Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

[mwconway11]

Picked up a very nice 5 gallon Pyrex carboy last night for $50. I doesn't look like the newest ones I've seen, maybe a generation back. It has the embossed logo on the side. Found it on Craigslist. Very good shape.

Thought others would like to know these are out there.

I also got two Pyrex Liebig condensers and a graduated cylinder for another $10, though I'm not sure what I'll do with those.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

The Liebig condensers could be "handy".


P M me a pic, Please Sir, should you wish to part with one.

 

[mikescooling]

Emyers I am so sorry that happened to you. God speed for a quick healing time, but don't rush the process. Don't do anything for at least 3 days, let those nerves re-connect.

 

[ChocolateMaltyBalls]

Be careful with anything that may have been used in a lab, no telling what nasty chemical someone may have put in it.

But Pyrex would a great material to ferment in.

 

[troy2000]

Be careful with anything that may have been used in a lab, no telling what nasty chemical someone may have put in it.

But Pyrex would a great material to ferment in.

Of course, that's the beauty of glass. It's impervious to almost anything you put in it. Clean it thoroughly and you're good to go...

 

[DaveandZeus]

Thought I would share my catastrophic failure of my "Big Mouth Bubbler" carboy. I'll point out that this is the first failure I've ever experienced in 25 years of brewing beer. My attention to safety and sanitation is on par with most everyone else here and this failure happened during it being simply lifted from the floor using the recommended "Big Mouth Harness". No temperature shock, bumping into anything, just lifting. It blew out a baseball size hole out the bottom after being lifted about two inches from the ground, and luckily no injuries. After dealing with the epic mess in my kitchen, which by the way is carpeted ( weird, I know, but I purchased it that way and haven't gotten around to changing it (until now)) I decided to examine the carboy which to my disbelieve was as thin as 0.025"...... and this was on the bottom radius ! As a reference, the dime pictured is more than twice as thick at 0.054". I then laid it on it's side and noticed the drastic differences in thickness of the entire bottom. As if it was laid on it's side while still in a very molten state.
I will point out that the folks behind these carboys, Northern Brewer, where great about replacing the carboy and ingredients that where inside. They also said that the carboys are indeed made in China, but went on to say that they had people there on-sight and are in complete control of the manufacturing process. I was also told that these bottles have to be "hand-blown" as an explanation of the inconsistencies in thickness. Not sure how to interpret all of that, but it didn't leave me feeling very warm and fuzzy about the other Big Mouth Bubbler I have or the one they replaced......

 

[W0GWT]

Thought I would share my catastrophic failure of my "Big Mouth Bubbler" carboy. I'll point out that this is the first failure I've ever experienced in 25 years of brewing beer. My attention to safety and sanitation is on par with most everyone else here and this failure happened during it being simply lifted from the floor using the recommended "Big Mouth Harness". No temperature shock, bumping into anything, just lifting. It blew out a baseball size hole out the bottom after being lifted about two inches from the ground, and luckily no injuries. After dealing with the epic mess in my kitchen, which by the way is carpeted ( weird, I know, but I purchased it that way and haven't gotten around to changing it (until now)) I decided to examine the carboy which to my disbelieve was as thin as 0.025"...... and this was on the bottom radius ! As a reference, the dime pictured is more than twice as thick at 0.054". I then laid it on it's side and noticed the drastic differences in thickness of the entire bottom. As if it was laid on it's side while still in a very molten state.
I will point out that the folks behind these carboys, Northern Brewer, where great about replacing the carboy and ingredients that where inside. They also said that the carboys are indeed made in China, but went on to say that they had people there on-sight and are in complete control of the manufacturing process. I was also told that these bottles have to be "hand-blown" as an explanation of the inconsistencies in thickness. Not sure how to interpret all of that, but it didn't leave me feeling very warm and fuzzy about the other Big Mouth Bubbler I have or the one they replaced......

Wait...

Wail... Your kitchen is carpeted...?

 

[kh54s10]

I am glad I feel my Better Bottles are so easy to clean. Soak with Oxyclean, rinse, insert a washcloth and a quart of water, swirl, rinse some more and done. IMO, even easier than sticking your arm in a Wide Mouth Bubbler. I have had all my BB's on a baseball ricking the crap out of it to aerate. No problems.

At least with the plastic, stitches were not involved....

Carpet soon to be removed from the kitchen??

 

[passedpawn]

Thought I would share my catastrophic failure of my "Big Mouth Bubbler" carboy.

Thankfully, your pictures lacked blood.

