Glass carboy bottom falls off. Beer everywhere.

[Dlou84]

So I was out to lunch when I see a text from my wife saying my beer leaked everywhere. I'm thinking the keg leaked and I've lost the rest of my DIPA. I come home to find out the Belgian Tripel that had been sitting in secondary for 7 weeks is the one that leaked everywhere.

So the bottom of this carboy completely cracked away from the rest. And all the beer spilled out. What the heck! I rarely use secondary and the carboy is not old. I always use a brew hauler. It was sitting on a small rug in the basement. How did this happen!?

 

[Vandulus]

Did you try to cool the wort in the carboy? When I first started brewing , I would poor the hot wort into the carboy sitting in a bucket of ice water. About the fourth time I did that, the bottom of the carboy fell out when I lifted it from the bucket I got lucky as the bucket was underneath, but was still pissed as that represented $40 and 3 hours of work.

I now use a immersion chiller to cool the wort down to 75F before sticking it in any fermenter.

 

[FVillatoro]

So I was out to lunch when I see a text from my wife saying my beer leaked everywhere. I'm thinking the keg leaked and I've lost the rest of my DIPA. I come home to find out the Belgian Tripel that had been sitting in secondary for 7 weeks is the one that leaked everywhere.

So the bottom of this carboy completely cracked away from the rest. And all the beer spilled out. What the heck! I rarely use secondary and the carboy is not old. I always use a brew hauler. It was sitting on a small rug in the basement. How did this happen!?

This is actually something that is too common. In fact, there's a thread somewhere on here about pretty bad injuries from glass carboys breaking. The main reason they break is the nature that glass it a very brittle material and its always prone to shattering.

One suggestion that I read is to make sure that glass carboys are always kept in completely flat surfaces without any bumpy textures or rocks, as these may cause pressure points and cause them to shatter.

Your experience is the reason that I will never use glass carboys.
I love my Speidel fermenters and I seriously would never use anything else.

Glad that no one was injured during that incident.

 

[Dlou84]

I use a wort chiller. This carboy lives in the basement and I've never cooled it or anything like that. Any beer in it is at room temp.

Sucks you lost the fermenter! I'm not that disappointed in losing mine. I have two secondary's and definitely don't need both. I am very sad I lost this beer I was aging for Christmas...

 

[JJack887]

I did read a thread where a particular Mexican brand had carboys that always broke...

 

[ChefRex]

Thank God you are still alive to write this! You could have DIED! BLOOD and GUTS EVERYWHERE!

Sorry I got carried away

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

So I was out to lunch when I see a text from my wife saying my beer leaked everywhere. I'm thinking the keg leaked and I've lost the rest of my DIPA. I come home to find out the Belgian Tripel that had been sitting in secondary for 7 weeks is the one that leaked everywhere.

So the bottom of this carboy completely cracked away from the rest. And all the beer spilled out. What the heck! I rarely use secondary and the carboy is not old. I always use a brew hauler. It was sitting on a small rug in the basement. How did this happen!?

you must have said f^ck, err, I would have said f^ck. Bummer, glad no injuries are involved.

 

[kh54s10]

It is good that it didn't happen when you were handling it. This is the reason why I will never own or use a glass carboy.

Sucks that you lost your beer.

Buy a Better Bottle or similar and brew it again.

 

[Hoppity]

Was the air lock blocked? A clogged IPA sheared one on me once.

 

[ChefRex]

you must have said f^ck, err, I would have said f^ck. Bummer, glad no injuries are involved.

Such language, MOD!

 

[Dlou84]

I knew they could break, but didn't think one would fall apart with a beer that was just hanging out and aging inside. I did some research and already ordered the better bottle carboys. Gonna throw the other two glass ones away...

 

[JB_Brewing2]

I knew they could break, but didn't think one would fall apart with a beer that was just hanging out and aging inside. I did some research and already ordered the better bottle carboys. Gonna throw the other two glass ones away...

That seems like a wise decision...says one who wears a carboy scar.

 

[IslandLizard]

There's a whole bunch of those "ribbed" glass carboys, similar to yours, that cracked spontaneously. They came from China, not Mexico or Italy, IIRC. The infamous first edition of "Bubblers" also came from China. The glass can be very, very thin in certain areas. As thin as 1/16". How thin is yours where it cracked?

A little too much stress in a certain area can cause it to crack or shear off. As mentioned before, filling with hot water or PBW solution can cause that.

I've heard very little problems with the smooth sided carboys, usually 6 or 6.5 gallon size. The older the better, probably.