Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

Aerate the wort in any carboy by having the carboy on the floor. Have a soft pad under it. Wood is soft compared to concrete. There is really no sense in holding a full carboy in your hands to aerate. Just to much weight and to much work.
Plastic carboys cannot be set on their edge. A tennis ball in the center is recommended. That is why I'll stay with glass.
Like anything made out of glass you do need to be careful about all handling at any time.

Even safer, use this and buy a plastic or stainless steel fermenter.

flars said:

Aerate the wort in any carboy by having the carboy on the floor. Have a soft pad under it. Wood is soft compared to concrete. There is really no sense in holding a full carboy in your hands to aerate. Just to much weight and to much work.
Plastic carboys cannot be set on their edge. A tennis ball in the center is recommended. That is why I'll stay with glass.
Like anything made out of glass you do need to be careful about all handling at any time.

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This is a pretty lame argument for using a glass carboy instead of a plastic one.

I used the ball under my Better Bottle until I got my aerator pump.

I have no fear that the Better Bottles will fail anytime soon, I don't worry about chemicals leaching, (look at all the plastic your food is in.) and I certainly don't worry about serious injury.

shaferandrew said:

Long-time lurker, first time poster; just wanted to add my own horror story. I've always put about 3-4 gallons of wort in the carboy and then shake it up to aerate. Then I add the rest and lightly shake again. This time, I wanted to cool the wort a little before adding the second dose so I put it in a shallow tub of cool water. When I went to shake the carboy by holding my palm on the mouth and a hand on the wet bottom...

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I'm not gonna claim you were lucky. I remember being told by everyone how lucky I was to be alive after a bad motorcycle wreck, and I had the same answer for all of them: "if I were lucky, there wouldn't have been any wreck and I wouldn't be lying in this friggen hospital bed." I got grouchy when the med's started wearing off....

But I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. Was that one of the infamous Chinese carboys?

troy2000 said:

I'm not gonna claim you were lucky. I remember being told by everyone how lucky I was to be alive after a bad motorcycle wreck, and I had the same answer for all of them: "if I were lucky, there wouldn't have been any wreck and I wouldn't be lying in this friggen hospital bed." I got grouchy when the med's started wearing off....

But I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. Was that one of the infamous Chinese carboys?

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Hahaha, I haven't needed too many meds since getting stitched up. I'm glad you are okay. You are lucky to be alive.

Could my brew day have gone better? Absolutely. Could it have been worse? Even more so. I will always consider this a "lucky" accident because I'm still around to tell the story and I am able to do all of my normal work. No loss of limb or thumb movement, no cuts to my other hand, no leg/feet injuries (while barefoot and in shorts).

I'm not sure where it was made. I did drop it. I'm not sure if it shattered when it hit the carpeted/padded dining room floor or if it hit a leg on the wooden table or chair. It was part of the Northern Brewer deluxe starter kit (I still have the 5-gallon secondary). It had no markings on it. It has the "groove" pattern on the outside middle portion with a small "window" with no grooves. It has a thick bottom with hatching on it. Any way to tell country of origin?

shaferandrew said:

Any way to tell country of origin?

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Mexican and Italian carboys will say "Mexico" (and "Crisa" if it's a really good one) or "Italy" on the bottom. Pyrex and Kimex will have their respective logos and are US-made. And very expensive. Other US-made water jugs (carboys) will have the mfr's respective logo.

Here is a good resource for American mfr's markings. http://www.glassbottlemarks.com/

RPCidery said:

Mexican and Italian carboys will say "Mexico" (and "Crisa" if it's a really good one) or "Italy" on the bottom. Pyrex and Kimex will have their respective logos and are US-made. And very expensive. Other US-made water jugs (carboys) will have the mfr's respective logo.

Here is a good resource for American mfr's markings. http://www.glassbottlemarks.com/

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So...my unmarked carboy is likely Chinese?

shaferandrew said:

So...my unmarked carboy is likely Chinese?

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Chances are...

Big Mouth Bubblers from Northern Brewer are very thin. Use care when handling. Click the picture for the whole story.

Note that there is a plastic version of this same fermentor. I don't recall if it's at NB or another supplier.

From HBT member magic-rat:

That is seriously dangerous. Thank goodness I didn't buy one!

I now have some small amount of reassurance, as I've checked, and mine's Italian made (not too surprising, given it came from an old school portuguese wine supply store). It will be handled with extreme care, nonetheless.

passedpawn said:

Big Mouth Bubblers from Northern Brewer are very thin. Use care when handling. Click the picture for the whole story.

Note that there is a plastic version of this same fermentor. I don't recall if it's at NB or another supplier.

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When these big mouths came out I was sure some day we'd hear about someone cutting their whole hand off in one of these things.

More fun with Big Mouth Bubblers. Click the pictures to go to the thread in which they were originally posted.

bmblinbrewer said:

I like carboys. I've been using glass for 2 years with no problems up until last night. I've heard horror stories about glass but figured that was "other people's problems". This is what my Labor Day Weekend Hefe did last night.

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bmblinbrewer said:

The airlock plugged and the stopper was so tight it blew up.

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From: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/why-bother-carboys-blow-off-tubes-488547/index3.html#post6348039

How did this happen?

barnaclebob said:

How did this happen?

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from the other thread...

bmblinbrewer said:

The airlock plugged and the stopper was so tight it blew up.

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Happens to mead makers (mazers) too. Careful out there! For the whole story and more pics, click the picture to be taken to the original thread.

