Carboys!!!

[Steven Driessen]

Hey guise!
Carboys... Where oh where would I find some cheap(ish) 20L(ish) glass carboys?
I've asked the glassblowers at university and they sell them - for $600! Haha.
I know a shop online that sells them for $75 each, but after shipping it would be more like $110 or so.
Your help is greatly appreciated. Happy beer-ing.
Steve D

[Stu McKinlay]

I ferement inside. Central heating isn't cheap but it keeps the fermenter bubbling.

[Steven Driessen]

Could you use a heat pad? We use one down here in Dunedin, as well as a simple duvet-type blanket wrapped around the plastic fermenter barrel. The heat pad is a bit pricey to begin with, but it's only 20W... Uses stuff-all power

[studio1]

Got any photo's of your conical stu?

[MrC]

I've only ever seen glass carboys for sale at home brew stores and on trademe. I recently tried to purchase a 11.5L carboy from my LHBS but the two that they had in the shop both had cracks in the base (although the owner tried to tell me that they weren't). Make sure you check for any cracks before you buy a carboy. Cracks defeat the purpose switching to glass.

Due to the poor service in Wellington I've recently decided to stick with plastic, take good care of them and change them annually. You may have better luck with your LHBS and that will probably be your best bet. Personally, I wouldn't trust shipping a carboy.

Maybe stainless one day...

[Alasdair]

I've got two 23 litre carboys. Both shipped from north of the bombays, and arrived in one piece. I found switching to glass great as far a confidence in cleanliness and sanitation goes, but they require more care when handling them.

[HerrSchnapps]

As we just found out tonight, when Will poured a jug of boiling water into one of them without preheating it. Crack. :(

[denimglen]

Better Bottles for me.

Similar price to glass but no dramas with cracking.

No worries of splitting veins open.

Risk of scratching is pretty slim since you can't really get anything in there.

95% of my beers don't go for more than 4 weeks in there so oxygen permeability doesn't worry me, even though they say it's near nothing I have my doubts.

6 gallon has been working fine for me for 20L ferments, I just rock a blow off tube.

Stainless would be nice, but shit, I could get ten carboys for that ;-)

[studio1]

I bought a Better Bottle and wish I'd thought Better of it. I didn't click that it wouldn't be heat resistant and the thing has totally mutated with pouring hot wort into it. I'm guessing the volume shrank too...(unless I stuffed my calcs up), as I had about 7L left over.

Think I'm going to have to stick to the buckets from now on.

[denimglen]

At least it wasn't glass, would have probably cracked dumping hot wort into it.

[Reviled]

The better bottles are PET arent they? :o( Man that sucks studio, but at least you could maybe still use it for something..

[denimglen]

Yeah, use it for brewing.

I'm sure I've heard of a couple guys warping there;'s and having no dramas.

[Steven Driessen]

Where would you buy these from? What sort of price?