Broken Carboy Club

[wildwest450]

Better bottles suck donkey schlong.


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[krenshaw]

you can't account for all variables so you could never say "no" risk.. i'm sure a lot of the people that got seriously injured claimed to take "all" precautions.. just have to ask yourself if the benefits outweigh the negatives and just leave it at that.. the right answer isn't the same for everybody

 

[brewingmeister]

There's no risk if you don't use them. Otherwise, the risk is always there.
.

Well ok. However I don't strap on a helmet, padding and my kevlar suit to go outside just because bad things have been known to happen.

There are tons of happy plastic users out there. Different strokes for different folks. I spent years weeding out all the plastic and have no plans to ever go back.

 

[passedpawn]

Well ok. However I don't strap on a helmet, padding and my kevlar suit to go outside just because bad things have been known to happen.

Go ahead and be a smartass, but the risk is very obvious. I wear a seat belt to reduce the risk of driving, and I use plastic carboys to reduce the risk when making beer. Why not reduce the risks in anything?

• 6g glass carboy, full of wort, probably weights more than 50 pounds.
• It is wet.
• The user has probably been drinking.
• It needs to be carried.

 

[wildwest450]

The last three are assumptions.


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[mariojr]

and the weight difference is negligible in my opinion. Go glass!

 

[Junkster]

I no longer use glass carboys much, but when I did I made up some frames out of scrap wood. It made them much easier to handle, they can be stacked and inverted for draining. It's a variation of an idea a friend of mine had years ago. They work great!

 

[Firebat138]

well, we have twelve of them...

Some of them have handles, some not, but we plan to buy them for the rest... Got 7 of them for $10.00 each.... But we store them up high so when I hit the lever, it hits the bowling ball and then drops the net, trapping me to be hit by the carboy..

But seriously, the handles are a must, but I love the stand idea...

 

[nukinfuts29]

i have never seen a glass zip lock bag. That's why u use plastic for your hooch

lol!

 

[malador]

.

I love that old school white tile. I wanted to but some in our bathroom but was vetoed by SWMBO.

 

[dcHokie]

I no longer use glass carboys much, but when I did I made up some frames out of scrap wood. It made them much easier to handle, they can be stacked and inverted for draining. It's a variation of an idea a friend of mine had years ago. They work great!

^ that is freakin' brilliant!

 

[millaj92]

I think an easy solution would be for a manufacturer to just temper the glass. If the glass was tempered, it would still be just as fragile and your beer would be trash if you dropped it but there would be no injuries, which is obviously the biggest factor here.

 

[dcHokie]

I think an easy solution would be for a manufacturer to just temper the glass. If the glass was tempered, it would still be just as fragile and your beer would be trash if you dropped it but there would be no injuries, which is obviously the biggest factor here.

If only they could take it a step further and make the glass carboy out of an even more plastic-y material it wouldn't break at all!

 

[nukinfuts29]

haha

 

[Diver165]

To each their own. I use plastic.

But I know why I use plastic. I know me. I'm clumbsy and if anyone is going to be hurt by an inanimate object it will be me. That (I've said this before)and I know SWMBO would stab me in the neck with a shard of carboy glass if I spill 5 gal of beer in the house. I figure I can make a boo boo with a plastic jug and not have to worry about dying or being murdered by SWMBO.

 

[richbrew99]

I finally get to join this club... unfortunately. Just like others, stone cold sober hadn't even had my first beer yet. Lifting out of the utility sink very carefully go to set it on concrete floor and it slipped out of my hand from about 1 foot up. Completely disintegrated. No injuries and I was too PO'd to take any photos. Dry hopping my IPA still commenced with another empty carboy.

 

[brewingmeister]

That's why carboys should be kept away from concrete, tile, granite/marble, and anything really hard and non forgiving. set you carboys on a rug, or some scrap wood if nothing else. I bang mine around all the time....just not on concrete.

