Broken Glass Carboy Horror Stories Compendium

[OleBrewing]

I haven't found that to be the case, but I don't let cruddy glass sit around for more than the better part of one day, either.
A couple of tablespoons of Oxyfree in water matching the glass temperature and left for a few hours will usually rinse clean.

For the record, I would never buy a used glass carboy. My OCD-driven care of glass runs around "11"...

Cheers!

yeah that is my regimen also. but then I am filling the carboy up again whit 5-7 gallons of water to soak the krausen ring. seems like a waste of water. and I never have the time to do everything on a time.

 

[Gameface]

Put in on something before filling so it's ready to siphon later. Be careful cleaning... wear rubber gloves for grip. Set it down gently on hard surfaces... once again, common sense (oh, I forgot... I'm old school... maybe people don't know what that is anymore) If the issue is cheap glass, then I understand. I will do a search and see if quality glass carboys are still available. Got mine 20 years ago.

Or...

Get a non-glass fermentation vessel.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Put in on something before filling so it's ready to siphon later. once again, common sense (oh, I forgot... I'm old school... maybe people don't know what that is anymore)

True, true........I'm thinking of digging a hole in front of my ferm chamber, so my kegs will be low enough to siphon in to.........

 

[bja]

Or...

Get a non-glass fermentation vessel.

Well, if you lack common sense, this would be a good choice.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I remember reading this thread when I first started brewing a year ago. Was very eye opening(and sometimes eye closing, good god the carnage). When I upgraded from my buckets I went PET carboys. Just wasn't worth the risk to me. I really don't see a downside to PET, except maybe you have to be more careful cleaning since they can scratch. I found a good soak in oxyclean followed by a hot water rinse did the trick, no scrubbing necessary. Now I ferment in corny kegs which is freaking awesome in so many ways.

 

[LostHopper]

Anyone use the covers on Carboy.net ? I have three for some 6 gallon carboys and have never had any issues. They (at least when I bought mine) seem pretty sturdy, have carried multiple full carboys and have never heard so much of a frightening seam stretching noise from em. Well worth the investment and I still stand by em.

The Carboy.net covers are the ONLY reason I still use glass carboys on occasion. The carboys were given to me many years ago and I keep the carboy in the cover at ALL times. I also use buckets but it was a difficult change not seeing those yeasties going to work.

 

[doctor strangebrew]

I am currently using 3 gallon glass carboy... a bit easier to deal with (and a 2.5 gallon corney keg) By the way, I didn't mean to offend anyone who was injured by broken glass. I don't like buckets for primary because I like to see what's happening during fermentation, including clearing. PET seems like a good choice and less expensive. I use 1 gallon glass jugs for cider... very easy to handle and they have the handle already (I just buy 1 gallon of cheap wine for $12 and get the jug for free) I actually like the cheap wine. It's a chianti made locally.

 

[LostHopper]

Are 3 gallon and 5 gallon PET carboys the same dimensions as the glass carboys?

 

[ten80]

Broke a 5-gal carboy full of freeze-concentrated apple juice and learned a lesson about personal protective equipment. The back end of the carboy slipped as I was pouring the juice into a new carbon for fermenting in. Carboy smashed in slow motion and I watched the thick, syrupy juice go down my floor drain. I cursed, put on leather gloves, and picked up the broken pieces. Then I decided to stomp the pieces down in my garbage can... and large shard of carboy nearly sliced my achilles tendon in half. Double damn.

It took about 20 gallons of ~1.045 juice to make the 5 gallons of 1.145 OG juice and I spent a good three weeks not being able to put a shoe on. Luckily my foot healed nicely and I just have a weird "U" scar on my heel now.

LESSON: don't stomp on glass while wearing flimsy shoes.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Then I decided to stomp the pieces down in my garbage can... and large shard of carboy nearly sliced my achilles tendon in half.

In your bare feet?? Either way...Here's your sign.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Are 3 gallon and 5 gallon PET carboys the same dimensions as the glass carboys?

Not sure of diameter but i believe they are slightly shorter and the area around the neck is less sloped. Also they have a wider opening. #10 bung

 

[ten80]

In your bare feet?? Either way...Here's your sign.

come on, I have a small modicum of common sense! To quote myself, "LESSON: don't stomp on glass while wearing flimsy shoes."

