Just broke my 6 gal glass carboy any pros or cons on the 6.5 gal glass big mouth bubbler
The big con is that it’s one heavy mofo.
I will say I have the plastic big mouth and love it. I don’t have the sealing problems others have reported. The glass seemed fragile in store.
I have a plastic as well, no sealing issues. I do recommend the brew hauler carboy straps. I have 2 sets and for like $10 a piece, well worth not losing a batch or getting hurt.
Having used both a glass carboy and plastic buckets (not the plastic big mouth) I have to say that in my opinion the plastic buckets are the way to go. They are cheap. They have a handle on them which makes transportation easy. I have never had a sealing problem with the lids. They are crazy easy to clean. After fermentation I boil up a few gallons of water and put it in the bucket, then top off with hose water and add oxyclean. Let it sit for an hour or 2 then empty, wash with dish soap and a sponge so as not to scratch it, then rinse well and it’s ready to go.
THe only drawback to the buckets is that you cannot see the action. I have 4 buckets, and I use them to store star san. I use one to hold my brewing water over night so I can get a seemless start in the morning. They are brewing multitaskers. And they fit inside one another so you save space. Finally, when I want one I can go to my LHBS and get it. No shipping. No complaints about extra shipping because of the size. No issues. It’s a win all around!
I have 2 plastic big mouth bubblers. No sealing issues here either. They are great. I do recommend using a carboy hauler though. The standard hauler fits just fine.
[quote=“in_the_basement”]Having used both a glass carboy and plastic buckets (not the plastic big mouth) I have to say that in my opinion the plastic buckets are the way to go. They are cheap. They have a handle on them which makes transportation easy. I have never had a sealing problem with the lids. They are crazy easy to clean. After fermentation I boil up a few gallons of water and put it in the bucket, then top off with hose water and add oxyclean. Let it sit for an hour or 2 then empty, wash with dish soap and a sponge so as not to scratch it, then rinse well and it’s ready to go.
THe only drawback to the buckets is that you cannot see the action. I have 4 buckets, and I use them to store star san. I use one to hold my brewing water over night so I can get a seemless start in the morning. They are brewing multitaskers. And they fit inside one another so you save space. Finally, when I want one I can go to my LHBS and get it. No shipping. No complaints about extra shipping because of the size. No issues. It’s a win all around![/quote]
You put boiling water in your buckets?
I use a bucket for ales and a keg for lagers. I’ve consider down sizing my batch size to accommodate ales in kegs since I love close transferring my beer to the serving keg. But it’s difficult to justify the same amount of time for less beer. Wish I had some smaller kegs for ales. That might be an investment as I can’t seem to tolerate having a keg only partially full in the beginning.
Buckets are cheap and easy though. I’d pick them over a heavy glass carboy (even though I used to use glass carboys years ago).
Do you see a problem with boiling water in buckets
Depending what they are made of, but the big white brew buckets are fine with boiling water - and they won’t shatter due to temperature shock like glass carboys can.
I use buckets for all the reasons you list. You really can’t beat them. That said, I do rack all my beers (ales and lagers both) to kegs for longer term lagering or aging.
Well, I guess I thought the plastic would warp at boiling temperatures. I used to run off my mash into buckets because I couldn’t carry the whole kettle out to the burner, but that was more like 170. They’d get pretty pliable.
I really like buckets, but I really like the option to pressurize and close transfer my keg fermenters. I just wish they were a little bigger. So I tend to have to brew slightly smaller than 5 gallon batches to accommodate. Those are lagers that don’t produce more than about an inch of krausen…ales blow out when I use them.
Anyone know when and why the glass carboy became popular? The wide mouth I can understand but the traditional bottle nose carboy makes no sense.
Don’t know for sure but I would guess they were readily available, big enough and easily sanitized.
Years ago my uncle had a few glass water jugs full of coins. I remember his had a green tint, like a Coke bottle.
I doubled up on this post so my reply is on the previous post thanks for the replies :cheers:
[quote=“in_the_basement”]Having used both a glass carboy and plastic buckets (not the plastic big mouth) I have to say that in my opinion the plastic buckets are the way to go. They are cheap. They have a handle on them which makes transportation easy. I have never had a sealing problem with the lids. They are crazy easy to clean. After fermentation I boil up a few gallons of water and put it in the bucket, then top off with hose water and add oxyclean. Let it sit for an hour or 2 then empty, wash with dish soap and a sponge so as not to scratch it, then rinse well and it’s ready to go.
THe only drawback to the buckets is that you cannot see the action. I have 4 buckets, and I use them to store star san. I use one to hold my brewing water over night so I can get a seemless start in the morning. They are brewing multitaskers. And they fit inside one another so you save space. Finally, when I want one I can go to my LHBS and get it. No shipping. No complaints about extra shipping because of the size. No issues. It’s a win all around![/quote]
Although I’m a plastic BB and BMB guy (who does experience sealing issues with the latter), you make a well articulated case for using buckets.
I’m going to guess that yes they were available. Back in the day every office had a “water cooler”. Water was delivered in, you guessed it, glass carboys so they were easy “borrow”, buy or talk the water delivery guy out of. Breakable but with care lasted a long time and impervious to anything you could clean it with. I also am not sure there was the technology we have for food grade plastic, or even plastic for that matter.
I started out with one bucket then heard the old horror stories that scratches in the buckets can harbor stuff that will cause in infection so I went to glass carboys. They were about the only other option then. Five carboys later and only one broken I now use a SS conical, one of the carboys and a bucket. Thinking on replacing the carboy though.
About being able to see the fermentation in a bucket. Here is a thought. How about getting some clear plexiglass cutting a hole in the lid of the bucket, then with some kind of food grade glue make a window in it. Care would have to be taken when removing the lid as to not flex it enough to break the seal on the window. Possibly using some SS hardware to more securely affix the window. Some conicals have clear plastic lids just for this purpose. Mine does not.
OK, so how did the carboy get it’s name? I never understood the name.
After I found out about a workaround for the sealing problems for the BMB plastic version, I have been very happy with them. I use them for ales and the 6 and 5 gallon glass carboys for Lagers/lagering(not sure why I have this division of labor) :?: I handle the glass carboys VERY carefully…any drawbacks to using plastic BMB for lagering ?
From the Persian word qaraba (I looked it up)
They were originally used for transporting corrosive liquids.
I assume you are a bottler? Otherwise, you’d just lager in the keg. If you cold crash for a week in the primary then bottle, I think you’d still be fine; skip the long lagering in a carboy and “lager” them in the bottles after they’ve carbonated.
Yep, I bottle. I have the carboys lagering for up to 8 or more weeks depending on the style. Then bottle. So…you could do the same in a bottle(for same time period?)
I have designated 2016 “the year of the KEG”, but I wanted to work on the recipes and processes first before moving into kegging next year.
