glass carboy

[AT]

i was looking around and i can only see these in the states, does anybody know if they can be bought over here and if there is any advantages or disadvantages to using them

[tribs]

You can get them, but with mail order no-one insures them so if they get broke in transit its tough luck.

The main advantage is you can long term age with them with little fear of oxidation, which is of particular use with lagers. I considered getting one, but now I have cornie kegs I have realised I can use them to do the same job. There is not that much difference in price and the cornies are more robust and flexible. You can't serve out of a carboy

[AT]

very good point about the tap i just assumed because the use them so much in the states that they must have some pratical use

[eskimobob]

Surely they also have the disadvantage of having to keep them in a dark place to avoid the beer becoming light struck?

[BlightyBrewer]

The extensive use of glass carboys has more than likely originated from Papazian's book...the US brewing bible.

I can't understand the fear of plastic though. I've served my beer from a plastic keg over a two month period and it got better, not worse!

[bitter_dave]

QUOTE (Daft as a Brush @ May 20 2006, 06:22 AM) Imagine how many other countrys they'd be invading if they weren't so buisy cleaning their carboys and building kegerators .
Good point Daab! Intricate homebrew devices = world peace

Unfortunately George W is teetotal (as well as coke free) since he cleaned himself up for political purposes; if he had remained a hopeless alcholic running companies which only remained solvent because of daddy's chums, the world might have been saved an awful lot *




*rant over. Apologies for off-topic rant.

[Jim]

Maybe there were loads of carboys kicking about in the US, so they were easy and cheap to get hold of??

[PieOPah]

I've got a http://www.better-bottle.com/ that I use as my primary. Okay it was too expensive and I probably only bought it for the novelty value, but I still like it

One of the downsides is that while it happily holds 40 pints, I wouldn't advise it for primary unless you want all that krausen to come shooting out. I make brews of 35 pints which leaves enough head space for the krausen although a blow-off tube is needed on occassion (especially when reusing yeast!!!)

I have found that with the tap it is so much easier for me to bottle and the carry handle makes it easy enough to transport.

[Andy]

The thing which gets me about the whole carboy thing is how difficult they must be to clean. After a week of primary fermentation my plastic bin has some real sticky gunk on the sidewalls and it needs a pretty abrasive action to get off. Easy with an open topped pastic bin but not so with a constricted opening vessel.

I'll be sticking with my open fermentation in plastic bins

[PieOPah]

Most of the time I have had no problems with hot soapy wter and some violent shaking. On the odd occassion when the gunk has been rather stubborn, I just use my carboy brush which is angled (almost) perfectly. There are a couple of small spots which I find hard to reach but I still manage

[bod]

i just use king kegs or plastic buckets. i've heard some real horror storries about people dropping or smashing carboys and badly hurting themselves.

[mysterio]

I got mine at my homebrew supply shop for about £20. I use it for lagering and as a secondary fermenter if i'm bottling. If I'm kegging I don't use it. I find it's pretty useful but It's a nightmare to aerate if you're using it as a primary -- however it's very cool to see the process of primary fermentation.

[PieOPah]

Hehe, that's the advantage of my better-bottle carboy. I just pop on the lid and I can either put in the airlock (water free - uses a ball which floats up to release the C02 and when down nothing can get back in) or a plug. With the plug in place I put the carboy on the side and rock like mad. Aerates more than enough

[Road Runner]

I have a 5 gallon carboy, think I paid about £24 for it. I don't primary ferment in it at all, but occasionally secondary ferment in it.

With secondary fermenting, you don't get as much crud build up inside to clean off and you are able to see how it's clearing. Soapy water, a good shake around and a bottle brush brings it up a treat.

There is just one major drawback with using a carboy though. You can't have those crafty "Quality Control" samples with it, like secondary fermenting in a King Keg.