Salute to my fallen friend

[crashbobo]

I just finished kegging my first batch. I decided to clean my carboy in the bathtub after transfering to the keg. Well with my wet hands and the carboy full of water...you guessed it...I dropped it and it shattered. I almost cried after I was done cussing. I thought about doing a 21 gun salute, but that might piss off the neighbors :D

Moral to this story...take your time and don't handle a full carboy with wet hands. Hopefully I can get all of the glass shards out of the tub so my wife doesn't kill me.

[steveh]

I once came home from a week's vacation to find a 5 gal. carboy, stored in my garage, had exploded -- or imploded, or something. Was the weirdest thing, it was empty, it was cap-less, and there it was - a pile of ugly glass shards in the back of the garage.

Anyone have a theory on this? It was mid-summer, as I recall, so it was probably pretty warm in the garage - but again, the dog-gone thing was empty. :confused:

S.

[Fly Creek]

While we're on the topic, last year I forgot a 6.5 gallon carboy filled with a bleach sanitizer outside. Fell asleep during a tv football game and forgot about it until the next morning. I just shovelled the frozen shards into a garbage can - no need to worry about how clean it was...

[BrewDog]

Crash-

Was it the exact same carboy immortalized in your avatar?
If so, at least you can remember your lost friend through the picture... ;)

[chazwicke]

I'll bet most of us can come up with a broken carboy story. Seems they are destined to break at some point. Sorry yours was full.

[crashbobo]

Yeah it is the same carboy as in my avatar, so I always have that to remember it by. Luckily it was just full of water and sanitizer when it broke. I have two more carboys so I'm not hurting too bad now. I have some Christmas money to spend, so I will be able to buy a new one if needed. Thanks for listening :)

[wortchillergoal]

I feel the pain of your loss. Yet, you can be sure that carboy would want you to run out and meet another carboy right away. It would not want you to wallow in despair but rather you filled a new carboy as quickly as you can. To honor the memory of this carboy, you must ferment in new so as to continue life as you know. God speed and good luck.

[danno]

since I secondary in cornies, I'm giving some serious thought to the plastic bottles for primarys. or, with a decent tax refund, maybe a SS conical...

i feel your pain, crash... (although, could this be some weird karma for your moniker?)

[Fly Creek]

If you can justify the expense, go with the SS conical! (justify it to others in your household that is, no need to explain it to a homebrew junkie) It's one of the coolest toys I ever bought. I just kegged an imperial stout from the cone yesterday. No need to rack to a secondary, siphoning is a breeze and cleanup is a two-minute operation with a garden hose outside (using hot water from the washing machine hookup). I still use the carboys when I'm doing multiple batches tho.

[fuji6100]

Ack! Sorry to hear about your carboy!

I guess the bright side of it is that it was full of sanitizer, and not precious beer!

[P-Train]

It happened to us a couple of weeks ago. Had two glass carboys in the tub and they hit each other and...crack. At least it was just one.

Salute.







P.S. Did it really stink inside? Mine did. It was a horrible stench. I always thought it they were clean but maybe not as clean as I thought...

[crashbobo]

Mine smelled fine, but I had it soaking with sanitizer for a while.


By the way, I got all of the glass out and my wife has not killed me.....yet :D

[SoxyinMO]

I once came home from a week's vacation to find a 5 gal. carboy, stored in my garage, had exploded -- or imploded, or something. Was the weirdest thing, it was empty, it was cap-less, and there it was - a pile of ugly glass shards in the back of the garage.

Steveh - Was the carboy sitting on a cement floor? My husband has worked with glass and he said that it could happen if the day warmed and the glass was on a cold floor, or even if there was a large temperature change over a fairly short period of time, especially if there was a flaw in the glass...

Crash, we're lifting one to the fallen.

[eyepah]

Always remember this proverb:

Glass is temporary.

[steveh]

Originally posted by SoxyinMO
Steveh - Was the carboy sitting on a cement floor?

It's very possible - though I can't recall. During Summer my garage can be cool in the mornings, then very warm later in the afternoon. I'll learn by that lesson...

S.

[davesarman]

Same thing happened to me a few years back....someone had given me an old carboy that was from one of those old "glug-glug" type water coolers (they all have plastic jugs now). Anyway the glass must have been thinner or weak from age or something because as I was pouring out sanitizer, it split in half around the circumfrance of the middle of the carboy. Half on the concreate floor and half in the sink. I, too, was thankful it was only sanitizer and not beer that got dumped.

Oh yeah, and one other note: glass hydrometers don't bounce on concrete floors either....