[brewmonk]

There is such an irony here.
I now live in Italy.  As you can imagine the homebrew scene is easily dominated by the home wine making scene.  Homebrewing and "artigianal" beers are growing in popularity though, and there are some pretty good microbreweries popping up (especially in Northern Italy).  Homebrewing here is a bit different though in terms of equipment and techniques.  You can't find racking canes (I had to import mine from the States), and most sites just recommend using potassium metabisulfate for sanitizing (no StarSan    )  
Anyway, I've been looking for glass carboys, and Italian homebrew sites just don't have them.  The typical fermenter is a plastic bucket (which always has a spigot).  The funny thing is as I'm researching carboys, I find that all the glass ones in the States come from ... Italy   ... yet nobody uses them over here.    In Italian beer forums they are treated like some mythical beer creature only found in a far away place called North America  
Does anyone know what company makes these?

[euge]

Gee...

I always thought carboys came from Mexico.

[phillamb168]

There is such an irony here.
I now live in Italy.  As you can imagine the homebrew scene is easily dominated by the home wine making scene.  Homebrewing and "artigianal" beers are growing in popularity though, and there are some pretty good microbreweries popping up (especially in Northern Italy).  Homebrewing here is a bit different though in terms of equipment and techniques.  You can't find racking canes (I had to import mine from the States), and most sites just recommend using potassium metabisulfate for sanitizing (no StarSan    )  
Anyway, I've been looking for glass carboys, and Italian homebrew sites just don't have them.  The typical fermenter is a plastic bucket (which always has a spigot).  The funny thing is as I'm researching carboys, I find that all the glass ones in the States come from ... Italy   ... yet nobody uses them over here.    In Italian beer forums they are treated like some mythical beer creature only found in a far away place called North America  
Does anyone know what company makes these?

I feel your pain. Re glass carboys, I don't use them. I ordered a better bottle from these guys: http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/

They ship to France so I'm assuming they ship to Italy. If they don't, I'll order one for you and ship it, PM me for that. For everything else brewing-related, I'd go with brouwland.com - I get everything I need from them, and they're the wholesale providers for all of those smaller shops. Anything you see with a "brewferm" label is provided by them.

Getting back to carboys, one of the easier things I've done as far as secondaries go is fermenting in corny kegs. Brouwland has them for ~30 eur each, used; around 150 eur new (I think).

[tumarkin]

alert - rumour ****
I had heard that the italian company had gone out of business, leaving just the mexican carboys to fill the market demand. this was at least part of the reason carboys have gotten so much more expensive. don't know this for fact, but it sounded possible/reasonable.

[gmwren]

What about demijohns? They are often used for bulk wine transport and some even come with a basket for transportation. Besides they look cool.

[Hokerer]

alert - rumour ****
I had heard that the italian company had gone out of business, leaving just the mexican carboys to fill the market demand. this was at least part of the reason carboys have gotten so much more expensive. don't know this for fact, but it sounded possible/reasonable.

Hmmm, I thought I had heard that the other way round.  Now I have no idea.

[tumarkin]

alert - rumour ****
I had heard that the italian company had gone out of business, leaving just the mexican carboys to fill the market demand. this was at least part of the reason carboys have gotten so much more expensive. don't know this for fact, but it sounded possible/reasonable.

Hmmm, I thought I had heard that the other way round.  Now I have no idea.

duh.... I think your right. I'm just scrambling it. that would make more sense as to the price increase.

[brewmonk]

I feel your pain. Re glass carboys, I don't use them. I ordered a better bottle from these guys: http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/

They ship to France so I'm assuming they ship to Italy. If they don't, I'll order one for you and ship it, PM me for that. For everything else brewing-related, I'd go with brouwland.com - I get everything I need from them, and they're the wholesale providers for all of those smaller shops. Anything you see with a "brewferm" label is provided by them.

Getting back to carboys, one of the easier things I've done as far as secondaries go is fermenting in corny kegs. Brouwland has them for ~30 eur each, used; around 150 eur new (I think).

Thanks for the info.  I'll have to consider that.  I've never been sure how the shipping rules and prices work within the EU, and how, with England using different currency, affects that.  I just get worried about shipping because Italy can be a bureaucratic nightmare on things like shipping and customs  (although my bad experience was shipping from the States).

What about demijohns? They are often used for bulk wine transport and some even come with a basket for transportation. Besides they look cool.

I'm considering a demijon, although you have to have the basket for stability because they tend to be pretty round on the bottom.  It would look pretty "oldskool" though  , (or being in Europe should I say "olde wurld"  )

[phillamb168]

I feel your pain. Re glass carboys, I don't use them. I ordered a better bottle from these guys: http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/

They ship to France so I'm assuming they ship to Italy. If they don't, I'll order one for you and ship it, PM me for that. For everything else brewing-related, I'd go with brouwland.com - I get everything I need from them, and they're the wholesale providers for all of those smaller shops. Anything you see with a "brewferm" label is provided by them.

Getting back to carboys, one of the easier things I've done as far as secondaries go is fermenting in corny kegs. Brouwland has them for ~30 eur each, used; around 150 eur new (I think).

Thanks for the info.  I'll have to consider that.  I've never been sure how the shipping rules and prices work within the EU, and how, with England using different currency, affects that.  I just get worried about shipping because Italy can be a bureaucratic nightmare on things like shipping and customs  (although my bad experience was shipping from the States).

What about demijohns? They are often used for bulk wine transport and some even come with a basket for transportation. Besides they look cool.

I'm considering a demijon, although you have to have the basket for stability because they tend to be pretty round on the bottom.  It would look pretty "oldskool" though  , (or being in Europe should I say "olde wurld"  )

I have a ~20l demijon I've never used, you can have it if you want to try that out. I may have an extra airlock to fit it as well if you need.

[Thirsty_Monk]

Thanks for the info.  I'll have to consider that.  I've never been sure how the shipping rules and prices work within the EU, and how, with England using different currency, affects that.  I just get worried about shipping because Italy can be a bureaucratic nightmare on things like shipping and customs  (although my bad experience was shipping from the States).

You should be O.K. with shipping in EU.
It would be like shipping from New York to Florida.
If you pay with Credit card (how else) banks are more then happy to convert money in between themselves.