crob24
Member
So, as I alluded to in my intro I had quite the experience with my first ever home brew.
My plan was to transfer my English Brown to a secondary fermenter, a recently purchased 5 gal glass carboy. In the process of cleaning and sanitizing my carboy I used water that was WAY too hot for glass. Nothing happened during the process, but tragedy was around the corner.
I successfully started a siphon and transfered my young beer to the carboy. Then I placed my rubber stopper and air lock in the top and was good to go, right? Not so fast. The pressure created by the beer and the stopper cracked my hot water weakened carboy in a perfect circle all the way around, about a 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. It was a bit humorous actually. I could push on the stopper and beer would gush out the side. What to do. I was faced with the possibility of losing my first ever brew and flooding my kitchen with 5 gal of liquid. Did I mention the worst bit, losing my first brew.
My wife and duct tape to the rescue. We dried the outside of the carboy as best we could, ran tape around the crack and up the sides for extra stability. Then I was able to lift the carboy up to the table without spilling it. Next I started a new siphon and transfered the brew to my bottling bucket. Beer is saved and now all I have to do is find, clean and sanitize enough bottles to hold my rescued beer. A task I did not plan on for a couple of weeks.
The jury is still out on whether or not the beer was saved, but I did do all I could. A valuable lesson or two were learned and fun was still had.
I do plan on switching to the better bottle. Any suggestions on the best place to purchase one? My local supply store does not carry them.
Cheers
Chris
My plan was to transfer my English Brown to a secondary fermenter, a recently purchased 5 gal glass carboy. In the process of cleaning and sanitizing my carboy I used water that was WAY too hot for glass. Nothing happened during the process, but tragedy was around the corner.
I successfully started a siphon and transfered my young beer to the carboy. Then I placed my rubber stopper and air lock in the top and was good to go, right? Not so fast. The pressure created by the beer and the stopper cracked my hot water weakened carboy in a perfect circle all the way around, about a 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. It was a bit humorous actually. I could push on the stopper and beer would gush out the side. What to do. I was faced with the possibility of losing my first ever brew and flooding my kitchen with 5 gal of liquid. Did I mention the worst bit, losing my first brew.
My wife and duct tape to the rescue. We dried the outside of the carboy as best we could, ran tape around the crack and up the sides for extra stability. Then I was able to lift the carboy up to the table without spilling it. Next I started a new siphon and transfered the brew to my bottling bucket. Beer is saved and now all I have to do is find, clean and sanitize enough bottles to hold my rescued beer. A task I did not plan on for a couple of weeks.
The jury is still out on whether or not the beer was saved, but I did do all I could. A valuable lesson or two were learned and fun was still had.
I do plan on switching to the better bottle. Any suggestions on the best place to purchase one? My local supply store does not carry them.
Cheers
Chris
