Word to the wise... Don't freeze wort in your borosilicate flask

I should have known better. When I saw it, I thought, "that makes perfect sense." But, I figured since borosilicate can go from hot to cold without any issues, why would there be any issue with freezing it?

The shape, moron. The shape. Since the sides of the flask narrow as they go up, if the top freezes first, the bottom has nowhere to expand, except down. So, needless to say, I blew out the bottom of my flask. Luckily, I had just purchased a second. Unfortunately, I now need to purchase a third. I'm sure many will read the title of this and say, "duh!" I probably would have too...

 

Oh man, your description followed my thought process perfectly. Sorry you broke your flask, but I'm glad I was able to experience this one through you.

 

Yup - Frozen water is nasty stuff. It can exert enough pressure to crack an engine block if you don't winterize your boat properly.

 

Yup! Hence the demotivational poster.

 

Never did understand that expression "Word to the wise".

Because if you are telling only the wise people this...wise people already know not to freeze liquid in such a container.

So really it should be "Word to other idiots".

 

Good advice! I've done much worse and later wondered what the hell I was thinking. Der.

BTW, I thought Sir Earnest Shackleton's ill-fated ship was a better fit for your motivational poster.

 

Better than the time I cracked a 5L flask by trying to heat it with an electric stovetop coil

I was new then

 

FWIW I would have over looked the shape too!

 

Hmm. I have made uncounted (dozens maybe?) numbers of starters by boiling wort in both 2l and 5l flasks on an electric coil.

I hope you haven't just jinxed me . . . .

 

Well, that's exactly what it means, it's just a way to euphemistically put it. Just like saying "bless their heart" means "how the heck can they be so stupid?"

 

I left mine to soak out in the garage the other day after pitching yeast, don't let it soak full of water when its 10* outside, I feel your pain and embarrassment.

 

I think the original meaning is "A word to those wise is sufficient", meaning that the wise will heed your warning. There's no point warning idiots, because they won't listen and learn from your mistakes.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/A+Word+to+the+Wise+Is+Sufficient

 

I guess I can admit that I filled a 5g carboy with boiling wort and put it in my cold January pool to chill. Ended up late at night in tennis shoes wading around in there picking up shards, watching the wort slowly work it's way along the bottom to the deep end of the pool.

Don't put boiling wort in glass carboys. There's a word for the wise

 

I still wince and widen my stance everytime I pour boiling wort into a borosilicate flask. I'm just waiting for one of them to explode.

 

The crackling from the flask during a short boil and cooling scares me. Even using the lowest amount of flame to boil is uneasy. I'll be going back to a sauce pan on the next one.

 

There shouldn't be any crackling at all. I'd be wary of pouring boiling wort in that one as well. I've heated mine on direct flame dozens of times and my flask never made a sound.

 

Crackling is what I think I am hearing, its the sound of the stoves cast grate expanding with the flask on it.

 

because the greatest wisdom is knowing how to learn from mistakes. You can't learn from others mistakes without listening. Therefore, a wise man may already know better, but he will still be listening. And it comes across better than "Jerry, I know you're stupid enough to do this thing I did so don't do it"!

 

I have no idea who Jerry is or why his name somehow appeared in my post. Apparently the universe is trying to tell us that we must find this Jerry and explain his stupidity to him. Sorry Jerry

 

There can be (often is) a popping or pinging sound produced by sudden vaporization of water at localized hot spots. It is a phenomenon that occurs when boiling in glass. I think it has something to do with the glass being a weak insulator, I don't remember the physics explanation. Lab supplies actually sell glass beads that you put in the vessel to stop this from happening, but are not necessary and not recommended for starters. You don't want to be filtering out beads while pitching.

Could this be the sound you are referring to?

 

If the crackling happens shortly before the boil I think this may be part of it. Often when heating liquid quickly, the bottom surface of the container will be hot enough to boil, but the whole volume of liquid is still too cold. When this happens, some of the bottom layer does boil but as soon as the bubble forms, the temperature causes the vapor to become liquid and the bubble violently collapses. This can be pretty noisy in a normal pan but I bet glass would really cause this to resonate.

And if the flask is on electric coils, you are likely hearing the coils expanding under the flask and scraping it, as someone mentioned earlier.

The whole reason we use borosilicate glass is because of its low thermal expansivity, so I would be surprised if the crackling was the sound of the flask itself changing shape.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about it the crackling too much. As long as you are using open flame or a trivet on the electric your borosilicate should be fine.

When I boil it makes the pinging sound through the boil.

 

Yes that is the sound, it starts at simmer and does not go away until the boiling stops. Open flame at a low setting probably 20-25min to reach boiling. Thanks makes me feel a little better that this is normal.

 

Interesting, I've never heard that with mine. My stir bar dances around while it boils, though.

 

I don't boil my plastic coated bars. I used to boil my glass bar before it met an untimely demise when it unexpectedly found another magnet and they smashed together

 

In general, yes. Glass scientific stir bars are designed to spin liquids on hot stir plates while mixing chemicals, so although the magnetization concern isn't crazy, the bars are designed for this purpose and as such, I imagine that the demagnetization temperatures would be much higher than what one might see on a stir plate.

Why? Sanitizing the stir bar. Yes, you could sanitize it in starsan or something, but IMO it's easy to throw in the bar before the boil and leave it there.

 

Major demagnetization occurs at 250°f if I remember right. 212° doesn't effect them much