Shout out to subscriber Kyle for making this petition: #shatterTheIllusion #crackDownOnBigGlass www.change.org/p/big-glass-stop-big-glass-from-creating-faulty-homebrewing-carboys?US%3A3&recruiter=962807227&
I'm signing this. I may never get the use of my right hand back completely. The bottom busted out as I was lifting room temperature mead from the sink after rinsing off the sides. The broken glass severed 7 of the 8 tendons in my palm. It took an 8 hour surgery to get my hand back together and I'm still doing physical therapy.
I had a wide mouth have the bottom blow out on me, exactly as you show here. I just assumed it was a problem of cheap / thin glass, disposed of it and went on my way. The reasoning I used for this was the fact I had racked my brew into it and it had been sitting untouched for about 20 minutes when I heard it crack (very distinctive "ping" sound from the kitchen). Didn't lose any brew, as I immediately racked off to another carboy without touching the broken one. The glass carboys I still have are much sturdier (significantly thicker glass)
One more thing to keep in mind is that people will very often lie about misusing or mishandling their products. You ask: "Well, did you fill it with boiling wort?" or "Did you have it in a protective basket when you moved it?". They go: "Oooh yeah, that was probably what caused it, but I can't admit that or I'll look like an idiot" or "If I admit that I won't get a free replacement". This doesn't even have to be done maliciously. The whole process is so smooth people can do it without thinking, especially when they just told others about it on social media. It's like an automatic response to that kind of situation that's hard-wired into humans. I notice myself that it's super difficult to admit to some customer service person that you're actually at fault. Personally I'm so paranoid about this happening indoors that I'm keeping all my glass carboys in cheap plastic tubs that can hold at least 5 gallons
This was the case when there was the mystery of "random" Amazon packages showing up at people's doorsteps. They were just delayed and people forgot about ordering them.
I have never had a vintage water cooler jug break on me. Made a huge score a couple years ago and found three 5gal carboys with original 1950'a delivery boxes for $3 each!
Great video... once again. Also one thing to point out is that the cheap glass could send you to the ER with minor or major injuries. Yes I know the higher quality can do the same, but chances are smaller.
If you are going to pour hot liquid into a glass container you first need to warm up the glass by pouring hot water onto it evenly, and to cool it you need to use warm water until the glass is cool then let it cool off completely on its own
First of all, I rolled my eyes after the first minute thinking "why is anyone using glass carboys still?" (I don't) And then you addressed it. And then I kept watching. Wow, what a great and informative video here! Well done!
I can taste wine made in steel. It has that "Aluminum foil on the fillings" taste to me. Give me a Chardonnay made in all steel and one made in glass and I can tell the difference. Stuff like the plastic Big Mouth bubblers are great for primary fermentation but suck for bulk aging due to the large shoulder space. Glass is still the best for up to 6 gallon batches (IMO)
I have ceramic tile floors, which can and has break or chip glass easily. I have made a number of carpet "coasters" for the occasions where I would sit my carboys on anything other than wood. Even a double thick piece of cardboard (Thank you Amazon shipping boxes) is better than nothing and are easily disposable/replaced if they get wet.
Man , you got it going on, Glad I have 6 Gallon Carboys, made in Italy . Thanks for the Information. P.S. I have one, that is made in a tilting swing . You grab the frame, tilt it over, and pour out of the Glass Carboy , let go of it and it swings back to the upright position . Antique , been around a Long Time . It's a Big one . 🐯🤠
I will now add this to all the stuff in the back of my head with all the other stuff that will not get me rich. That being said very interesting and informative.
I checked my carboys after watching this video. All my one gallon ones have bubbles and imperfections. I know you said in the vídeo that it's usually three gallon and up that shatter. But does it happen to the small one gallon ones too?
