what you're doing. Problem solved.

 

I haven't found any reasons yet not to use glass, fear mongering notwithstanding (not referring to passedpawn, FYI). I have seen some excellent examples of why safe handling practices and wearing PPE is paramount when using glass.

• Don't use glass around harder surfaces, such as stone or concrete
• Don't handle the outside when wet
• Don't be intoxicated prior to or while handling
• Wear hand and forearm protection
• Wear eye protection

I think that if a person does not want to take proper precautions, plastic is the way to go.

Speaking of, I got my rack up, and you can see my leather welding gloves and apron that I use when transporting the carboys. The rack itself is screwed into the wall, though I have to get some plumbers tape for the part in front of the window, and a couple bungee cords to cordon off the open faces.

 

I use the rubberized Therma-Fit gloves for handling glass. They grip better when wet, and give better dexterity under all conditions than thick welding gloves. If you are set on leather, get some TIG gloves with gauntlets.
Something like these:
http://www.superiorglove.com/precision-arc-goatskin-tig-welder#

 

The welding gloves work quite well. I thought about rubber, and decided I'd prefer something with a better deflective quality to them and they go past my elbows.

 

Have you actually read through this thread and similar ones???

There have been incidences, that didn't cause injuries, where a carboy broke with no one nearby.

 

Plastic fermenter are safe and a lot less expensive than this:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=396563&stc=1&d=1492190831

 

Thanks for the constructive criticism of my post.

 

Something caused them to break. They don't break for no reason. If you believe they do, you're extremely naive.

 

It may have been pressure. It may have been heat. It may have been faulty construction.

It doesn't really matter what caused it.

The whole point is that if one of these breaks, they can be extremely dangerous.

If plastic breaks, you get a wet carpet and your wife yells at you.

 

b-boy said it very well. You may think it is only carelessness, there are plenty of posts here where people were being quite careful and something like a missed flaw in the carboy or something similar, caused it to break, injuring the user.

One response quoted the motorcycle advice, prepare for when you will lay down the motorcycle not if you will.

Pretty much the same with glass carboys.

Reference some who had no issues for over a decade... Then disaster....

 

I thought it was constructive.... Plastic fermenters cost less than all your PPE. Especially if you use a bomb disposal suit.

 

I'm careless, prone to risky behavior / poor decisions, and occasionally drink while brewing and/or moving carboys. 3 strikes. I know what material is right for me I have broken a carboy in my pool while chilling hot wort. See?

I'm guessing the people who use glass don't fall into any of these categories, and the more power to them.

 

I started with glass but only use it about once a year now for apfelwein. I haven't busted one yet but did slice myself up pretty good washing my pint glass.

 

I switched to plastic about a year ago after reading this thread. With kids running around and the wife helping here and there.... just not worth the risk.

 

Nothing that duct tape and super glue won't fix.

When everyone buys their carboys do they inspect for imperfections prior to using? These are pressure vessels!

 

glass carboys have weird cult/snake oil/stubborn/ misinformed following. i believe a lot of the reason for "misinformed" is a lot of new home brewers have them is because when they buy the kits the " upgraded kit" has GLASS CARBOYS instead of buckets !! ooooh ahhhh! and a lot of articles when i got in to brewing a couple years back included the use of them and not offering a substitute vessel for fermenting. thankfully with science and technology , we can now handle a 10 ten dollar bucket carefully with respect to its surface and produce the same results with essentially no difference.

when i say snake oil and stubborn, im referring to ( not bashing) the old guys who have used carboys when that was the way " things got done". i am also confident in the fact the 20 year home brewers had some high quality glass compared to the machine blown junk in the market today. the snake oil comes in where they believe that when they tried plastic it threw off the beer. we all know the brain and slightly different numbers can make you believe anything you want to.

disclaimer: everyone has thier reasons for doing things and i am not trying to start an argument with anyone here. i was a true glass believer when i began home brewing too. to each their own.

i now see it as sharpening a pencil... would you like to use a razor knife or a pencil sharpener, the same results are achieved in the end

 

Some of us only have and use older glass carboys. I damn sure wouldn't trust any glass coming out of China. The old O-I stuff is remarkably durable, as is the older Mexican glass. They used to use those daily in office water coolers all over the country (1920s or so until the 70s or 80s) long before plastic carboys became popular.

 

Yes you are.

 

Are we related?

 

My Northern Brewer 5 gallon carboy crapped out on me on its 4th or 5th batch. I racked my Irish Red to my bottling bucket and set the glass carboy aside so that I could start bottling. About half an hour later I hear an incredibly loud CRACK noise, but could not figure out what made the noise. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully finding the source of this noise I went back to bottling my brew. As I was finishing up I noticed the small pool of my remaining beer slowly crawling across the kitchen floor from where I had placed the carboy. I can't recall any notable contact or pressure being placed on the carboy at any point.

Thank god the carboy was kind enough to give out after I had racked the beer and before it was time to clean it out. Clearly I didn't learn to respect the glass though as you can tell in this picture that I dumped out the remaining beer and set it outside to take a picture.

I came online to see if anyone else had this issue and landed on this thread.....I have now learned to respect glass and have purchased a corny keg as a replacement for the carboy. No way I mess with glass again.

 

Those things are junk. A lot of the glass carboys on the market these days are poorly made junk. Buy the older ones.

 

What's the view on new glass coming from Italy?

 

I fell victim to something similar this weekend. I had the most perfect brew of a blonde ale that I was going to rack onto some strawberries in the secondary. The brew went amazingly well. I had just finished my clean-up, and I was moving the carboy to a closet to ferment. I sit the carboy down on my patio and have one hand holding the carboy handle as I'm opening the back door. Then suddenly there is no weight from the carboy and beer is everywhere. The dang thing had split into thirds. I was obviously pissed but just really glad that I wasn't hurt.