Carboy Injuries Yikes!

[Toot]

Was stumbling through a couple of American forums and came across some pretty gruesome stories about people getting injured by dropping glass carboys.

http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25146&start...

http://brewing.lustreking.com/articles/nomoreglass.html

http://brewing.lustreking.com/articles/brokencarboys.html

Defiantly gonna be more careful with mine from now on.

[JR]

I got one of those carboy haulers this morning from the Dunedin Malt House. It was ont he expensive side at $38 or something close but he gave me a bit of a discount and I got it for $28. I got one of the handles that attach ot the neck too.

[denimglen]

"I got one of the handles that attach ot the neck too."

Dunno if he told you but those aren't safe to use on full carboys, the necks of the carboys aren't strong enough to hold the weight.

[Reviled]

$38??? Ouch, I could buy a brand new HDPE fermenter for that!!

[JR]

yeah I wasn't going to buy it for 38 but he said 28 so I got it. I was looking at them on morebeer and they were pretty pricy. The one linked to on the previous page were a good price.

I got a few stainless steel barrel kinda things (photo attached) that are about 25-30L that were used for ethanol. I am going to start using those for fermentors (...as well. I'm not giving up on glass just yet). I will miss being able to look at my beer though. When beer drops bright I know its time to bottle.

If you can think of anywhere that use industrial quantities of ethanol they may have spare ones about.

[Reviled]

Those drums look ideal JR! Nice score!

[JR]

Yeah, I'v had them for a year or more but I was worried that I would not know if they were clean properly or not since I cant see inside them and getting a brush in there would be hard. Now I dont even scrub my carboys - I just soak them with nappi-san and there hasn't been a stain that wasn't dissolved. I think I could confidently use the barrels I cant see into and just trust nappi-san to clean them for me.

[Chris Banks]

JR those drums look the ticket but I do wonder about where the bottom and the top meet the
sides internaly could be a bit of a germ trap?
Where the radius of the bottom section meets the sidewall would be the one to worry about? Not that Im being the naysayer Ive been accused of or anything just thinking of your pride n joy mate!!

[JR]

yeah I think your probibly right...I got given them ages ago and have been trying to think of ways to use them...
I could put them in my 70 litre pot and boil them to sanitise them. Perhaps only use them once for lambics or something that has to age for a year or so.
ideas welcome...

[Toot]

Cheap and easy boiler if you cut the top off them above the handles?

[denimglen]

"I could put them in my 70 litre pot and boil them to sanitise them"

You could go one step further and flame sterilise them. Put the drum on your burner or similar and just cook the nasty little germs from the outside.