That light polarization setup was brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness. I wonder if those of you who have a good relationship with your local brick and mortar brewshop could convince them to set one up for both pre-checking their supplies from their distributor (so they can return suspect glassware upon receipt) and demonstrating to their customers the quality of the products they sell. With enough brewshops doing this the pressure for rejecting bad glassware goes up a rung to the distributors, and hopefully they will get on the ball and start pressuring the manufacturers to make a better product.
Have you noticed lines on the bottom of italian carboys that you can slide your fingernail in? I work at a homebrew shop and it seems that all of our italian carboys just like the one you had in the vid.
looking at the variation in the the colors between the two it looks like they're setting it on something that's transferring the heat too quickly, like a metal table or something. If they'd change the surface to something that doesn't do that like a ceramic or wood then they likely wouldn't have this issue with the cooling process.
I cracked the bottom out of one by using hot tap water to clean it. Maybe it had flaws ? I don't know. I do now I've always used warm water since not hot water since to clean them.
Super nice video! It looks like using polarized sunglasses works with the polarized lcd screen just as well. I was able to find some annealing issues in some recently purchased carboys that haven't been used yet. Might have saved me some grief.
Thanks for posting this very informative video. I ordered a polarizing camera and filter viewed two of my 3-gallon carboys as you describe using an LCD monitor as my light source. One carboy is made in Italy and the other in Mexico. Both look clear, without any obvious dark or colored spots as in your video. So maybe both carboys are fine, or maybe I am doing it wrong. The filter I ordered is a circular polarizing filter, which seems to be the most common kind. There is also a "linear polarizing filter" so I'm not sure if I need that one. Also, how do you set the rotation of the filter? I tried rotating it different amounts, but both carboys still look the same.
@@DointheMost yeah, for some reason people don't want pinlock kegs so those go for cheap, add a floating diptube and a spunding valve and you got yourself a cheap stainless fermenter
knocking wood right now. no breaks since 90s. all Mexican heavy glass. in 90s i dropped a full quart on an epty 5 gallon, within a week dropped an empty 5 gallon on a full 5 gallon, getting chills just thinking about it.
Awesome video. I have 8 glass carboys at home, most have been given to me. I'll check them all tonight to see where they come from. Thanks for this very precious video.
I'm going to say this. If Chinese labor is being flown to Italy to make handbags for the sake of having Italy on the bag."fact" do you think they may be making carboys in Italy?
As a completely new(2months) homebrewer using exclusively plastic brew buckets because I can't afford glassware in my country(import duties kill) may I say! GOTTA LOVE PLASTIC😂😂😂😂😂😂 but my next purchase is a nice stainless conical fermenter when the wife allows😂😂😂
That is just racism. Many excellent glassblowers live in both countries. I have used ones made in Mexico by a guy named Juan Hernandez, excellent quality, bought them in '08 still working great.
Having had no idea what the name carboy stood for before this video, my brain went to Car Boy and Salvatore Ganacchi's Boycycle music video (a boy who is like a motorcycle centaur). Though I assumed the etymology was something like carb-bouy or car-bouy or so. something
The stresses in glass brought about by the cooling process are shown in their extremes in something called a Prince Rupert drop ( or a Batavian tear) where the tadpole shaped glass tadpole has an almost indestructible head but a fragile tail that will explode if it's broken
Remember, glass seems like a solid but respond to stress in a hydraulic fashion, that is stress in one spot is communicated throughout the glass. It's just slower than in complete liquid.
Amen! Makes me glad I live in Europe and therefore closer to the source of good glass for home brewing. Another tip for home brewers, especially those just starting out: it’s extremely tempting to buy bottles and carboys from other stores than homebrew stores. Don’t. Especially home deco stores that sell carboys to use as vases or containers for pebbles, plants (ever heard of garden-in-a-bottle? Apparently it’s a thing). The glass might contain lead, have some sort of coating that isn’t food grade, might not be suitable for containing liquids, etc. They might look pretty, might be cheaper (or not!) but are they safe?
