Since I have been typing up what I would like to buy in equipment upgrades for all grain brewing, I started thinking about other pieces that I would like to have.
At some point I would like to keg my beer, but it is not crucial right now.
Another purchase that has an easier justification is a glass carboy. Right now, I don’t have any vessel that would allow me to do any long (over 4 weeks) conditioning of my beer. Currently, all my fermentation is done in a bucket, all my conditioning is done in bottles.
If I really want to brew a lager this year, I will need something where I can store the entire volume of the beer in one place for as long as several months (depending on the style).
We have discussed Plastic Vs. Glass on this site before.
I was thinking of getting a Better Bottle in the past but now I am leaning towards getting a glass fermentor because I know I can get one cheap at the homebrew shop near my work. I would rather buy this item locally and not pay the shipping costs.
Kevin
As Bruce Lee said, “next time it’s gonna be glass!”
Aaron
If you can get a glass carboy cheap, I’d recommend getting it soon. I think it was about a year ago the Mexican factory making them closed down and now they’re all improted from Italy or something.
Maybe your LHBS just has good prices, maybe they haven’t had to order new carboys since the Mexican factory went down. I have 2 1 gallon, a 3 gallon, 3 5 gallon, and a 6.5 gallon glass carboys.
jasper9
austin homebrew has the 6.5 gallon glass back in stock if you are interested.
there are a bunch of threads on homebrewtalk.com detailing the injuries people have sustained from glass which are quite frightening BUT just recently someone has had a few betterbottles crack on him. turns out if you scoot the BB on the ground when it is full it wears the plastic down and can fracture.
you just can’t win i suppose!
Kevin
“At some point I would like to keg my beer…” Kegging is definitely the way to go. Think of all the time you spend washing, sanitizing, filling, capping, and labelling (if you label) the 54 bottles typical for a 5 gallon batch. You can do all that with one keg in about 15 minutes. Make one label for your tap handle, and you are set. I only bottle for competitions and to give beer as gifts.
Ben Spiegel
Yeah you’ve got to go with the glass
John
Right on.
Mike
I would recommend you get one with out those ribs. I have three of those and they are fine but the ribs are concave on the inside and it makes it a little tougher to clean. I want to get a couple more of these too, but I am looking for complete smooth sided ones.
Mike
I use both. The plastic for short time to clarify and glass if it needs to age. An easy way to see if you like plastic is to buy a 5 gallons of water in a carboy. Use the water to brew and you can return the carboy after a few uses. This will help prevent the possibility of bugs due to long use of plastic.
Eric
I use glass. I have 5 carboys some for over 10 years. Glass is hard to scratch and it is easy to see if it is clean. Also easy to see how clear your beer is getting. I have both ribbed and smooth. If cleaned promptly after use, I do not see a difference in ease of cleaning.
Mike
I recently grabbed a couple glass carboys at my LHBS. I kept them secure and padded on the way home but somehow one knocked against the other and received a small “star crack” ~1cm wide about 2 inches down on the side of the carboy. The crack isn’t all the way through as I have filled it with water and let it sit to see if it would seep through/crack anymore from the pressure. Any ideas or thoughts about using this one only for secondary where vigorous fermentation will not take place?
Mike
I wouldn’t be concerned about fermentation pressures, I’d be more concerned with temperature differences. It might be fine for a little bit but eventually you’ll put cold water in it to rinse it or hit it with a little hot water and it may shatter.
Don’t mess around with these carboys. If they break unexpectedly while handling they can be very dangerous. Tell the LHBS that when you got home you noticed the tiny crack. See if they’ll take it back.