 

[H-ost]

I could see a semi-full carboy having enough weight to break if you drop it from a foot onto the lawn even.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Aaahhh yes. I too am a member of this prestigious club. I only had one glass carboy "the rest are plastic". But a couple brew days ago I had the brilliant idea to just go directly from my boil kettle to the glass carboy to chill in an ice bath as I had a "stuck chiller problem". And with ought using my brain went ahead and did it.
Ya it turns out when you put near boiling liquid into a cold carboy " cold outside" it will just sheer the bottom right off.... Oops...

 

[nukinfuts29]

Dont try that with plastic either, it will implode. Why didnt you just put the pot into the ice bath thats what i do.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Dont try that with plastic either, it will implode. Why didnt you just put the pot into the ice bath thats what i do.

Ha..ha.. It might make for a cool vaccusealed carboy though. I have a three tier keggle set up so with the size of the keggle with the valve and such it's just to big and clumsy to try and soak it.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

My 6.6/7 gallon glass carboy has a brew hauler and one of those handles with the wing nut. I have a 3 gallon glass carboy that I thought was too small to worry about the safety precautions. Today I brewed a small SMaSH and used the 3 gallon carboy. It rained heavily last night, and I ran the chiller into the grass. At the end of the brew I stepped into a puddle, so I took off my shoes. So, barefoot, I picked up the full carboy and it slipped away like I imagine (infrequently) a slippery pig would. Thankfully, the carboy dropped into the swapped grass and did not break, it was less than an inch from the concrete corner. Thinking of the pictures on this an other "broken" forums, I think my glass carboys may see less action.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

That's a close call. I actually bought a Better Bottle on a whim, and I decided to sell off all my carboys and replace them with Better Bottles.

 

[ekjohns]

Im going to sell my 6.5 gallon glass carboy this week. I have had a close call in the past where I dropped it a few inches while cleaning. After hearing these stories I am moving to better bottles. I know this may seem paranoid but after giving myself 2nd degree burns on my hands, I have been re-evaluating my brew set up and increasing my safety. There is a good chance I will never drop the carboy again but it only takes one freak time for something to happen and if I can avoid that one chance it is worth it to me.... that and I tend to be clumsy

 

[turkeyjerky214]

In my experience, there are two downsides to Better Bottles, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.
I don't like that I can't use a brush to clean them, and when you lift them, they suck back whatever is in the airlock, even with the "S" style. Like I said, though, small concessions for something that is a lot lighter and safer.

 

[ekjohns]

I read how some people were putting microfiber dish rags in the BB and shaking it

 

[LandoLincoln]

I tend to be clumsy

Anybody that "tends to be clumsy" should never handle full glass carboys. Ever.

 

[ekjohns]

Anybody that "tends to be clumsy" should never handle full glass carboys. Ever.

well to give myself a little credit I do try and be as safe as possible when handling the carboy, but I have done some clumsy things before and you just never know...

 

[dfess1]

just like a hockey player not wearing a visor.. the first time they need stitches and/or surgery to repair what could have been prevented with a visor, they'll never go back to not wearing one..

i know, this isn't the hockey forum either.. i just like analogies

Yeah, it's not a hockey forum, but your analogy is wrong anyway. The hockey player will get stitched up, call you a pu$$y for suggesting he wear a visor in the first place, maybe miss a shift or two, but definitely finish out the game.

I'm not in the club, and hope to not be in the club. To each their own.

 

[corkybstewart]

I lost a carboy full of brett hefeweizen that was going to be kegged as soon as I had a free keg, and that would have been the next day. My son and I had been taking mugs off a shelf for Oktoberfest, and one must have gotten bumped to the edge of the shelf. We heard a strange "clink" then looked up to see my brett hefe flowing across the garage floor. The mug had fallen, bounced off a bag of malt and hit the middle of the carboy, which was under a shelf. Nobody was hurt but 5 gallons of beer I had waited 6 months for had to be hosed out of the garage.