 

[Edward's Beer Cellar]

Neanderthal man here. I like the glass carboy for the view and nostalgia. All my carboys are antique store pick-ups for $10 or so, old water cooler bottles.
I keep them in milk crates and all have neck handles for control when cleaning. Cut one side off a milk crate to use to transfer from ferm chamber and back out. And built a carboy cleaner/sprayer from some stuff laying around the garage. Half gallon hot water and some oxyclean gets the job done.

 

[kh54s10]

For those that talk of older stronger carboys think of this. When they do break you have very strong razor sharp pieces of shrapnel....

Be safe my friends.

 

[FatDragon]

I've got a 5 gallon carboy that came with my beginner's kit. It gets use every once in a while bulk aging a beer that benefits from bulk aging (Brett Saison right now). It lives in a 25L bucket. Being tapered a little like most buckets, the bottom of the bucket hugs the carboy nicely - I think it actually rests a couple centimeters above the bottom. There's no reason for me to take the carboy out of the bucket in most circumstances and very little chance of getting hurt if it breaks. Heck, I could even salvage most of the beer in that case by putting some kind of filter (for glass shards) on the end of my autosiphon and siphoning the beer out, though it'll probably be a bit oxidized.

I have little interest in participating in the glass carboy sweepstakes so I can watch my krausen grow, but with the carboy in a bucket and an old t-shirt wrapped around the top, it doesn't worry me as an occasional long-term secondary vessel. No thanks on milk crates - I could see a bunch of ways that could go wrong - but a bucket is good by me.

 

[kh54s10]

I've got a 5 gallon carboy that came with my beginner's kit. It gets use every once in a while bulk aging a beer that benefits from bulk aging (Brett Saison right now). It lives in a 25L bucket. Being tapered a little like most buckets, the bottom of the bucket hugs the carboy nicely - I think it actually rests a couple centimeters above the bottom. There's no reason for me to take the carboy out of the bucket in most circumstances and very little chance of getting hurt if it breaks. Heck, I could even salvage most of the beer in that case by putting some kind of filter (for glass shards) on the end of my autosiphon and siphoning the beer out, though it'll probably be a bit oxidized.

I have little interest in participating in the glass carboy sweepstakes so I can watch my krausen grow, but with the carboy in a bucket and an old t-shirt wrapped around the top, it doesn't worry me as an occasional long-term secondary vessel. No thanks on milk crates - I could see a bunch of ways that could go wrong - but a bucket is good by me.

I can see, with the very small contact only around the bottom rim of the carboy, that you are putting a lot of stress on a very small area of the carboy. I would worry that it will fail because of this....

 

[FatDragon]

I can see, with the very small contact only around the bottom rim of the carboy, that you are putting a lot of stress on a very small area of the carboy. I would worry that it will fail because of this....

I've wondered about this as well. Certainly it would be nice to have a slightly bigger bucket, maybe with an old T-shirt or towel between the carboy and the bucket bottom and walls for added padding, but I'm fine as is for now, since the prospect of catastrophic failure doesn't include much chance of grievous injury or five gallons of beer on the floor. If I find the right bucket lying around, I'll be sure to give it an upgrade though.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I now age beer in kegs. No chance of cutting anything off with those. Plus zero O2 and zero possibility of light

 

[Broothru]

Neanderthal man here. I like the glass carboy for the view and nostalgia. All my carboys are antique store pick-ups for $10 or so, old water cooler bottles.
I keep them in milk crates and all have neck handles for control when cleaning. Cut one side off a milk crate to use to transfer from ferm chamber and back out. And built a carboy cleaner/sprayer from some stuff laying around the garage. Half gallon hot water and some oxyclean gets the job done.

Been making wine since the early 70s, and brewed beer ever since 'Jimmy Carter Day' in 1978. Back then, glass was the most common fermenter for primary and secondary, though plastic was also frequently used for primary. I still have 5 5-gallon carboys, some of which I still use with their original milk crates. I also have 4 6-gallon and 2 -6 1/2-gallon glass carboys. There's also an assortment of 3, 2 1/2, 1, 1/2 gallon jugs. I've only had ONE break on me during that 45 year period.

