All grain brew day destroyed in seconds!

[johnnysoj]

Yesterday was the perfect brew day in many ways. The weather was nice and cool, not too humid. My cousin and I brewed his extract porter, and my all grain pumpkin ale. Everything was going perfectly. His brew finished in about 2 hours, and we begun my pumpkin ale. I mashed, lautered, hit my preboil gravity, everything was great! After racking into my GLASS carboy (I think you can see where this is going) I carried the carboy to the cooler where i planned to ferment it around 63F. As I was lifting it to put it into the cooler, the f'n metal handle came off, and the beer fell 2 feet to the ground where the glass shattered and 5+ gallons of beer spilled all over my office. It was like someone hit it with buckshot, glass everywhere!! Needless to say I was slightly distraught. (My wife took away all sharp objects and my shoelaces) I began the cleanup. Two hours later there's nothing but a slightly spicey aroma where this wonderfully golden brown wort used to be....sniff...

Yeah it totally sucked, but as my cousin pointed out, at least I didn't have to be rushed to the emergency room because a giant shard of glass pierced an artery.

Man the wort tasted slightly bitter, and slightly spicy...
As an engineer and a hardware/software developer, I don't believe in failures, I only believe in lessons...

So after barely sleeping on it for a night, here are my lessons learned:
1) NO GLASS CARBOYS FOR ME... They're too fragile and slippery for my oafish hands and less than ballet-like gracefulness.
2) put the beer in the cooler, THEN MOVE THE COOLER USING THE WHEELS BUILT INTO THE COOLER.
3) A 5 gallon all grain batch almost isn't worth the 5+ hours of time invested in it. (It took me 5+ hours, a seasoned homebrewer may be quicker)
4) If you have a brewpartner, have the brewpartner assist in moving the beer.

I think I'll try to brew a mini-mash version of the pumpkin ale next weekend, I'll call it the Phoenix, born from the sticky shards of his fractured predecessor.

[adamK]

That sucks! After a carboy cut my finger in half I stopped buying them, and switched to better bottles. I still have 3 glass carboys in the rotation, but I use a brewhauler for them. The metal handles are only meant for empty carboys, sadly. I am sorry for your loss. The next batch will have extra goodness in it.

[mabrungard]

Glass carboys are pretty dangerous items! Thankfully you weren't hurt.

I switched to a stainless conical for a couple of reasons. First and foremost was: no glass. But other important reasons were that I could more easily dry hop in the fermenter through the large entry port, the whole top comes off so I can harvest yeast, no plastic to scratch and harbor microbes, and the stainless steel is oxygen impermeable. The oxygen impermeability is less of an issue since it appears to me that low levels of oxygen are not really a detriment to beers during fermentation.

[BDawg]

Glad you are safe. There are far too many horror stories of severed arteries, etc.

The Brewhauler (or similar strap on devices - ha) is a necessity. The metal handles are only ok for lifting carboys when they are empty, never when they are full.

[Ozwald]

The metal handles are only meant for empty carboys

The metal handles are only ok for lifting carboys when they are empty, never when they are full.

+1 +1 +1

I wish they didn't even sell those damned things. The Brewhauler is great; I've got 3 of them & won't touch a carboy without one. It's good you learned your lesson the hard way & not the painful hard way. There's nothing wrong with glass, you just need to treat it like a band saw - pay attention & treat it with respect. "Fingers & thumbs, don't be dumb, Fingers & thumbs, don't be dumb."

[spiderwrangler]

I wish they didn't even sell those damned things.

I tell every person that buys one that they are there for holding on to empty ones while cleaning, not for lifting full carboys by. Can't recall if they packaging says that or not.

[PorkSlapper]

Id like to add if you dont want to buy somthing, go down to a local grocery store or diary in my case, and ask for a couple milk crates. I put my carboys in them when full or empty. If my hands slip and I drop the crate at least the glass in mostly contained by the plastic crate.

[johnnysoj]

Wow, I didn't know they were only for empty carboys. Unfortunately, that knowledge came 24 hrs too late I won't be buying glass carboys anymore. Too unweildy and fragile to use. Has anyone had any experience with the plastic conical fermentors? All the conical SS ones I see online are so $$$ I guess you get what you pay for.