[letscook]

Also (and I have said this before on this forum) if you are doing a transfer by pushing the beer from the carboy to the keg using CO2, please be very careful not to over pressurize the carboy.  This is extremely dangerous.  If you are using CO2, no more than 2.5 PSI on the carboy, it will take you a little longer, but it is way safer.  Glass carboys are not pressure vessels. I had a friend in a local brew club that was rushed to the hospital to get his back stitched up after a carboy exploded while he was transferring a beer and the shrapnel from the explosion nailed him.

A 5 gallon glass carboy slipped out of my hands and i tried to save it.. didn't save it.  It exploded all over the ground and I lost 5 gallons of awesome beer!

I looked down, and my hand was completely filleted open. There was a three-inch long, 1-inch deep gash through my thumb muscle. It looked like the eye of Sauron, just big and gaping. Put it this way, the ER doc was able to stick his entire finger in the wound to fish for any glass in there. At first it didn't bleed, then it did - a lot!  My lady, badaged me up with 3 layers of dressing and we went to the ER where I got three layers of stitches.  The first two layers pulled the muscle back together, and the last layer stitched the skin back together.

The doctor said if it were 2 inches lower, that would have been my wrist and that 1/4 thick glass didn't care what media was presented to it, it was going through anything.

Since it was filled with 5 gallons of beer, the blast radius was about 6 feet in all directions.  I had two 8 gallon pails that were about 4 feet away and the flying glass punched a hole through one of them. Thousands of little death shards all over the garage to pick up.  No more socks or bare feet in there for years now

Overall, no tendons, no ligaments - and the muscle healed completely up - no harm done and I have an awesome scar and story.

I guess the morale of the story is, if you ask me, stick to pails or SS.  My mishap happened in an instant and you have no time to think - you just react, kind of like when you trip and catch yourself. Next thing you know is you are filleted like a premium steak... not worth it!

[denny]

I agree.  It took me 3 broken carboys (I'm a slow learner) before I wised up and stopped using them.

[goose]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

[denny]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

Actually, I never found carboys easy to clean at all. Whether plastic or glass, the small opening always made it a PITA for me.  Even if I soaked everything off, just filling and emptying them was more difficult than other form factors.

[erockrph]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

Actually, I never found carboys easy to clean at all. Whether plastic or glass, the small opening always made it a PITA for me.  Even if I soaked everything off, just filling and emptying them was more difficult than other form factors.

Same here. I used the glass carboy that came with my first kit exactly once. I used a few 3 gallon Better Bottles for bulk aging of meads and sours, but buckets were my go-to until I started fermenting in kegs. But even the Better Bottles with larger openings were a PITA to clean.

[Big_Eight]

I still use carboys and of course I have them in straps that makes them much safer and easier to carry.

My kegwasher cleans them up nicely without having use use a brush.

I am planning at some point to move away from them though probably back to buckets.

Edit: The link below is a video of my carboy on the kegwasher.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5ec2e589ab46a/VID_20200509_210710.mp4

[letscook]

Edit: The link below is a video of my carboy on the kegwasher.

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5ec2e589ab46a/VID_20200509_210710.mp4

Cool.. didn't know such a machine existed.

[goose]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

Actually, I never found carboys easy to clean at all. Whether plastic or glass, the small opening always made it a PITA for me.  Even if I soaked everything off, just filling and emptying them was more difficult than other form factors.

Same here. I used the glass carboy that came with my first kit exactly once. I used a few 3 gallon Better Bottles for bulk aging of meads and sours, but buckets were my go-to until I started fermenting in kegs. But even the Better Bottles with larger openings were a PITA to clean.

The only ones I have a bit more trouble with are the 6.5 gallon ones.  The 5 gallon ones are pretty easy for me to clean using dairy cleaner and a carboy brush that i reformed to get to the hard to reach places near the neck (I also added electrical tape around the wire handle to keep from scratching the glass in he neck).  I can usually clean a 5 gallon one in a few minutes.  For the 6.5 gallon ones, which I rarely use, a bit more reforming of the brush gets the job done, although a lot more slowly.

Since I have both a half barrel and 7 gallon SS Brewtech fermenters, I don't really have to play with glass carboys that much anymore.