Good luck? Paranoid caution? Don't know. But the one that broke (imploded) was a 6 1/2 gallon one I was using to degas wine under vacuum. Guess it was too much vacuum, but more than likely it was a fault in the glass. That experience led to a series of Better Bottle, Big Mouth, and other plastic ones which are light which saved my aging back but problematic wrt infections and oxygen exposure.

That led to my current process of fermenting both beer and wine in SS Brewtech Brew Buckets and Chronicals. The wine gets transferred into glass secondary and gets clarified and filtered on it's way to bottling. The beer only goes through a single fermenter/fermentation (trub dump and yeast harvest during the time in the conical) unless I Krausen and spund in a keg when gravity drops to 3~4 points of FG.

Expensive? You bet. But at this point in life it's worth it to me. Plus, the wine and especially the beer are much better with steel. AND, I no longer worry about bleeding out from a sliced femoral artery from a broken carboy.

Brooo Brother

 

[doctor strangebrew]

Yes... good ol Jimmy Carter. 100 gallons a year (plus another 100 if you have a mate in the household)

 

[shoengine]

Yes... good ol Jimmy Carter. 100 gallons a year (plus another 100 if you have a mate in the household)

Finally! A reason to not live alone!

 

[BruceH]

I would not be surprised to read that ~80% of carboy failures happen with wet hands.
Then you have the dry-handed drops, random collisions with inelastic objects, and the thermal-shocked-bottom-fell-outs...

Cheers!

That's how mine broke. It was a combination of things but dry hands would of prevented it. An uncluttered work area would of helped too.

 

[doctor strangebrew]

A friend just gave me his old glass carboys (5 gallon and 3 gallon) They look just like the one I had 20 years ago so I am comfortable using them, especially the smaller 3 gallon. I will be extra careful because of the horror stories on this thread.

 

[Mic Carp]

I switched back to buckets a few years ago primarily because I can clean them much easier, they stack, and they are cheap. i frequently have 3-4 fermenting at the same time and the cost for all 4 fermenters is still less than one glass carboy.
all my glass carboys have Christmas lights in them now and look very festive out on the patio

 

[kh54s10]

I switched back to buckets a few years ago primarily because I can clean them much easier, they stack, and they are cheap. i frequently have 3-4 fermenting at the same time and the cost for all 4 fermenters is still less than one glass carboy.
all my glass carboys have Christmas lights in them now and look very festive out on the patio

Be careful, the thermal cycling from the lights may cause a catastrophic failure....

 

[Mic Carp]

Be careful, the thermal cycling from the lights may cause a catastrophic failure....

ha ha Jug light explosion

 

[Cidre Breton]

I have read through a few of those post, but I don't see anyone mentioning some kind of a rubber sleeve or container for glass carboys. Are those available, and would that resolve some of the glass challenges?

 

[FatDragon]

I have read through a few of those post, but I don't see anyone mentioning some kind of a rubber sleeve or container for glass carboys. Are those available, and would that resolve some of the glass challenges?

There are various ways of dealing with the breakable nature of glass carboys, including milk crates, carriers, and neoprene covers. That last one is probably the closest to what you're suggesting, as well as one of the most expensive - might as well go stainless at that point, methinks. These all mitigate the risks of using glass, but nothing really eliminates the possibility of catastrophic failure. A dropped full carboy in a neoprene cover is almost as certain to shatter as an unprotected one, though the neoprene should contain most, if not all of the glass shards.

My sole carboy lives in an old brew bucket. My theory is that it not only makes it easier to carry, less likely to break, and less likely to cut me if it does break, but it should also contain the mess if it breaks in such a way that the bucket doesn't fall over.

 

[splyn]

brewed a 10 gallon batch of IPA and racked the wort to two glass carbouys. First is a classic 6.5 gallon carbouy and the second is a glass wide mouth bubbler. I intended to transport the carbouys from my brew space (garage) into my empty keezer loacted in my basement to complete chilling the wort while i finish preparing my yeast. Both carbouys were using brewhauler carriers for easier lifting. I moved 6.5 carbouy into the house and thought about the HUGE mess if i happen to drop a carbouy when decending the stairs to the basement. Then i picked up the WideMouth using the brewhauler and within 5 steps, the bucke of the hauler broke and out tumbled the carbouy to shatter on my garage floor. I will NOT be hauling carbouys to the basement anymore.

 

[Jag75]

Oh dang that sucks !! ^^^^^

Btw is that a RC-51 I see there ?