Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

[bleme]

Wrong size for what? A 5 gallon batch works perfect in a 6 gallon carboy. Never used a 6.5 in my life, nor have any of my friends.

I usually do 5.25 gallon batches in a 6.5 gallon carboy. I've only had it overflow once. A 6 might work for you, but (thankfully) we all brew differently.

 

[AnOldUR]

 

[passedpawn]

nearly sliced off her thumb

I have a lot of glass carboys. I mostly use them now for wine, since I hate hauling them around.

I've only broken one over the years, but my friend had a dangerous incident a few years ago with one of hers.

She was lifting a 6.5 gallon carboy up to the sink to rinse it out, and the top just bumped the faucet. It broke, falling down, and on the way it nearly sliced off her thumb. She grabbed a towel, and drove herself to the hospital (about 1 mile away) because she figured she didn't have time to call me.

She recovered just fine, with only a scar where they reattached it. The bill was thousands of dollars, mostly covered by insurance.

That really scared me! I think what happens is we bump the carboys many times incidentally, and then when they get bumped again just so they can break like that.

I use buckets and plastic fermenters for primary now for all wines, and all beers. I use glass carboys when I have to for wines but I'm very cautious and don't move them around except on racking day.

 

[highgravitybacon]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/glass-carboys-real-talk-430393/index2.html#post5491475

This particular style of glass carboys are unusually ****ty.

 

[passedpawn]

Denny Conn's story...

I broke 3 carboys, losing 10 gal. of double decocted pilsner, before I gave up on them and switched to buckets. I was stone sober and being extremely careful. One broke when it slipped out of my hands and fell 1-2 in. onto a carpeted floor. Even realizing it's glass and being careful sometimes isn't enough to prevent accidents. I switched to buckets to stack the odds in my favor.

 

[highgravitybacon]

Denny Conn's story...

I know this story must be bogus. Denny Conn would never decoction mash anything....

 

[BigJack]

No glass carboys for me. I used to be a picture framer. I've seen glass do some crazy crap- and been cut enough times to know the risk.

And yeah, it might never happen to me. I understand that for every one of this pics, there are tens of thousands of brewers who never get injured- and if glass was the only options, then the odds would be in my favor and I'd risk it. Thankfully, though, there are other, lighter, cheaper, less dangerous options. Why risk it?

 

[m3n00b]

Today will be the first time I use a bucket for a beer I don't plan on dry hopping....even though I have 3 empty carboys.

 

[fili123]

My university has access to past issues of Zymurgy (lucky me). I was perusing an issue from 2010 where a letter described the dangers of glass carboys. Happened that someone nearly cut off their hand from one, doing a simple cleaning procedure in a sink. I got to thinking, my god i love this hobby but nothing like that is worth it.

Ive only been at this a year and think we need as a homebrewing community, to place more emphasis on the dangers of homebrewing. Of course most accidents are avoided by using good common sense. But Ive made some ridiculously bad decisions while brewing when I was hardly aware of the dangers. Including using a propane burner indoors in the basement in winter with a window open, carrying boiling wort down the basement steps, and the most problematic it seems, bare handing these full glass carboys in a sink, swirling, knocking them about like they were indestructible. I HAD NO IDEA HOW FRAGILE THEY ARE AND THE DAMAGE A FULLY LOADED CARBOY CAN DO!
It also seems some of the more popular glass carboys are those made in italy. Not knocking the Italian product, but I have an old water 6.5 g water jug/carboy from the 50s-60s that is much thicker walled and heavier. im done using the MII one.
I feel so lucky that I haven't had an accident yet, really just chalking up to ignorance of the danger. Maybe a sticky on the common sense best safety practices for homebrewing is in order....
Off to brew, albeit more carefully.

 

[PaintedRat]

The older 5 gallon water jugs are thicker, but I've seen two broken for no obvious reason. First one the whole bottom dropped out, second one cracked up the side but held together long enough to siphon the beer into an alternate.

I'm hoping to see Aluminium oxynitride carboys in my lifetime.

 

[LovesIPA]

But Ive made some ridiculously bad decisions while brewing when I was hardly aware of the dangers. Including using a propane burner indoors in the basement in winter with a window open, carrying boiling wort down the basement steps, and the most problematic it seems, bare handing these full glass carboys in a sink, swirling, knocking them about like they were indestructible.

How can a reasonably intelligent person be "hardly aware" of the dangers of ANY of these three things?

 

[Hello]

Very happy with my glass, but curious about Better Bottles. My 6½ gallon glass carboys actually hold a little over 7 gallons. That’s normally plenty of headspace for a 5+ gallon batch. What is the actual capacity of a 6 gallon BB?

I almost think it is less. Here's something from their site.

 

[pvpeacock]

I ditched by two glass carboys last night after buying two 6 gallon plastic "Bubbler" fermenters from Northern Brewer. They had a two for one sale that I could not resist. Ever since I saw this thread, I have been paranoid about using my glass carboys even when carrying with a crate.

 

[fili123]

How can a reasonably intelligent person be "hardly aware" of the dangers of ANY of these three things?

Easily. When you are just starting out all grain brewing there are a several hundred new 'details' one has to pay attention to. Didnt really occur at that moment what a bad idea less than adequate ventilation was in the basement, walking a few feet with hot wort was, etc. Thats why i made the suggestion for those starting out to include in their checklist safety procedures.