We just spend the $13 on gallon bottles of Carlo Rossi, get absolutely shit face plastered on it, and have a glass carboy that we know for a fact is water tight
I have glass carboys that are 20 years old but they are heavier thicker glass! Everyone I’ve purchased over the last 10-15 years is lighter and made of thinner glass. While I have a few chips in my old heavy glass carboys I still have 6 of them. All six gallon. I have 12 glass carboys, 2 SS brew tech brew buckets and five plastic fermenters. I ferment wine, beer and other things!
Oh man. This whole time I have just merrily been using the carboy handles on full carboys. I would lift them with just the handle about a foot to a foot and a half then slip my other hand under them to support. Never thinking this could be causing an issue. Thank you for pointing this out before I had a crisis on my hands.
@@jasonduggan2987I place my carboys in reinforced plastic milk crates. They have handles and you’ll never worry about setting your carboy on concrete again.
It's not as classy, but plastic is the way to go. I had one friend nearly cut his hand off with a shattered carboy, which is bad enough - but a month later another friend almost died from a shattered carboy stabbing his belly which pierced his intestines. They are not worth it, there are great quality plastic carboys now that even have wide mouths for easy cleaning.
My personal preference is 5g buckets. Super easy cleaning. I used to use plastic carboys but nah buckets all the way for me. Imo the only place a glass carboy should have nowadays is bulk aging.
i watched your video with interest, it kinda made me chuckle, ive been brewing wine since i was 13 , im 64 now, i have used the same 2 carboys for 17 years another 1 for about 10 and 2 new ones for 5 and a 3 gallon for about 8 years and never had a problem, you covered a lot of good insight on potential causes, but think you missed a major potential cause of breakage, think outside the box - stop degassing in the carboy , electric degassers , what a joke , lets take 5 gallons of wine and spin it up with metal or plastic blades or even a plastic or wooden spoon tinging against the side of glass , like you said glass has memory i answer - decant to a fresh carboy with a auto syphon to the top of the new carboy let it fall to the bottom bubble and splash let settle for 24 hrs to let more finings settle to the bottom and decant again into a new clean carboy ! then decant one more time before filtering, this sounds like a lot of extra work and a pain in the ass , but your a wine maker , patience is our virtue, lol , anyways - just a thought lol
I had a carboy burst apart recently. Pretty sure it was the effect of gravity that did it. I can’t prove it but my theory is that, without gravity, it wouldn’t have fallen on the edge of the bath tub where I was cleaning it. Carboys don’t just crack, they turn into glass bombs with razor-sharp pieces flying all over the place. One hit me in the ankle, completely severing my Achilles tendon! 😮 Surgery ensued, and I am still in physical therapy three months later. It could have easily hit an artery or cut off a digit. So please be careful!
Top work. Thanks for doing this video. Although we still sell a lot of glass carboys the majority of our customers get the FermZilla All Rounder. Would you like us to send one of these to you to try out?
Thank you for this and I learned a lot! I'm about to get a water cooler and discovered glass carboys. I noticed the reviews for the best selling carboy had the broken glass issue. I did find one made from Italy with way less reviews. I was actually already leaning towards the Italian one since the others were made from China. Well, you just convinced me to get the Italian one!
Really cool video but unfortunately doesn't apply to where I live. In Brazil we don't have any clear carboys available to by online. Nothing. Only option is green or brown glass. If I try to import it will cost about 20 times more due to exchange rate, shipping and import tax so not really a viable option. Upside is that a 4,5L carboy costs only 5 bucks around here. Not sure if polarized light will help with brown glass but I'll give it a try. Since the only option is cheap carboy I'll fill with water a couple times before brewing and leave it in a spot where it doesn't damage my home if it does break.
I have one glass plate over here that is very resistant to chock, it survived being dropped on the floor several times. I tested it with the method you recommended and turns out it has many evenly distributed stress lines. That seems to contradict what you said but on the other hand it’s obvious the Italian glass is superior to the Mexican. I got quite confused so I had to do further research. Annealed glass that show these stress marks indicates poor annealing as you said and can break more easily but there is another heat treatment protocol. Tempered glass will always have stress marks even if they are well made. Good quality tempered glass is stronger than good quality annealed. It will take more mechanical impact and higher thermal shock before shattering. I don't think we need tempered glass on carboys, a good quality anneal is good enough.
