This Just in. Big mouth carboy thing. Thoughts?

Just to fit in with your concern regarding long term aging here is the one for primary fermentation:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/big-mouth-bubbler-6-5-gallon.html

 

I was just gonna start a thread on this!
This looks awesome and at a similar price to a standard carboy...
if I didn't already have 4 better bottles and a bucket, id be in for a 6-gal

 

would buy

 

wait only glass? boooooooooooo

 

So it says "the Big Mouth cap is a twist off. Once you screw the cap on, ITS ON and not coming off until you say so." What happens when a new brewer puts an airlock on a beer that skyrockets on temp and the krausen clogs the airlock? I think I would still go with Better Bottles and buckets. Buckets are still easier to clean, won't break, and the O2 permeability is probably about the same given that the lid is more than likely HDPE like a bucket anyways.

 

Less likely to scratch. More likely to break into a jagged shard that takes your arm off while cleaning.

 

Ha, I was just going to post this as well. Anyway, I'm not sure...I've really come to like the Better Bottle with a racking adapter. Also, oxyclean seems to do a pretty damn fine job of removing everything without the need to use a scrub brush at all.

 

I have read too many horror stories about homebrewers getting nasty gashes from glass carboys breaking. I would strongly recommend that a plastic bucket be used for primary fermentation. If long term storage (a.k.a. secondary fermentation) is absolutely needed, then a better bottle is a safer option.

Cheers!

 

Well, I think it's much more likely for a plastic carboy to get scratched than for a glass carboy to remove an arm. But it's a much different type of risk too.

I wonder if anyone (or everyone together) can name 5 or more people who have been seriously cut by a glass carboy? Or are one or two incidents the source of all the horror stories?

That said, I use glass carboys, and I handle them as if I expect them to break.

 

Ditto. I love glass. Infact.. I'm using glass carboys, from WAY back in the day, like back in the day when I was just a child, and my dad tried his hand at homebrewing. They are no less than 15 years old. Damn fine fermenters too.

I treat them correctly like they'll shatter and I have no issues. I also use better bottles occasionally, and I do have and use buckets for some beers.

 

BA barfdiggs: “I decided to switch when I was looking at a carboy that was drying, and all of the sudden it literally just shattered. No more glass.”

BA tfischl:” No- a few shards of glass but nothing too bad. One of my good friends broke a glass carboy while cleaning it and had to have all four fingers on his left hand stitched up. We call the beer 4-Fingers Ale”

I could include more stories from my simple search of “Carboys Breaking” but I think the above illustrates the point sufficiently.

Cheers!

 

Kaboom!!

People are inherently terrible at evaluating risk. They see monsters under the bed where they don't exist, and ignore obvious risks at the same time. They might have a pathological fear of flying, but then drive a car without a seat belt. Perhaps they're dead set against gambling because they don't want to lose money, and would never consider putting five bucks on the pass line at a craps table in a casino, yet they'll buy the $100 extended warranty on a television or other item (virtually always a horrible bet with a hugely negative expected value). People see trends where there are none, and miss the ones that are actually there. People just mostly suck at evaluating data (whether complete or incomplete). It is highly unlikely that the human race will improve on this anytime soon.

I suspect the vast quantities of people who have been horribly maimed by carboys (in a situation so tragic it almost eclipses the sinking of the Titanic) is probably one or two guys who drank too much while brewing, then tried to move a wet carboy, whilst wearing flip-flops on a rainy day, carrying up a hill, with a piece of BBQ chicken in their hand, trying to avoid that trick step to the backdoor of the double-wide....

I know of zero people who have been injured by glass carboy breakage. Tho way back in the daze of our early youth, back when coke used to come in those glass quart bottles, my brother dropped one directly on his toe on concrete, while it was still full and closed. Broke his toe AND exploded like a bomb went off (well, it sorta did). Glass and coke everywhere. I think my mom cut herself cleaning up the mess. Those things were dangerous! Does this count?

Of course taking precautions for the actual risk of injury (or even just risk of a huge mess) is appropriate. Get the handle, but don't rely on the handle alone when it's full. Pick it up from the bottom and make sure it's dry and your hands are dry. Someone's probably already invented some sort of carrying device that would be optimal (I'm too lazy to look tho, I mostly use my carboy for bottling). I believe they fit very nicely into a milk crate, (which is close to what I use, a big sturdy plastic box) to carry it when full.

 

I have some of these (Speidels) and really like them (Top is very wide and easy to clean the insides, plus the actual volume is several gallons bigger than each quoted size). Glass carboys scare the shit out of me after I had several of them break, one in a seemingly spontaneous fashion (see JackHorzempa's above post).

 

I own 3 or 4 of these...
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-hauler.html?gclid=CL_M0NTY9LoCFag7OgodmEQAfA

 

I have not personally gotten hurt, but could have, in an incident with a carboy. And the way the accident occurred, neither handle nor extra carry straps would have changed the outcome, as the carboy bumped against the edge of a plastic tub, inside of which I was cleaning it.

But good news! I wasn't drunk and I wasn't being excessively careless. Also, I was a little lucky.

I still use glass for extended conditioning of sours, as I cannot afford more barrels, yet.

 

I can tell you I know the exact same numbers of homebrewers who have been seriously cut by a glass carboy and infected beer due to scratches in a plastic carboy.

 

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Thank you for your post.

You made mention of: “Also, I was a little lucky.” Every once in a while the bread falls butter side up but this is not something we can control.

It seems to me that people who have never experienced any catastrophic issues with glass carboys are bold to post about things but all it takes is one unlucky accident to cause some serious damage. I think it is irresponsible of those folks to belittle to potential of a serious accidents using glass carboys.

Cheers!

 

When my wife heard the crash, surprisingly I didn't start yelling and cursing. Actually, I was a little in shock, looking back on it. Because she heard the glass breaking but didn't hear me, she came downstairs, saw the shards of glass surrounding me for about 2-3 feet, and immediately said, "Goddamn! Are you SURE you're o.k.???"

I had to have her get some bags to pick up glass shards just so I could move again. And much of it broke into the tub, not outside of it.

As I was contemplating brewing my first sour beer soon, I decided that wooden barrels were not so expensive, after all.