 

[junior]

So today I was sanitizing a five gallon glass carboy with 4 gallons of star san solution, while using a carboy hauler I proceeded to carry carboy over to another room when all of a sudden the bottom dropped out, luckily I was in my basement and all I had was a mess to clean up, no injuries. I was given three of these carboys (made in Italy) from my neighbor that used them for wine making. They were from great bear water company that delivered water to businesses around northern NJ, thirty or more years ago. Don't know how they would haul these things around years ago to water coolers without losing limbs. I am now going to use better bottles in the future. The only thing I don't like about bb is when you roll them to rouse yeast you have to be careful not to kink bottom.
Be safe fellow home brewers!

 

[mpcluever]

4 gallons of sanitizer is almost 4 gallons too much. Just need a couple ounces.

 

[AnOldUR]

 

[jakenbacon]

Just thought I'd throw this out there - nothing new here. All pics are links, so just click on one for the full scoop.

































Others:

Glass Carboy Causes Death

Bottom Falls Off for No Reason!

Lustreking Brewing Stories

ER Trip

5 Severed Tendons

Carboy Self Destructs

Wife Breaks Carboy

Carboy Broke in Box

Severed Nerves, Microscopic Surgery

Official Broken Carboy Count Thread

Reattach muscle, etc.

BrewHauler Fails (Twice)

Deep Wood Brew (Vendor) List of Carboy Mishaps

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/im-switching-better-bottles-380690/#post4775754

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/another-glass-carboy-horror-story-414360/

Glass lasts forever

How has no one liked this post yet

 

[AnOldUR]

 

[bctdi]

You know , this thread made me realize that of all the drinking glasses I have owned over the years, I do not still own 1 glass out of the original set. They have all broken at one time or another over the years. Same goes with dinner plates. Every so often I have to go buy a new set of drinking glasses.The point is that if you regularly use something made of glass, chances are real high that it will eventually break wether it's a wine glass, everyday drinking glass, or glass carboy. Only with a glass carboy when it breaks, things get a lot more "interesting" when it happens.
I'll take my speidel 30L plastic fermenter and not look back. You can't possibly taste the difference in the beer, and you can sure as hell see the difference when you drop it.... just pick it back up and go on with the brew day like nothing happened.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

Thought I'd share these. I was washing a glass carboy at the sink when it shattered and broke on me. It got me right across the wrist and cut the artery, nerves and tendons. Paramedics had to put a tournequet on my arm to stop me from bleeding out because the cut was so deep. After three years of recovery, I still cant feel most of my hand and three of my fingers because of the nerve damage. Glass sucks. Don't play with glass.

 

[insanim8er]

Holy cuss words I am so glad I sold all my glass carboys and went to fermenting in kegs before any of this happened to me.

 

[junior]

4 gallons of sanitizer is almost 4 gallons too much. Just need a couple ounces.

Key word solution, 1 oz ss 4 gal water wise guy!

 

[AnOldUR]

 

[bleme]

Key word solution, 1 oz ss 4 gal water wise guy!

Actually, what he was saying is that you don't need to fill a carboy with StarSan to sanitize it. If you put in a quart and slosh it around, it does the same thing but puts a lot less stress on the glass.

I'm still having a hard time picturing how the bottom falls out on a brew hauler.

 

[jrgtr42]

I have 2 6.5 gal and 1 5 gal glass carboys, plus a pair of 6 gal BBs.
Knock on wood, I haven't broken any of the full size, but I did drop and break a 1-gallon jug I was using to propagate wild yeast (damn that smelled good all over the basement floor...)
Part of the reasons is that I don't do primary fermentations in the carboys - I've done it once or twice but it's too much of a pain to clean out (I may look into the wide-mouth ones and change that)
When I do move the glass ones, it's always in milk crates, I wear long pants and shoes, and if I have to handle them alone, I use my leather-palmed work gloves - they give a good grip even on a wet carboy.
I do have a healthy respect / fear of the big glass ones, from such pictures as these, but the benefits do outweigh the risks with secondarys.

 

[junior]

Actually, what he was saying is that you don't need to fill a carboy with StarSan to sanitize it. If you put in a quart and slosh it around, it does the same thing but puts a lot less stress on the glass.

I'm still having a hard time picturing how the bottom falls out on a brew hauler.

If I am making a 4gallon batch of stan star why not make it in carboy and sanitize carboy,then dump in bucket to use for other equipment for brew day, then I will have left over san star in bucket to use for another batch and bottling, and yes the bottom of carboy cracked,broke,shattered,fell out will carrying it in hauler.

 

[raouliii]

If I am making a 4gallon batch of stan star why not make it in carboy and sanitize carboy,then dump in bucket to use for other equipment for brew day, then I will have left over san star in bucket to use for another batch and bottling, and yes the bottom of carboy cracked,broke,shattered,fell out will carrying it in hauler.

Because you're now having to man handle that 4 gallons to dump it out of that wet, slick, glass container. Unless of course you siphon it out.

I would guess that carboy got bumped/damaged prior to the bottom dropping out.

 

[kh54s10]

Try Googling auto wrecks next. I here there's some nasty stuff you might like there too.

Pretty much have to drive. Certainly do not have to use (and never will) glass carboys.

Very poor analogy!

 

[insanim8er]

Pretty much have to drive. Certainly do not have to use (and never will) glass carboys.

Very poor analogy!

I think he meant that towards jakenbacon's comment about being shocked no one liked the post yet.