Reading through this thread, now i am glad that I spent the money on a 7 gal stainless conical. My air lock on the SS conical did plug up on me and luckily, since it wasn't glass, it didn't shatter or become a bomb. The lid on my conical is held in place with spring clamps and according to the manufacture, will flex a bit once more than 5-6 PSI presses against it and will break the seal to vent and reseal once the pressure is gone.

I decided against glass carboys when I heard a guy talking about how, when he was a child, he got one of his dad's carboys on its side and tried to ride it like a horse. I can see my toddler doing exactly that.

Balog said:

I decided against glass carboys when I heard a guy talking about how, when he was a child, he got one of his dad's carboys on its side and tried to ride it like a horse. I can see my toddler doing exactly that.

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Why not just keep the carboys somewhere that's inaccessible to your toddler?

bja said:

Why not just keep the carboys somewhere that's inaccessible to your toddler?

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I have limited storage space that is inaccessible, even if I decided to dedicate it to holding carboys it'd be a pain to get them in and out, and nowhere is reasonably temp controlled for actual fermenting and also inaccessible.

Welp, no more glass for me. Carboy slipped out of the brew hauler onto a granite countertop. Luckily no injuries.

Moral of the story: most brewers use glass, until there's an incident. And then they don't anymore.

MrSnacks said:

Welp, no more glass for me. Carboy slipped out of the brew hauler onto a granite countertop. Luckily no injuries.

Moral of the story: most brewers use glass, until there's an incident. And then they don't anymore.

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how did a carboy slip out of a brewhauler?

barnaclebob said:

how did a carboy slip out of a brewhauler?

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Not sure but Googling around it appears other people have had similar incidents.

I had a brewhauler on one of mine, used it once and stopped using it afterwards. The plastic clips just didn't seem right to me, holding all that weight and the plastic was nothing to write home about either. I moved onto milk crates to move my carboys around, i posted a link to the ones I use from the container store somewhere on this thread.

I had a brew hauler and the stitching came apart. Total junk

MrSnacks said:

Welp, no more glass for me. Carboy slipped out of the brew hauler onto a granite countertop. Luckily no injuries.

Moral of the story: most brewers use glass, until there's an incident. And then they don't anymore.

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I once (or twice . . .) got into trouble from drinking too much beer. Luckily no injuries.

Doesn't mean I'm going to quit drinking beer. Just be smarter about it.

Moral of the story: Learn from your mistakes, don't let them control your life.

after seeing the first post, I went and hugged my plastic big mouth bubblers

AnOldUR said:

I once (or twice . . .) got into trouble from drinking too much beer. Luckily no injuries.

Doesn't mean I'm going to quit drinking beer. Just be smarter about it.

Moral of the story: Learn from your mistakes, don't let them control your life.

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Apple, meet orange.

Gentlemans_Ale said:

I still think carboys are better than buckets.

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Click the pic for the full story.

More trouble with glass Big Mouth Bubbler. Click pic for full thread on Reddit.

From Reddit. Click the pic for the entire story.

The carboy was full of StarSan when I picked it up. I tilted it over a 5 gallon bucket to drain it and it exploded in my hands.

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It is much safer to store your Starsan solution in one gallon plastic jugs.

Some pretty nasty gore here. Click the pic if you really need to see the inside of his leg.

I was hit by a glass carboy too. (NSFW, gore) ... Yeah. Plastic is our friend.

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tdoug19 said:

My carboy exploded yesterday. Not a fancy brew, just a simple Pale Ale and OG was 1.054. I was not home but my wife said the whole house shook. It must have been a clog in my blow off hose because the last time I checked it had a vigorous ferment but nothing unusual. I think I will now stick to primary fermenting in a bucket. In the picture you see the glass (obvious) but you can notice the pool of wort at the left side. It took me over 6 hours to clean. When I started to clean I was mad about having to clean... but then I got sad over losing my batch. Not sure what that says about me...lol.

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First, thanks so much to you guys for sharing these stories and pics! I don't get the least bit queasy looking at such things, but I obviously don't ever want this happening to me and have my fair share, and oh do I have some doozies, of glass related inquiries though not brewing related. I started with plastic fermenters luckily...

... but my question is... how many have switched to plastic/steel as a result of injury and for those that haven't why not? I use the original Coopers plastic fermenters and love them though they were pricey since I had to buy full kits just to get the fermenters, but I found it worth it. I love the big wide open mouth for cleaning, the built in spigot which makes bottling and kegging very easy, etc. So I've always wondered why others stick with narrow mouth glass carboys and other glass vessels that have shown to have an inherent safety risk. I've also never had any plastic off tastes of any kind with my fermenters. Now, this isn't meant to start debate!!! Not at all, I'm merely curious to know who's switched as a result of injury and for those that haven't switched why not? That's all, honest!


Rev.

Rev2010 said:

... but my question is... how many have switched to plastic/steel as a result of injury and for those that haven't why not?


Rev.

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From the beginning, I have just about always done primary fermentation in plastic. My wife bought me a stainless conical fermentor for Christmas, and you can bet it's gonna see some use. IMO, glass carboys are for secondary fermentation or bulk aging only.

I switched from carboys a year or so ago, now ferment in corny kegs. I don't think it's worth the risk to keep using carboys when they can break so easily, as is obvious throughout this thread...

I ferment in plastic pails myself, though I've got a couple carboys bought second hand for very little (about as much as the pails) that are about 30+ years old according to the fellow I got them from. I use them mainly for wine and cider since I like to look at it and the narrow neck is nice for keeping air out vs. the buckets which I don't even bother drilling holes for stoppers these days(just snapped down on each side with the bits between loose). I figure if the two carboys survived 30 years of brewing, they'll survive me so long as I'm careful.