Last weekend I made a beautiful porter. I’m halfway from my garage to my house and the carboy slips out of the handle, shatters on the driveway and sends a title wave of hard earned beer down the drive way.
Beyond mad. Make me feel better and tell me you did something worse.
I left a beer in primary for way too long and got the autolysis. that’s about all I got.
I knocked one carboy into another and lost 10 gal. of double decocted pilsner. I switched to buckets and I’ve never regretted it. Not only are they virtually unbreakable, they’re easier to clean and take less room to store.
I was under the impression that you’re not supposed to carry carboys by the handle…
Like Denny, I’ve switched back to buckets and rarely use carboys anymore.
About the worst thing I’ve done is oxidized a beautiful imperial stout while bottling. What a bummer!
[quote=“El Capitan”]I was under the impression that you’re not supposed to carry carboys by the handle…
Like Denny, I’ve switched back to buckets and rarely use carboys anymore.
About the worst thing I’ve done is oxidized a beautiful imperial stout while bottling. What a bummer![/quote]
Do you know what you did to make that happen? I only ask because I wanna make sure i dont do it
I’m with you on this one.
Denny I was under the impression that you could only use a bucket a few times and you had to toss it and buy another one? Is this true. Also do you have any issues with fruit flies getting into the buckets?
[quote=“GoldenChild”]
Denny I was under the impression that you could only use a bucket a few times and you had to toss it and buy another one? Is this true. Also do you have any issues with fruit flies getting into the buckets?[/quote]
I’m not Denny, but that is a false assumption. if you use a bucket for a sour, that’s all you should use it for after. if you don’t scratch the inside of the bucket, it can last you a looooong time. there shouldn’t be any problem with flies as long as you have a good seal on your lid & your air lock is sealed properly.
[quote=“micahkoll”]Last weekend I made a beautiful porter. I’m halfway from my garage to my house and the carboy slips out of the handle, shatters on the driveway and sends a title wave of hard earned beer down the drive way.
Beyond mad. Make me feel better and tell me you did something worse.[/quote]
On the bright side, at least there were no ER bills were involved in the shattering of this carboy. 
[quote=“GoldenChild”]
Denny I was under the impression that you could only use a bucket a few times and you had to toss it and buy another one? Is this true. Also do you have any issues with fruit flies getting into the buckets?[/quote]
I’ve got maybe 8-10 buckets and have used them for years. There’s absolutely no reason to toss them unless something happens to them and I’ve had no problems keeping them in good shape. Never had any prolems I could attribute to a bucket and they’re no more likely to collect fruit flies than carboys are. And they’re a LOT cheaper!
I was at my buddy’s house and we had a 60 gallon brew day (three 20 gallon batches). Too many beers and then he had a brew club meeting going on top of that to boot. He was carrying the pumpkin ale carboys into the walk in basement and bumped the carboy on the table. It was a circular tidal wave of sweet pumpkin ale growing larger in diameter very fast. As it broke, he tried to catch it and sliced his pinkie which was gushing blood. Then he got all his wife’s good bath towels for us and we cleaned it up while he went to get stitched up. What a night.
I gave away all my carboys and ferment in corny kegs. I can get about 4.5 gallons in one with Fermcap to limit the blow off. If I wasn’t using kegs, I would be using buckets for sure. They are the easiest, cheapest, and like Denny said, take up the least storage space. Kegs fit much better in my freezer that I use for a fermentation chamber, though.
From a practical perspective, buckets make a lot of sense to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve only got 17 batches under my belt, but I still get a kick out of watching fermentation take place through the walls of the carboy–Better Bottle in my case.
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“GoldenChild”]
Denny I was under the impression that you could only use a bucket a few times and you had to toss it and buy another one? Is this true. Also do you have any issues with fruit flies getting into the buckets?[/quote]
I’ve got maybe 8-10 buckets and have used them for years. There’s absolutely no reason to toss them unless something happens to them and I’ve had no problems keeping them in good shape. Never had any prolems I could attribute to a bucket and they’re no more likely to collect fruit flies than carboys are. And they’re a LOT cheaper![/quote]
How do you do long term aging in buckets?
