Fermenter?

[sergiontx]

I'm getting ready to make my first batch of wine. I have both, a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and Fastfermenter. Which is best?

 

[kh54s10]

Not for reasons of fermenting, I would use the FastFermenter. I will never own a glass carboy. They are too risky, IMO. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=376523

Some feel there is a danger from oxygen permeability of plastics. Unless you are going to be aging for a very long time that is not a concern to me.

Either one will work.

 

[sergiontx]

Thank You!

 

[DoctorCAD]

Well, there are hundreds of thousands of glass carboys in use, so its really not that big of a deal.

 

[kh54s10]

Well, there are hundreds of thousands of glass carboys in use, so its really not that big of a deal.

Until you post your picture on that thread. Or you are the one rumored DEATH.

Beside that glass carboys are heavy even when empty!

 

[Yooper]

I'm getting ready to make my first batch of wine. I have both, a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and Fastfermenter. Which is best?

Either will work just fine, at least for primary. However, once fermentation slows and you rack to secondary, you want the vessel that has a very narrow top and is the exact size of your batch, so you have no headspace. So if you are making a 6.75 gallon batch of wine, the 6.5 carboy is perfect for that since you'll have a bit more than 6.5 gallons of wine going to secondary and that would fit perfectly.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Until you post your picture on that thread. Or you are the one rumored DEATH.

Beside that glass carboys are heavy even when empty!

Yep, 30 or so out of hundreds of thousands is a pretty small problem.

 

[kh54s10]

Well, there are hundreds of thousands of glass carboys in use, so its really not that big of a deal.

Until you post your picture on that thread. Or you are the one rumored DEATH.

Beside that glass carboys are heavy even when empty!

Yep, 30 or so out of hundreds of thousands is a pretty small problem.

Call me when you are in the ER getting stitches.. Or worse, tendons reattached. The numbers are small but the risks are big. You might end up being one of the people who said "I am always careful"...

 

[bernardsmith]

Call me when you are in the ER getting stitches.. Or worse, tendons reattached. The numbers are small but the risks are big. You might end up being one of the people who said "I am always careful"...

If you juggle your glass carboys when they are slopping with sanitizer then you are right. The risks far outweigh the benefits but if you only ever transport filled glass carboys that are seated in wooden or plastic crates and you always lift these crates using two hands and you don't place empty carboys on bare concrete floors then the risks are actually tiny - Moreover, whatever the risk might be the one thing that you cannot do with plastic is transfer or bottle wine using a vacuum pump and using a vacuum pump means that whatever your carboy weighs empty or full, you never need to hoist it to enable gravity to assist you.

 

[kh54s10]

If you juggle your glass carboys when they are slopping with sanitizer then you are right. The risks far outweigh the benefits but if you only ever transport filled glass carboys that are seated in wooden or plastic crates and you always lift these crates using two hands and you don't place empty carboys on bare concrete floors then the risks are actually tiny - Moreover, whatever the risk might be the one thing that you cannot do with plastic is transfer or bottle wine using a vacuum pump and using a vacuum pump means that whatever your carboy weighs empty or full, you never need to hoist it to enable gravity to assist you.

I don't know about vacuum transfers. There are alternative methods of transfer. There is also a safer, if costly alternative to glass carboys for vacuum transfers - stainless steel. I do know from reading the disaster posts that some had been using glass carboys, sometimes for decades. They took all the precautions then some tiny tap, and disaster. IMO the risks far outweigh the benefits even if you are as careful as you can be.

 

[bernardsmith]

I don't know about vacuum transfers. There are alternative methods of transfer. There is also a safer, if costly alternative to glass carboys for vacuum transfers - stainless steel. I do know from reading the disaster posts that some had been using glass carboys, sometimes for decades. They took all the precautions then some tiny tap, and disaster. IMO the risks far outweigh the benefits even if you are as careful as you can be.

Sure - no argument. Everyone has their own comfort level with risk. You are happy with zero risk and many others are comfortable with greater levels.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Yikes...I ride motorcycles and paddle kayaks, as well as vacuum transfer in glass...

Guess I am dead and just don't know it.

 

[bernardsmith]

Yikes...I ride motorcycles and paddle kayaks, as well as vacuum transfer in glass...

Guess I am dead and just don't know it.

Nah! Very much alive, I think