[jeffy]

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON to use a stainless conical over a glass carboy is the improved safety.  I really like my Blichman conical. But does it make better beer?  Probably not.  But I don't have to worry about severing a limb.

Wait. What?  Have there been reasonable glass carboy brewers that have sacrificed limb for their craft?  

I have a friend who almost lost his hand (and an awful lot of blood) once from a broken carboy.  Imagine one shattering when you are holding it upside down to drain.  All it takes is a little bump.  I've broken 2 in 20 years, but never injured myself.

[blatz]

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON to use a stainless conical over a glass carboy is the improved safety.  I really like my Blichman conical. But does it make better beer?  Probably not.  But I don't have to worry about severing a limb.

Wait. What?  Have there been reasonable glass carboy brewers that have sacrificed limb for their craft?  

he's exaggerating a little (I think toes and fingers more common than limbs), but there have been plenty of horror stories posted on the forums about broken carboys and the trips to the emergency room. 

the only nice thing about carboys is the voyeuristic aspect.  otherwise, they are an obsolete relic of late 20th century brewing 

[maxieboy]

One of these days I'll get that darn Blichmann conical. 11 yrs brewing, 300+ batches all in carboys, 1 close call. I was rinsing a 6.5g carboy upside down in my laundry sink. It slipped and hit the top corner of my 40 yr. old Maytag washer. I held my breath and waited for the explosion of shards. Nothing. It hit the corner right in the middle of the carboy. Damage: none to the carboy, dented the corner of the washer in, knocking off a chunk of the porcelain? paint. I shoulda bought a lottery ticket that day...

[stlaleman]

Why buy a lottery ticket? You used your luck for the day.

[tschmidlin]

Luck is just probability taken personally.

[Bad Brewer]

SS is pricey!  Anybody have any thoughts about this?  I've looked at them for awhile now, and my 6.5 gal carboy died in a tragic accident...

http://www.minibrew.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=7

I have two 6.5g minibrew conicals.  They work well, as long as you remember to totally disassemble, clean, and sanitize in between batches.  The two valves have plastic threaded connections to the conical, have to use a little common sense in tightening them.  I typically soak all the pieces in starsan for 30 min, including some teflon thread tape, before putting them together.  Then fill them to the top, add an ounce of starsan, let them sit overnight.  Drain and cover the top on the morning of my brewday.

With any conical an important thing to remember, especially with ball valves, you have to sanitize the exterior of the valve before you open it.  Starsan in a spray bottle is what I use.  spray, wait 60 sec, spray it down again, wait 60 sec, take sample or drain trub/break.

[pfooti]

Given the price of the plastic conicals from minibrew, I'd probably rather buy a brewhemoth. Less than $500 shipped, and most of the reviews all seem to be positive. Relatively inexpensive temp control as well, provided you can generate the hot/cold liquid for pumping through the immersion coil.

The reason I'm still fermenting in buckets for now is just volume- I tend to have a batch in primary and secondary at all times (well, at least in +1 week, I don't always rack to an actual secondary fermenter), and buying two or three conicals seems like quite an investment compared to just owning six buckets. Plus, my buckets all fit in my chest freezer. Still, someday *dreamy eyes*.

[tonyp]

Luck is just probability taken personally.

heheh and the lottery is a tax on people bad at math!

[tubercle]

Luck is just probability taken personally.

heheh and the lottery is a tax on people bad at math!

 Right

 Here's a math illiterate bastard for ya

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/06/lottery-jackpot-winner-claim-prize-wash/

[tschmidlin]

Luck is just probability taken personally.

heheh and the lottery is a tax on people bad at math!

 Right

 Here's a math illiterate bastard for ya

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/06/lottery-jackpot-winner-claim-prize-wash/

I'm with turbercle on this one (at least I think I am).  The lottery is a horrible investment strategy, but inevitably someone will win.  If you expect it to be you you're delusional, but hoping is fine.  As far as entertainment goes, it's way cheaper than a movie

(Yes, I play sometimes.  I've won $30.  Twice.  Net loss though, I'm sure )

[johnf]

Lottery and nearly all casino games are negative expected value and high variance.

Penny stocks, venture capital, micro-loans etc are positive expected value and high variance so these are clearly the better high variance investments.

Appliance warranties are negative expected value, moderate variance, and have no entertainment value. These seem like the worst investments among these.

[Bret]

Interesting, and a little cheaper:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/v-vessel.html

[Beer Monger]

Interesting, and a little cheaper:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/v-vessel.html

Yeah, I've seen that one.  You'd better have strong beams in your walls though, as that one is designed to be hung on the wall. 

[narvin]

Lottery and nearly all casino games are negative expected value and high variance.

Penny stocks, venture capital, micro-loans etc are positive expected value and high variance so these are clearly the better high variance investments.

Appliance warranties are negative expected value, moderate variance, and have no entertainment value. These seem like the worst investments among these.

Interesting tangent

Penny stocks certainly don't have as high an upside as the lottery.  

Any investment with a negative expected value should only be purchased to cover exceptional/catastrophic situations.  Insurance covers the 1:1,000,000 case that your house burns down.  The lottery is for the 1:300,000,000 case where you win an absurd amount of money that basically makes you a King.

I also believe that the non-linearity of the the utility function of money makes buying one ticket in the lottery a rational choice.  The loss of $1 is essentially 0 negative utility for many people, while the gain of millions of dollars is an exponentially larger increase in utility, even if the probability is minute.

[tubercle]

I also believe that the non-linearity of the the utility function of money makes buying one ticket in the lottery a rational choice.  The loss of $1 is essentially 0 negative utility for many people, while the gain of millions of dollars is an exponentially larger increase in utility, even if the probability is minute.

 Well said

 Sounds like a student of Adam Smith.