Carboy Parka from Beer Beern & More Beer

[linuxelf]

On another brewing forum, I'm hearing horror stories about people breaking carboys. It's gotten me thinking about switching away from glass for primary. Then I saw these:

http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16586

They look like they'd make transporting full carboys much safer. Does anyone have experience with these?

The second thing I'd like to do is get a small fridge for lagering. I'm thinking that if I placed a temperature probe inside the neoprene, and yet outside the glass, I'd get a pretty good indication of my wort temperature. Much closer than if I just taped the probe to the outside of the carboy. Does this sound right?

[BeerPal]

On another brewing forum, I'm hearing horror stories about people breaking carboys. It's gotten me thinking about switching away from glass for primary. Then I saw these:

http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16586

They look like they'd make transporting full carboys much safer. Does anyone have experience with these?

The second thing I'd like to do is get a small fridge for lagering. I'm thinking that if I placed a temperature probe inside the neoprene, and yet outside the glass, I'd get a pretty good indication of my wort temperature. Much closer than if I just taped the probe to the outside of the carboy. Does this sound right?

The carboy parkas work great and can handle the load of a full carboy, but for maximum carboy safety use a square plastic milk crate. Mine live almost full-time in milk crates. They protect the carboy like nobody's business and make picking them up easy too. The image below shows my carboy draining setup:



I like to run my temp probe inside the carboy by using a 2-holed stopper and a thermowell:

[Homegrown Hops]

On another brewing forum, I'm hearing horror stories about people breaking carboys. It's gotten me thinking about switching away from glass for primary.

IMHO you should not be visiting other forums also you could use plastic buckets or use sankey kegs for fermenters like me .

[linuxelf]

I've used plastic buckets in the past, but I've always ended up with a bucket that picks up the odor of the beer, and the oder never goes away. I just have to think that if I can smell it so strongly, it has to alter the next beer I ferment there. I'd love to go with the kegs. That's definitely on my upgrade list. Right now, it's not even a matter of the money. I think I can swing the cost, it's just the space. I have an extremely small amount of space for fermenting. I like the dual milk crate carboy drainage system. Since I'm doing this inside, I can just put a pan below the carboy to keep the drips off the floor...

[jaydub]

Where the hell are you guys finding milk crates?

[Lufah]

Where the hell are you guys finding milk crates?

Um...Behind the store....

[Lufah]

Also take a look here....

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=81

Travis

[Bugeater]

Where the hell are you guys finding milk crates?

Um...Behind the store....

Begining to sound like the same place some folks get kegs. Behind the store is about the only place you can get proper milk crates. The ones you find in stores are flimsy decorator pieces that won't stand up to the weight of a carboy. Most of the 18 (I just counted) I have are at least somewhat legit. I asked our milk delivery guy at work if I could have some of the uglier looking ones and he said to help myself. Anyway, try asking for one or two at places that have stacks of them out back.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company