The problem is not enough FREE ENTERPRISE. With competition for quality and price left up to the consumer it creates competition amongst producers to supply a better product at a better price! We choose. Problem is that cheap imported crap is being sold all made in the same place with different names and prices....same crap.
I remember 10+ yrs ago, if you were buying a plastic carboy, people at the homebrew shop will give you look of disgust, then proceed to scold you into buying a glass carboy. How times have changed. Most of my big fermenters are plastic. I have an old glass carboy, but don't use it too much nowadays. The small fermenters are mostly glass. This was a cool video. Loved the "fairy tale" story. Good job.
When I started brewing, the PET carboys were almost unheard-of in this area. I started in buckets then graduated to glass. Times have definitely changed!
Thank you I make Fragrances most of mine have been in small bottles how ever I was thinking of Maceration process in Carboys! note I would have lost $16-$56k worth of Fragrance in one Carboy if this happened to me!!! so thank you!!! I will not be using them at all !!!
Wow, good thing I only have 1 and 1.5 gallon glass carboys. My big 5 gallon ones are luckily all plastic. I'd really hate to loose 5 gallons of mead with all that expensive honey. I deal with tempered glass shower panels all day long and the nice thing about tempered glass is that if there is any problems, it'll likely blow up in the kiln long before I get it but I had no idea about the issues you talked about with glass carboys. Will be sticking with plastic me thinks.
I set up my laptop with a white screen and viewed through my polarized sun glasses. Everything I look at has the orange/blue blotches, but they do not move with the carboy, wine glass, baby bubbler, whatever I put there. The intensity changes with polarizing extinction, but the blotches never move. My mason jars, my pyrex measuring cup, they all show 'bad annealing' blotches. Is this expected? Is it a trick? Please help me understand what I'm seeing.
You bought products made in 3rd world nations and thought it could compete with Italy? That's not capitalism's fault, that's on you. If you're cheaping out to save a few dollars on homebrewing equipment, you shouldn't be brewing. You shouldn't even be drinking. Just straight up financial negligence.
I just received an order from Home Brew Ohio from Amazon and the whole kit was missing. All I received was a bucket and 3 gallon glass carboy, made in Italy, and it has a crack all the way across the bottom. Never been used. I checked it when I watched this video. Very unpleased!
I was sweating watching this as I have just bought a 5 gal carboy. The box is the same in the video...MADE IN ITALY....And I was like "Uh-ohh". Then the Italian carboy was introduced as the quality one, phew !!
There is a proverb I've heard, "a cheap man pays twice". It fits this situation. But since I am cheap, I prefer plastic buckets for their economy and versatility. Haven't broken one yet.
Such a shame I had to get rid of 10 glass carboys (water jugs 3 gal I think) from the CP Rail. Bought them at an estate sale, a conductor grabbed a bunch of them before retiring. They were great quality, and like $2 or $3 a piece!