 

[Arrheinous]

I think the big mouth plastic carboys could be fine products but reaching into a glass one... What happens when your arm is halfway into ground zero on a broken glass carboy?

 

[IslandLizard]

Thought I would share my catastrophic failure of my "Big Mouth Bubbler" carboy. [...]

Sorry to hear about your mishap and mess. I think the carpet should be paid for as well, whether or not you're going to put in a new floor of your choice, probably sooner now than later.

It took me 3 hours with a carpet cleaner, buckets of hot water, detergents, and stiff brooms to clean up a spill from a 2 gallon pot of chicken soup I had inadvertently dumped on a floor covered with commercial carpet. You got 5 gallons and that stuff starts to reek after a while.

If it were a tile/stone/bare concrete floor there maybe safety issues with placing glass carboys on them, but carpet should prevent those high pressure points. At least it may have contained the spread of the spill somewhat.

That is crazy thin for a glass vessel that size! I went back to buckets for primaries, only using glass carboys for those few instances where secondaries are the only option, or for long term aging and sours.

I would caution anyone using the glass carboys/big mouths coming from China, it seems those are the ones where most of the "spontaneous" failures occur.

The ones I have are all older and from Mexico and Italy, which may be a bit thicker and sturdier, and perhaps a bit more uniform. Gross weight is not all, uniformity is more important, as are strength in critical areas such as where the bottom curves up to the walls and the walls curve to the shoulders and neck.

 

[RPCidery]

I would caution anyone using the glass carboys/big mouths coming from China, it seems those are the ones where most of the "spontaneous" failures occur.

That is an observation that I have been making as well. All of the failures in US/Mexican/Italian carboys trace back to being dropped or bumped against something hard. The Chinese carboys do seem to be the source of unexplained failures.

 

[DaveandZeus]

In regards to the carpet, in my defense, it was already here when I purchased my home about a year ago. Not something I would have ever done, and I'm not one to pass judgement......... That being said, I did want to replace it with a stone/tile material but was planning to do it when I wanted to and while remodeling the rest of the inside, not when I had to, which is now the case.

Having it professionally cleaned would have exceeded the cost of replacing it, so I was left with the only option of cleaning it myself for the time being. That process turned out to be dragging a garden hose into my house to wash it down, followed by using a Shop-Vac to remove as much goo as possible. This process was repeated three times, then using fans blowing across the floor to help dry it out.

Although the floor looks about as good as it did prior to the Big Mouth Bubbler doing a self-immolation, it does stink ! and it's horrible. It's quiet a bizarre smell; wet-dog, brussel spouts gone bad, with slight under tones of a hoppy mash and a touch of maple.........

And yes the carpet is being torn out on Monday.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

My glass carboys are all from Italy. Are those better??


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Sorry, jus read above that it the Chinese ones to be concerned with.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

 

[phug]

I picked one up for secondary for wine and was majorly paranoid when cleaning sanitizing for the first time. It now lives in a milk crate. And I'm considering wearing my leather welder's apron the next time I have to clean it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Newsman]

I picked one up for secondary for wine and was majorly paranoid when cleaning sanitizing for the first time. It now lives in a milk crate. And I'm considering wearing my leather welder's apron the next time I have to clean it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Might want to wear your welding gauntlets as well.

 

[phug]

Sadly I don't weld or have welding gauntlets. Just a bad ass BBQ apron with Kevlar stitching. That was a good Christmas.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[balrog]

+1 on the milk crates. I use them with the BB just because they're easier to carry

 

[shaferandrew]

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...

resulting in...

Lessons:
1) When someone (the wife) asks if you want help with something...accept it.
2) When you get smart (cool my carboy with cold water), always think about what's dumb with it (wet carboys are slippery).
3) Five gallons of wort on a carpet is really hard to clean up...shampoo it early and often.
4) Count your blessings. This accident could have been much, much worse. I hit an artery in my thumb but missed all of the tendons; I still have a (fully functional) thumb. I also didn't receive any other major wounds to my bare feet or legs. Blessings.

Thanks for reading!

 

[flars]

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.

 

[pvpeacock]

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

 

[kh54s10]

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.

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.

 

[troy2000]

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...

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?

 

[shaferandrew]

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?

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?

 

[RPCidery]

Any way to tell country of origin?

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/

 

[shaferandrew]

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/

So...my unmarked carboy is likely Chinese?

 

[RPCidery]

So...my unmarked carboy is likely Chinese?

Chances are...

 

[passedpawn]

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.

 

[passedpawn]

From HBT member magic-rat: