Carboys VS Demijohn

[dudasaj]

Has anyone ever used a 10-15 gallon glass Demijohn for beer fermentation? I know they are very large and awkward. But with the price of glass going up i was looking for a non-plastic alternative. Maybe doing 10-12 gallons of house ale in a single batch.

 

[bsay]

Sounds like it would work great for larger batches. I'd keep smaller ones out though, too much extra air space. You say you don't like plastic, but I will still recommend Better Bottles. You can "go green" by recycling them again and again by putting another batch of beer in them.

 

[wshymas]

I have been using two Demijohns for two years or so and I like having the size.
The weight of a full Demijohn is a con so I will get help to move it or use a pump to transfer at some point I would like to upgrade to a conical fermenter.

 

[conpewter]

I have started brewing 9 gallon batches instead of 10 gallon and fermenting in two corny kegs (with foam control drops) this way I have stainless instead of plastic.

 

[dudasaj]

Sounds like it would work great for larger batches. I'd keep smaller ones out though, too much extra air space. You say you don't like plastic, but I will still recommend Better Bottles. You can "go green" by recycling them again and again by putting another batch of beer in them.

I assume the recycling part was a joke. You can recycle glass by keeping them full too. Anyways, some people say stay away from better bottles for long term, high gravity aging. Barley wines and mead.

I guess better bottles would be fine for most or all batches, I just have a hard time trusting plastic. People thought that the primary plastic we were using before PET was the best, a few years later we find out the PP is leaching. maybe PET seems great now, and 5 years from now they will find some other harmful contaminate in PET. Glass has been used for hundreds of years.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Glass has been used for hundreds of years.

True, but it's also been cutting veins and tendons for hundreds of years. If you're concerned about safety, Better Bottle is the clear choice.

You'll notice some familiar names here.

 

[Rick500]

Wow, I think that convinced me to phase out my glass carboys.

 

[dudasaj]

After reading how badly some folks were injured, I will be weary. I work with chemicals, and we use 90% Ammonia concentrate. It comes in a 1 Qt glass bottle, except it has a 1 millimeter rubber/PVC coating around it to prevent dangerous shards and minimize chemical spills if an accident should occur. The coatings are fairly strong, when we throw them out we shatter the glass inside the plastic and the plastic is 100% intact. I should look in to how difficult that would be to duplicate. Maybe I will give better bottles a closer look. Unfortunately they aren't much cheaper than glass at the LHBS.

Something like these:
Bottles and Vials Online- Laboratory glass bottle, carboy, plastic bottle, drum, waste container and vial listing

 

[dudasaj]

Found 4 liter(1 gallon) safety coated jugs for under $20 each

Bad news, a 5 Gallon safety coated costs $681
2.5 Gallon safety coated costs $437

 

[bsay]

I assume the recycling part was a joke. You can recycle glass by keeping them full too. Anyways, some people say stay away from better bottles for long term, high gravity aging. Barley wines and mead.

Yes, it was a little stab at some humor. I am not sure about high gravity aging...would have to do some more research. As far as breaking goes, if you don't trust Better Bottles, check this out:

[youtube]kP6ZEenvRho[/youtube]

 

[daniel17319]

has anyone ever thought about putting a plastic coating like a tint they do on cars so its like a windshields. on those evil glass carboys, so when it breaks it doesnnt shatter henry ford figured this out 100 years ago i dont see why no one has tried this, so we could finally eliminate those "better bottles". lol and the general public could relieve thier extreme safety concerns.

 

[Cheaton]

Howabout that plasticoat stuff they sell at Home Depot?

http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?PageI...330280&utm_content=6790&utm_campaign=DATAFEED

P.S. I love my better bottle. I loved it even more the other day when I bottled my latest batch and carried the thing up and down the steps about 5 times. Once to bring it up to the kitchen for bottling, down to the basement for cleaning, up to the kitchen to start my apfelwein, down to the basement (full) to my fermenting area. I couldn't imagine if the thing weighed another 10-15 lbs.

 

[springer]

Howabout that plasticoat stuff they sell at Home Depot?

http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?PageI...330280&utm_content=6790&utm_campaign=DATAFEED

P.S. I love my better bottle. I loved it even more the other day when I bottled my latest batch and carried the thing up and down the steps about 5 times. Once to bring it up to the kitchen for bottling, down to the basement for cleaning, up to the kitchen to start my apfelwein, down to the basement (full) to my fermenting area. I couldn't imagine if the thing weighed another 10-15 lbs.

been done carboy

 

[imaguitargod]

Thought I might weigh in here. I've been using a 7.5 gallon demijohn for my 5.5 gallon brews. It's great, I love it. I too am trying to stay away from the plastic stuff.

Time has come to get another fermentor and I've been looking at the 15 gallon demijohn at leeners for only $54 or so. That's alot of air space but I don't think it'll matter too much. Plus, I've got 15.5 gallon capacity with my current all grain set up so I'm probably going to bite the bullet and start brewing larger batches.

I've never dropped a glass fermentor yet (hydrometers hell yes, carboy, no)...knock on wood. I think it just takes being super super careful and not drinking when you clean your fermentor (which is a hard thing to do for any of us me thinks).

 

[ryan0914]

I just got a 15gal and a 7.5gal Demijohn And 2 6gal graduated pyrex carboys for for $60 plus a good deal on more wine stuff from a old wine maker here in new jersey that was geting rid of everything. I'll make wine some say but in the meantime i'll use it for beer. I plan on doing 10gal of stout and then spliting them for secondary. My only problem is I ferment in my basement. I don't want to carry 120lbs of glass and beer down stairs to my basement. So I was thinking about syphoning it down stairs. Does anyone have experience doing this or advise for or aginst it.

 

[SankePankey]

I've used many a demi-john in the distillery I used to work at and they usually are sold with the rubber jacket, unlike a carboy (not for picking up when full, though). I have stainless gear, but I was definitely going to go for a demi if I hadn't pony'd up the $. I brew 15 gals, though.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/15-gallon-glass-demi-john.html

P.S. I will say that I was very lucky when I dropped a 6 gal carboy full of pear eau-de-vies (about $500 worth retail) and didn't get cut. It's kind of a feature that you're not supposed to pick up the full demi. Hehe...

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

I've been doing 10 gallon batches in carboys, but just bought these: http://www.tank-depot.com/productdetails.aspx?part=A-INFD15-19

Plastic, to be sure, but no more costly than two Better Bottles, & greater capacity. Does require some handiness in setting up a stand, drilling for the fermentation lock, etc. There are threads here about these--it's where I got the idea.

For the longer term, why not just bottle the barley wine, or keg it in a Corny keg?