But you, (we)! Did do something wrong! We honestly fooled ourselves into believing something cheaper saved us money. Plus you said capitalism is the fault in the beginning of the video. Here in America! We did have a very large glass industry, at one time. But then we taxed heavily the energy that is used to make glass, then we heavily taxed mining operations of any size. Because if you believe you can go out to the local beach and pick up a handful of pure silica. I can then show you an idiot. So now we can buy glass from Mexico, China, India. Or we can purchase from Italy. Who had the common since to protect their glass industry. But American made glass, who got it's humble beginnings from immigrants comming from the three main glass countries in Europe. These countries was Sweden, Germany, and Italy. Who standardized good glass manufacturing process. This is why Corning has a youtube channel dedicated to protecting the dwindling American glassblowing industry. That sir! Is not capitalism. It's the destruction of capitalism! And that very destruction. Has us purchasing cheap product, from slave labor countries. Because we believe global warming is the fault of American capitalism. So we screwed those immigrants, we supposedly love so much. Those companies and glass blowers fled Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Due to strong protectionism laws in those countries. That literally inslaved those workers. So now we are slaves, to slave markets. And these countries have no global warming standards in their countries. Because they know it is a scam. But also inslave their work forces. In the forties and fifties, we had wide spread glass art programs in high schools and college's. Across America. But now, they are gone. Because! You cant find a job in this field in America anymore. This statement really sticks in my crawl. Because I studied glass blowing in the very last high school program in southwest Kansas. That's how big our glass industry used to be. You could study glass blowing, in fucking Kansas. I loved glass blowing. And yet there is still great deal of need for high process glass made item's across America. Because they are easy to clean, reuse, and last forever (if made correctly). And they have no footprint on pollution. After the glass is made. And can have a even smaller foot print if we reuse glass. Now I'm rambling on. And this is not meant to have any disrespect toward you. But just the ramblings of a person who loves glass. P.s check out the Corning museum of glass channel. It will give you greater respect for the glass industry. Sorry! I will get off my high horse now.
We just experience this and it's very disappointing that you have no recourse. Out a couple hundred dollars depending on how you price wine these days not including the price of the 6-gallon carboy, the grapes, the yeast, all the time to get to this stage and finally all the time it took to clean up the mess. We typically cradle the carboy to lift or carry and were so thankful this didn't occur at that moment. That could have resulted in serious or potentially fatal injuries. Like others have commented, just because the box is labeled "made in Italy" how can you really confirm? Sort of like buying "organic" food. How do you really know for sure? Enjoyed the video until 18:25. BTW...it was my local brewing supply vendor that sold us this junk. We did not know at the time there were other options but for future carboys, we plan on trying the Italian route. We agree that everyone should stop purchasing Communist Chinese products.
I bought a 5 gallon carboy from Amazon from Midwest Supply and it came shattered. It was packed with a tiny amount of eco padding mostly on the bottom. I sent photos to the seller who instructed me to mail it back to them. UPS wanted to charge me more than the original cost of the carboy with free shopping. I sent it anyway on principle. I filled out the form clearly saying it was a damaged glass carboy and as I followed the tracking it was "discarded due to broken glass" by UPS and so the seller refused my refund because they never got it back.
I have 2, 5 gallon glass carboys that are Italian made. And both have what looks like a scratch on the bottom of the carboy on the stamp thing. I have pics but can’t attach them to a RU-vid comment. I was told it was a result of the stamping process and that the carboy is fine. I’m just getting started. My first batch of mead is sitting in a fermentation bucket atm but I’m getting really close to needing to rack it. I put water for about 24 hours and didn’t see any leaks or anything. But I’m starting to get nervous about putting my brew in it. Have y’all seen any of these Italian carboys with a similar “scratch” on the bottom of it?
Borosilicate glass is more stable, pyrex is having this same issue too. They switched from Borosilicate glass to cheap glass going from PYREX to pyrex after the sellout.
This is a bit of a late comment to this video but in mentioning “advocacy”, have you considered filing a complaint with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission? Theres legitimate safety issues with these poorly made carboys and with all of the legwork you’ve done on the issue, they might be interested.
