I will be moving in a couple weeks to a new home, which means I will have to move all brewing equipment to the new spot as well. I have a couple sours I have been sitting on for a while and was wondering if anyone has moved full Carboys and could offer some tips and tricks for the trek. It's a little over a 10 mile drive, so not cross country or anything, but any advice would be greatly appreciated... Cheers
put behind seat if possible and don't break them. Just don't try to bottle the same day either. you will probably kick up some yeast and trub, but it will settle out. Just be careful and don't worry, just wait till your done to relax and have a homebrew.
I've moved full carboys a couple times. No real tricks that I am aware of. Keep them secure, limit rocking as much as possible, make sure your airlocks are not empty...
In general I like to keep my carboys inside milk crates, makes carrying much easier. Good luck with the mood and cheers!
add one to the milk crate brigade. Much easier to store and move them around. If all was best, not needing to move full ones would be ideal, but I presume the sours are still souring, so not ready for racking. In this case, I would put in solid bungs (if they aren;t solid already) and pick up a couple crates (cheap enough at container store or craigslist) to move them in. Maybe think about putting them in your brew kettles if they are the right width? Basically anything to give you a better handle to hold onto, and wider footprint to not tip over in transit.
I've done this before, last year. Put in milk crate (notice a theme), cover in an old shirt, pull the airlock, take a sample (your in there,might as well) put sanitized plastic wrap over hole, re-insert stopper and airlock, move to vehicle, secure, drive calmly, get to new house, move to your new home for them, once settled, remove airlock bung and saranwrap, re-insert stopper and airlock, leave alone.
Milk crates work great. I have moved full buckets of beer on occasion, once transporting one over 140 miles. The world kept turning the next day and the beer came out fine. I see no reason why moving a carboy 10 miles would cause a sudden slowing of the earth's rotation...................................................
Haven't had to move carboys before but can you put Saran wrap over the top, secure it with a rubber band, then flush with CO2 when you get to your destination and replace your airlock?
I would just stuff a solid bung in there and leave it. (yeah, maybe a flush first, but most likely there;s still the CO2 blanket there anyways. At this point, there isn't going to be much inside pressure pushing it out. When I did my sour, after about 3 months, I put the solid in for the duration, with no issues.
If the unlikely but possible event occurs that you break a full carboy in your car you will be very, very sorry. You've been warned!
Do you have personal experience with this? I had one carboy fail in the basement and it took about a month to get rid of the aroma. In a car... unimaginable. Maybe OP wants a new car and needs a good excuse...