Thanks
one other tip on carrying carboys, don’t pick them up with wet hands. i’ve never dropped one, but it scares the bejezzes out of me so i’m extra careful with them.
[quote=“beerme11”][quote=“El Capitan”]I was under the impression that you’re not supposed to carry carboys by the handle…
Like Denny, I’ve switched back to buckets and rarely use carboys anymore.
About the worst thing I’ve done is oxidized a beautiful imperial stout while bottling. What a bummer![/quote]
Do you know what you did to make that happen? I only ask because I wanna make sure i dont do it[/quote]
My siphon hose was bent upward at the end, and so it wouldn’t lay flat in the bottling bucket. Beer kept spraying upward and splashing around. I was all by myself, trying to juggle things and that lousy hose kept flipping upward until the beer was finally about 3" deep and covered it. By that time it was well-oxidized.
The solution is to attach a bottle filler with the tip removed to the end of the autosiphon. This keeps it nice and stiff and straight, and it will stay where you put it.
:cheers:
I have the same carboys from when I started 13 years ago. no breaks here. it comes down to preference and if you’re willing to risk the chance you might break one at some point.
You are not alone - my two biggest screwups over the last 15+ years:
1.) Carboy Break - Washing a 6.5 gallon carboy in my double wash basin plastic sink. Had it resting on the divider in the middle of the sink, putting some water in with a hose in one hand, holding it with the other arm. Had a gallon or a bit more in it and it started to slip - slid down (not fast) hit the bottom of the sink, went straight through it and landed on my tile floor in my brew room. EXPLODED into the tiniest pieces of glass imaginable and I was finding them all over my basement. Hours of clean up, one lost carboy and a $100+ sink that needed replacing - although, Menards did replace that for free for me:)
2.) Just to prove you can F%$# up a bucket too - doing a 3 beer day with a friend. I brew on a three tier stand from More Beer - decided to boil #2 and #3 about 30 minutes apart on bottom burner and middle burner at same time. When draining the second level boil kettle, I set my bucket on a milk crate wedged between my brew stand and the wall of my brew room ( a couple inches off the ground). Left to grab my beer(not my first of the day) as the bucket was filling and just as I was coming back in, heard a strange sound and rounded the corner just in time to see the milk crate shift, and the bucket slide off with about 5 gallons of wort in it - dumped across the brew room and it turned into a “2 beer day.”
I too am now all buckets (except for long secondary when I still use carboys).
[quote=“GoldenChild”][quote=“Denny”][quote=“GoldenChild”]
Denny I was under the impression that you could only use a bucket a few times and you had to toss it and buy another one? Is this true. Also do you have any issues with fruit flies getting into the buckets?[/quote]
I’ve got maybe 8-10 buckets and have used them for years. There’s absolutely no reason to toss them unless something happens to them and I’ve had no problems keeping them in good shape. Never had any prolems I could attribute to a bucket and they’re no more likely to collect fruit flies than carboys are. And they’re a LOT cheaper![/quote]
How do you do long term aging in buckets?
Thanks[/quote]
I don’t go beyond maybe 5-6 weeks in buckets. For longer than that I use cornies.
BTW, I NEVER drink til I’m done brewing. That helps a lot.
I forgot to put the temp probe back in my chest freezer once, left it for over 15 hours. Everything was frozen solid…lost about 10 22’s and about 10 bottles of wine.
I would suggest buying a milk crate to put your glass carboys in. Works great, very simple and cheap.
[quote=“El Capitan”]
My siphon hose was bent upward at the end, and so it wouldn’t lay flat in the bottling bucket. Beer kept spraying upward and splashing around. I was all by myself, trying to juggle things and that lousy hose kept flipping upward until the beer was finally about 3" deep and covered it. By that time it was well-oxidized.
The solution is to attach a bottle filler with the tip removed to the end of the autosiphon. This keeps it nice and stiff and straight, and it will stay where you put it.
:cheers: [/quote]
What is the tell on oxidized brew? I mean how do you know? Just curious because I had a brew that was not pleasing and I wonder if I did that.
