Autoclaving Carboys

[Sethela]

Anyone know if the average everyday carboy will stand up to autoclaving? I've got a few extras so if no one knows, I'm willing to take one for the team and potentially clean up a ton of glass...

-s-

[Bugeater]

Many years ago I used to autoclave carboys everyday at a veterinary medical lab. (5 gallons of live rabies virus anyone?) However, I think those were Pyrex, but I don't remember for sure. If you have a spare, give it a try. I would inspect it first for bubbles in the glass like someone here had reported seeing.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[wrplace]

I autoclaved a standard carboy 1/2 full of water once. After cleaning out the mess of glass, I told myself I would never try it again. I've always wondered if it was just my old carboy, the water or if all carboys break when autoclaved. If you try it and get different results, I'd like to know. I have pyrex carboys too but I'm not willing to try the experiment with those expensive beauties.

[bub]

That is what Pyrex is made for... if it shatters you've done something wrong. If it were to me and I was to autoclave a normal glass carboy i would do it empty for sure.... and cool SLOWLY, it is the temperature change that kills normal glass, but then I think of home canning in a pressure canner and I'm pretty sure they just use plain glass... whatever I gotta get up in 6 hours and get a kid scraped out of my wife, WTF do I know.
BUB

[Brancid]

... whatever I gotta get up in 6 hours and get a kid scraped out of my wife, WTF do I know.
BUB

Now that's f'en quality

Let us all know how it turns out, Bub...see ya in a few days

[abike2many]

delta T over delta t.

Autoclaving machines heat up very fast. Hello thermal stress. Borosilicate glass expands very little during thermal exchange (also known as the coefficient of thermal expansion) and it is the expansion / contraction that damages the structural integrity of glass... Oh... and those air bubbles are death of a carboy if you clave it. A pyrex carboy will withstand autoclaving, though I don't see the point for homebrewing. For yeast culturing it would make sense, but there's a bunch of bigger fish to fry if you are culturing carboys of yeast.

How do I know this? misspent youth autoclaving everything --- including a couple of cousin devices.... they ended up freshy clean.

[Sethela]

Thanks, all. I'll give it a try on an extra carboy and I'll make sure to use the slow exhaust mode just in case. If I kill one, it's just more of an excuse to get a conical...

-s-

P.S. Boob, good luck with the kid-ectomy.

[Homegrown Hops]

I always use slow exhaust. To consider the damn thing sterile you will have to autoclave one for hours. You set the time in accordance to the vessel size that you are using. I would consider a 2 hour time at least for a 5 gall carboy.

HH