Glass Carboy Explosion During Cooling

[triggerman72]

Frankly, I want to thank the OP for this thread. I've been reading up on homebrewing for a long time now, and I do not recall the instruction that says make sure you cool your wort BEFORE putting it in your primary fermentor. Now I know better. I'm not yet doing all grain - where I would have a larger boil than I would via canned extract kit - but when I make that transition, the OP just saved me a carboy.

 

[C4PNJ4ZZ]

After reading this one imporant point has not been addressed.
How the hell does one transfer 5 gallons of boiling wort to a carboy? You must have Arnold style biceps and a stainless funnel. I would assume any plastic tubing/autosiphons would turn to mush.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

This is like saying you you will never buy another Ford because you ran into a tree while talking on the phone and eating breakfast.

Hilarious. Yeah no faulty equipment involved in this one. Like everyone has said you need to cool the wort before transferring to carboy. You are lucky it didn't break just from transferring the almost boiling wort into it. You then would have a lost batch, broken carboy and a very sticky mess to clean up on the floor.

Better luck next time brother.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

RommelMagic I was staring at your avatar and almost didn't read that someone else was commenting on it as well. Keep posting so I can look at it more.

 

[beretta]

After reading this one imporant point has not been addressed.
How the hell does one transfer 5 gallons of boiling wort to a carboy? You must have Arnold style biceps and a stainless funnel. I would assume any plastic tubing/autosiphons would turn to mush.

I think the point made earlier is not to transfer hot wort into your carboy. Cool the wort in the kettle, then siphon it to a carboy/fermenter with a vinyl/silicone tube.

 

[Grinder12000]

Like I tell my kids "You learn more from doing something wrong than doing it right".

Unless you ALWAYS do everything right and then who cares about learning.

 

[FlashRedGLS18T]

Unless you ALWAYS do everything right and then who cares about learning.

Apparently I need to work on being more perfect than I already am because I know I've made mistakes.:fro:

 

[C4PNJ4ZZ]

I think the point made earlier is not to transfer hot wort into your carboy. Cool the wort in the kettle, then siphon it to a carboy/fermenter with a vinyl/silicone tube.

I know, I am curious how it is even possible to make the transfer in the first place without ending up with a puddle of vinyl and plastic.

 

[The Pol]

I know, I am curious how it is even possible to make the transfer in the first place without ending up with a puddle of vinyl and plastic.

I transfer boiling wort to my fermentor all the time, it is called a spigot.

 

[beretta]

I know, I am curious how it is even possible to make the transfer in the first place without ending up with a puddle of vinyl and plastic.

I used to steam inject my mash with steam (about 230 Deg F) at low pressure (1-2 psi) and my unreinforced pvc/vinyl hose was fine... albeit a bit floppy at that temperature. I'm guessing near-boiling wort wouldn't melt it either...

 

[dontman]

I know that borosilicate is designed to handle high temp extremes but I seriously doubt that even it could handle this type of thermal shock.

And when borosilicate shatters it seems more treacherous than normal glass. I've had a large coffee press beaker basically explode simply from tapping into the side of it with a spoon. I didn't cut myself then or even while cleaning it up but a couple weeks later I got a shard in my foot from a piece that I missed in my cleaning. It was in the next room, about 12 feet away.

 

[nebben]

OH man, I wish you would have got this on video! :cross:

I learned this lesson (glass vs. thermal shock) when I was young, shooting squirt guns in the bathtub at the lights. Kaboom!

Stay safe!

 

[zac]

After reading this one imporant point has not been addressed.
How the hell does one transfer 5 gallons of boiling wort to a carboy? You must have Arnold style biceps and a stainless funnel. I would assume any plastic tubing/autosiphons would turn to mush.

Yes, autsiphons die in boiling wort.

Dont ask, but I tried twice.

 

[The Pol]

...........................

 

[ElPresidente77]

I've transferred boiling wort to a glass carboy with no ill effects (that I know of). I put ice in the funnel and pour over the ice to cool. I don't have a wort chiller (yet) and it gets the temp of the wort down to about 80-90 degrees.

7 lbs of ice is about 1 pint short of a gallon so I make sure to factor that in.

 

[C4PNJ4ZZ]

I transfer boiling wort to my fermentor all the time, it is called a spigot.

You're a witch!!!

I'm making the assumption that someone who would dunk a hot glass in cold water wouldn't have made the plunge into more expensive kettles with spigots... but I could be wrong.

 

[The Pol]

You're a witch!!!

I'm making the assumption that someone who would dunk a hot glass in cold water wouldn't have made the plunge into more expensive kettles with spigots... but I could be wrong.