[goose]

Edit: The link below is a video of my carboy on the kegwasher.

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5ec2e589ab46a/VID_20200509_210710.mp4

I have a local brew buddy who built one of these.  He loves it!

[denny]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

Actually, I never found carboys easy to clean at all. Whether plastic or glass, the small opening always made it a PITA for me.  Even if I soaked everything off, just filling and emptying them was more difficult than other form factors.

Same here. I used the glass carboy that came with my first kit exactly once. I used a few 3 gallon Better Bottles for bulk aging of meads and sours, but buckets were my go-to until I started fermenting in kegs. But even the Better Bottles with larger openings were a PITA to clean.

The only ones I have a bit more trouble with are the 6.5 gallon ones.  The 5 gallon ones are pretty easy for me to clean using dairy cleaner and a carboy brush that i reformed to get to the hard to reach places near the neck (I also added electrical tape around the wire handle to keep from scratching the glass in he neck).  I can usually clean a 5 gallon one in a few minutes.  For the 6.5 gallon ones, which I rarely use, a bit more reforming of the brush gets the job done, although a lot more slowly.

Since I have both a half barrel and 7 gallon SS Brewtech fermenters, I don't really have to play with glass carboys that much anymore.

Sure, but compare that to wiping a bucket out with a sponge.

[Big_Eight]

This is why I now dry hop in the SS fermenter and keg everything from the fermenter.  Glass carboys are very nice and easy top clean, but they can also be very dangerous.

Actually, I never found carboys easy to clean at all. Whether plastic or glass, the small opening always made it a PITA for me.  Even if I soaked everything off, just filling and emptying them was more difficult than other form factors.

Same here. I used the glass carboy that came with my first kit exactly once. I used a few 3 gallon Better Bottles for bulk aging of meads and sours, but buckets were my go-to until I started fermenting in kegs. But even the Better Bottles with larger openings were a PITA to clean.

The only ones I have a bit more trouble with are the 6.5 gallon ones.  The 5 gallon ones are pretty easy for me to clean using dairy cleaner and a carboy brush that i reformed to get to the hard to reach places near the neck (I also added electrical tape around the wire handle to keep from scratching the glass in he neck).  I can usually clean a 5 gallon one in a few minutes.  For the 6.5 gallon ones, which I rarely use, a bit more reforming of the brush gets the job done, although a lot more slowly.

Since I have both a half barrel and 7 gallon SS Brewtech fermenters, I don't really have to play with glass carboys that much anymore.

Sure, but compare that to wiping a bucket out with a sponge.

Edited: I thought a different post was being referenced.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Semper Sitientem]

One more thing to consider is the reduction of food contact plastics. I personally have tried to eliminate or reduce plastic packaging when it comes to food storage. I realize the world is wrapped in plastic and it’s impossible to get to 100%, but every little bit helps. Fermentation buckets are made from PET, which is considered safe. But, like any other plastic, it breaks down over time and use and will leach into whatever is contained inside. Therefore, it’s always been SS for me.

[denny]

One more thing to consider is the reduction of food contact plastics. I personally have tried to eliminate or reduce plastic packaging when it comes to food storage. I realize the world is wrapped in plastic and it’s impossible to get to 100%, but every little bit helps. Fermentation buckets are made from PET, which is considered safe. But, like any other plastic, it breaks down over time and use and will leach into whatever is contained inside. Therefore, it’s always been SS for me.

Buckets are HDPE.  I have seen no evidence HDPE breaks down and leaches.  If you have some it would be great to see it.

[Semper Sitientem]

My bad. You are correct. Buckets are HDPE. It’s the plastic carboys that are PET. I can’t cite a specific study regarding buckets/carboys, but there is plenty of research regarding plastics and their negative effects as endocrine disrupters. It’s a personal choice. There are plenty of pros and cons either way regarding plastic or SS. I’m just bringing it up as food for thought.

[denny]

My bad. You are correct. Buckets are HDPE. It’s the plastic carboys that are PET. I can’t cite a specific study regarding buckets/carboys, but there is plenty of research regarding plastics and their negative effects as endocrine disrupters. It’s a personal choice. There are plenty of pros and cons either way regarding plastic or SS. I’m just bringing it up as food for thought.

I appreciate that, but let's keep it factual.