DIY effortless Brewhauler

[Quetzolcotl]

I don't own a Brewhauler and loading and unloading my carboy from my fermentation chamber is a real pain in the ass. I used to have to put one foot inside the thing to get some leverage and not strain my back.

Then I came up with a solution we all have in our homes already: A pillowcase!

I've been doing this for a while now and it works great. It is easier to put your carboy into the pillowcase before you fill it but you can also do it afterwards.

Roll down the pillowcase so you can roll it up over the carboy. You'll have to lift the carboy a few inches and adjust your grip so the thing is centered. I find by leaving a rolled top that I get a better grip on the thing.

Now I can easily lift my carboy from the top and no longer have to stress my back.

 

[Kharnynb]

just seeing that makes me have bad dreams about ripping sounds and sticky glass everywhere...

 

[Rivenin]

what he said - i'm all about DIY and reusing... but a pillowcase to hold 40-60lb scares me

 

[Psylocide]

what he said - i'm all about DIY and reusing... but a pillowcase to hold 40-60lb scares me

You could always triple them up.

 

[Rivenin]

or possibly reinforce them a bit

 

[jtratcliff]

get Wilserbrewer to make you one of his BIAB bags to fit a carboy... He's tested them with over 100lbs if I recall...
But then it might be cheaper to buy a brewhauler

 

[StoutNoDoubt]

While this is a good way to save some money, a brew hauler isn't expensive enough for me to not just buy one. You buy it once and you are good to go! Not trying to knock what you are doing but the brew hauler straps are fairly affordable.

 

[revco]

I would echo the concerns about safety using that. The fabric, much less the threads, aren't rated for and were never intended to hold that much weight. It might work a few times, but as you stress the seams, it will become less and less safe through use. In fact, I question the safety of the commercial brew haulers, I just had a handle break it's threads in a close call after around 3 years of fairly regular use.

I did up a fairly complete tutorial on how to DIY a brew hauler, in case you're interested. I'm definitely switching entirely to these after that handle break...I like being able to use high end thread and not feeling like I have to cut corners to save on costs.

 

[MaxStout]

Use a Brewhauler, and get one of Wilserbrewer's ratchet pulleys to hoist it in and out.

 

[JohnSand]

I use a shopping bag. The composite kind that you buy to reuse. It cost a buck. I tested it by filling the carboy with water, and bouncing it by the straps (outside). Just in case, I bought two to double them up. But one does fine.

 

[naturebrew]

My GF picked up some webbing at the fabric store, strong stuff, ugly color so cheap. She sewed 2 carboy haulers together for me, pretty basic build for less than 10 bucks.

 

[Quetzolcotl]

Speaking to the strength of stitches - the Brewhauler and pillowcases are sewn with thread. Pillowcases have a ton more stitches compared to the Brewhauler. Stitches can always fail but I'll go with the one that has the most. Look at sacks of grain - those paper sacks with one line of stiches that hold in 50 - 55 lbs and no one has a problem with those breaking. Do some testing on your own and you will see that pillowcases are plenty strong.

 

[Quetzolcotl]

An update!

I used a pillowcase for a beer yesterday and the pillowcase ripped. I am still going to use this method however and double up on the pillowcases. The bag ripped when I went to lift the pillowcase with the carboy up. The bag split and came up over the carboy and the carboy just stayed on the floor so it ended up being humorous instead of tragic.

 

[Kharnynb]

great that it didn't harm you, but If you want to do fabric ones, it might be better to make your own, with higher quality thick fabric and double stiched thick thread.

 

[Rivenin]

or just add some straps - harbor freight has some cheap tie downs that would work great for this just to add some stability

 

[Rivenin]

Speaking to the strength of stitches - the Brewhauler and pillowcases are sewn with thread. Pillowcases have a ton more stitches compared to the Brewhauler. Stitches can always fail but I'll go with the one that has the most. Look at sacks of grain - those paper sacks with one line of stiches that hold in 50 - 55 lbs and no one has a problem with those breaking. Do some testing on your own and you will see that pillowcases are plenty strong.

problem being, those are purpose built and tested - using the thin single thread stitch of a pillowcase is where it's worrisome...

 

[KiwiRob]

I've been using thesehttp://www.carboy.net/ so far it's worked well.

(No affiliation)

 

[Peruvian802]

Milk crate.