I have a HDPE fermentor, and I never chill my wort. Completely different process for me, but the point is you can transfer boiling wort easy, as long as you have the proper fermentor to put it in.

HDPE is lighter, more durable and cheaper than Glass or a Better Bottle... and it comes with its own handle.

 

[size]

I've transferred boiling wort to a glass carboy with no ill effects (that I know of). I put ice in the funnel and pour over the ice to cool. I don't have a wort chiller (yet) and it gets the temp of the wort down to about 80-90 degrees.

7 lbs of ice is about 1 pint short of a gallon so I make sure to factor that in.

do you boil the water before freezing? there's quite a few sanitation problems with that.

 

[gtpro]

After digging this thread up I realize how lucky I've been. I've done three extract batches with just a 3 gallon kettle, and against my better judgment I would boil 3 gallons, pour it straight into my glass carboy and let that cool on my kitchen floor while I did the rest of the brew. Afterwards I would get my wort down to 70ish degrees and add it to the 3 gallons already in my carboy, but I still could never get it down to pitching temp with that alone, so I've stuck it in my sink to cool the whole thing down from like 85 degrees to pitching temp.

Now I'm worried that my carboy is weak from this, should I be all set as long as I dont do this anymore?

 

[JoeMama]

I would be sure to house that carboy in a milk crate or something similar from here on out. I use mine like this regardless, but you *may* have caused some residual damage (hopefully not) I would just err on the side of caution.

 

[buffalobrewer]

Yea - you would have melted a better bottle for sure. Don't blame the equipment on this one!

This is like saying you you will never buy another Cadillac because you ran into a fire hydrant and a tree while running away from your pissed off wife wielding a 5 iron

there, it's fixed.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Absolutely no reason to use glass these days - Better Bottles are just about perfect when paired with a medium carboy bung for fermentation and with Oxyclean for cleaning. No scrubbing required.

 

[thristy]

Lets have a moment of silence for the poor carboy that you murdered!

 

[conpewter]

Absolutely no reason to use glass these days - Better Bottles are just about perfect when paired with a medium carboy bung for fermentation and with Oxyclean for cleaning. No scrubbing required.

No reason to use glass? Seriously? Will you be passing the better bottles down to your grandchildren? There are good reasons to use glass and there are good reasons to use better bottles.

 

[HSM]

No reason to use glass? Seriously? Will you be passing the better bottles down to your grandchildren? There are good reasons to use glass and there are good reasons to use better bottles.

LOL. Pretty soon everyone will be bottling in PET bottles because someone broke a beer bottle.

I'm sure everyone is drinking from plastic cups to avoid the exploding beer glasses.

 

[ArcaneXor]

No reason to use glass? Seriously? Will you be passing the better bottles down to your grandchildren? There are good reasons to use glass and there are good reasons to use better bottles.

Carboys as a family keepsake? To each their own :rockin:

What I meant is that there are plenty of alternatives out there that don't really have any significant disadvantages relative to glass, so if people are concerned about shards of glass embedded in their arteries, they don't have to expose themselves to it.

I personally use Better Bottles as fermenters for my regular beers, plastic buckets for my sours, one-gallon glass jugs for my pilot batches, glass bottles for bottling and borosilicate flasks for starters.

 

[conpewter]

Carboys as a family keepsake? To each their own :rockin:

What I meant is that there are plenty of alternatives out there that don't really have any significant disadvantages relative to glass, so if people are concerned about shards of glass embedded in their arteries, they don't have to expose themselves to it.

I personally use Better Bottles as fermenters for my regular beers, plastic buckets for my sours, one-gallon glass jugs for my pilot batches, glass bottles for bottling and borosilicate flasks for starters.

Just trying to show that glass still has it's place if you want something you'll never have to replace (being careful with it of course). I wouldn't trust a better bottle after I've had an infected batch in it, but that's me. There is also the oxygen permeability of PET plastics vs. glass (for long secondaries). Generally though I encourage people to get better bottles (safer). I'll stick with my glass but I'm very careful.

 

[danorocks17]

never ever ever add boiling anything to a glass carboy. I just fill up my bathtub with ice and water and the let wort cool in the brew pot, then transfer to primary.

 

[danorocks17]

Absolutely no reason to use glass these days - Better Bottles are just about perfect when paired with a medium carboy bung for fermentation and with Oxyclean for cleaning. No scrubbing required.

everyone who uses glass would disagree with you on that one. I have both better bottles and glass and I prefer glass. You just have to be much more careful with it.

 

[ArcaneXor]

everyone who uses glass would disagree with you on that one. I have both better bottles and glass and I prefer glass. You just have to be much more careful with it.

Someone didn't finish reading the thread