Glass carboy with hole on top

[bahed]

I thought I would give it a shot. It was a bit nerve racking for the 10 minute cut time.... but I am jazzed now. I have yet to make a stand for it, but I hope to employ it to ferment 5-gallon batches and be able to rack off trub and hopefully harvest and re-use the yeast. Here are some pix:

 

[n240sxguy]

Bravo! I cut a hole in a wine bottle once to make an intense burner. Took forever.

 

[jakenbacon]

Sweet idea man. So you plan to use it like a conical right? Ingenious.....

 

[Glynn]

Cant wait to see how you make this work

 

[bahed]

That is the plan. I've had the cap laying around for a dozen years or so. When the upside down carboy systems came out (can't recall the Mfr name) the idea was better than reality. I was lucky to get half the trub out, forget about harvesting yeast and the CO2 bubbler tube often got debris in it if you weren't careful and became partially, or worse, clogged. I hope this design works a little better.

 

[doublehaul]

I just cracked the bottom of my new glass carboy - maybe I could salvage it this way! How did you cut? I'd like to see how this works out for you.

 

[day_trippr]

Some scary stuff going down here...

 

[Stealthcruiser]

I wanna' see more!

 

[fermentednonsense]

Interesting. Can't wait to see more!

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I would love to see a pic of this full of wort, just to help visualize it.

 

[Ravenshead]

You have my attention.

 

[buzzno]

I want to see this in use! Looks good so far. How'd you cut it? When are you going to use it?

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

Subbed!

What did you cut with?

 

[jshake]

might be something worth looking into but might try a plastic one first.

 

[Budvar]

How do you expect the cap to stay in place? I have a feeling that little plastic bugger is gonna fall out from the weight.

 

[n240sxguy]

You could put a hose clamp on the cap if you had to.

You have to use a spade shaped glass cutting bit to drill holes in glass.

 

[bahed]

That orange cap that is on the bottom was used for several brews 10+ years ago and I never had a problem with it coming off. The picture below shows what I used. That is a 1-3/8" OD diamond coated hole saw chucked into my Ryobi hand drill. The reddish cup is designed to help you keep your spot steady until you bite in, typically used for cutting ceramics. The cup is supposed to also hold water... but the surface has to be pretty dead flat, which the bottom of a glass carboy is certainly not. I just kept a cup of water handy and stopped whenever the work began to run dry. When I started back up each time I started slowly, slightly pulling the bit off of the glass and then built up speed in a few seconds. I really didn't push down and let the weight of the gun do the work, on high speed. It took about 10 minutes to cut through... and then about 5 more minutes trying to get the glass plug out of the inside! The bit and cup are sold together and can be bought at Lowe's/Home Depot in their tile tool section for about $30.

 

[kshuler]

great idea!

 

[WesleyS]

Great idea, but like others I'm wondering if you're going to try to stick with the orange cap or go with something different. I have some of those and they work fine when used how they were designed to. But when you get the full weight of your beer pushing down on it, I would be very surprised if it doesn't come all the way off or atleast leak around the sides.

 

[jakenbacon]

You rock bro.... I would go about another option about that orange cap personally.....

 

[jpalarchio]

I'd be concerned about being able to seal the bottom but more importantly, the structural integrity of the carboy now that you've put a hole in the base.

Be careful man; I could see all kinds of bad if you load it up full of liquid and that thing decides to split at the hole you created.

 

[GunnyB]

Wow, that glass is thick on the bottom. I've been meaning to document my attempt at shatter proofing a carboy. Maybe tomorrow

 

[hirambiram]

This is very cool! How do plan on controlling the flow when harvesting yeast?

 

[MaverickBrew]

Why not just use a better bottle?

 

[BDsnakey]

i would like to see as well... my friend tried a similar type design with out the hole (a modified racking cane to vent co2) and found the angle of the carboy neck was not steep enough to drain the yeast properly. it should be around... what 60deg or something? if you figure that out you may be onto something

 

[Pratzie]

Damn. props for your creativity and patience with the cut! Please post some of those pics of it in action when you get the stand made.

 

[BeerGrylls]

Man, that's the transparentest conical I ever did see! Cool concept.

 

[brewingmeister]

Why not just use a better bottle?

Because plastics don't belong in brewing.

 

[BurgBrewer]

Why not just use a better bottle?

That's what I was thinking. My guess is he had an extra carboy sitting around readily available for use.

 

[Chupidacabra]

Very interested! Lets see it with wort!