So it's not carboy related but it's glass related, my grandfather used to work for a company here in England that made light bulbs back in the 80's, he worked on the part where a glowing hot bead of glass was pushed into a rotating machine part that held 20 beads at a time, the machine head would spin (fairly quickly) while blowing a small amount of cold air into the glass bead to form it's shape (much more complex than this but explained simple) with a full rotation it made 20 glass bulb heads ready for the filament filler and the metal screw cap to be attached on the next machine that had a auto picker and rotator (pretty advanced for it's time) it's worth noting that this machine maybe broke 1 in every 1000 bulb heads and it was no problem as broken glass was just thrown back into the melting cats to be pumped back in later, well new management came in and decided they where going to take on anyone who made light bulbs and that obviously meant increasing production to its limit, my grandfather told them that yes the machine appears to run slow but the company has a reputation for producing high quality light bulbs that worked well and this was the best ratio for quality glass production Vs broken bulbs, well not good enough so the new manager decided to really up the anti either "increase the machine speed or your fired, I want this thing pumping as fast as it's physically capable to run" and my grandfather being the ever wise and cancerous git he is obliged, he walked it up as fast as it would run while still making a bulb, it took 4 weeks before no more orders rolled in, bulbs shattering in people hands from the slightest bit of pressure if they even made it out of the production line to bulbs popping 2 seconds after being turned on for the first time, the manager then came back and decided that the issue wasn't bad quality it was that there where not enough bulbs from this company on the market soooo his solution was to crank the machine even higher, and well my grandfather obliged one last time, he pushed the speed control handle all the way up and went for his contracted 30 min break, he came back in to a 2 small mountains of glass, one broken bulbs and one glowing hot glass beads and a smoking (partially on fire) machine, his manager decided to blame my grandfather to witch he handed him a roughly scribbled f you I quit note and walked off, buy quality people it's always worth the extra cash
Oohhh noo, that Mexican carboy is the exact one I have...it has the squiggly lines and says 6 gal written in it....I live in Florida so temperature shock is probably less likely since it's usually 90 degrees all year..
Oh gosh, I'm fairly new and recently bought a 6 gallon glass carboy. My first big batch of wine. I wish I'd seen this before. I checked the box it came in and it's made in China. I think I'll stick to buckets for the moment.
This. Surrounded by stuff that is only available due to capitalism. But mindlessly regurgitates trendy coffee house commie sentiments, when something goes wrong. You get what you pay for........
Altruistic human behaviors (like not cutting corners) can't be relied upon in a fully free-market system - it is always cheaper to cut corners and sell a low quality or fake product. That's why socialist policies (like anti-trust laws and federal regulation of products/advertising) are the only reliable way to prevent high quality, small-scale shops from being run out of business by hordes of low-quality, high production shops/franchises (Walmart, anyone?)
@@IncandescentFlame so much wrong with your post, I don't know where to begin. First off, we don't have a free market, never did. This being the case,, you cannot blame the unrealized concept for the actions of those who fail to live up to the standards layed out by its defining characteristics. Second, altruism has nothing to do with the market; the concepts are mutually exclusive, due to the intrinsic moral component of former and the complete lack of, for the latter. Third, the idea that it is imoral to make a substandard product requires only that it be falsely advertised as being built to a given set of standards, this being the case, we don't know how the poorly made products featured in this video were advertised, we only know the price point. Its entirely possible,, that many people are buying without reading the product description and are using them in ways not intended for the task they have in mind. Perhaps these are just for decoration, or not to be used under pressure, for example...fourth -the very video that sparked this tangential conversation itself, even if unintentional, is a refutation of your tired sentiments, which is to say, that there is a market solution for the inevitable bad market actor, a point even mentioned by the video producer - spend your resources on quality products; vote with your wallet...There is no need for laws and regulations and in lieu of more text wall to prove the point, ill just remind you that we already have laws for these sorts of things and they still don't work, because in the end, those bad actors, will find a way, in fact more often then not, the laws you love are written by the very market entities that the seek to regulate in the first place...And yes, since you mention it - Walmart is a fantastic example of what I am saying, after all -when was the last time a mom' n pop shop was given taxfree status, or free land to build upon, or legal exemption from using non citizen labor....
Just and FYI You can do a similar check with a pair of sunglasses and your phone. You may get looked at funny for pulling out a pair of ray-bans or other polarized sun glasses indoors but your can diagnose problems in the store.
I found a semi-local (I'm in IL) glass factory that has reasonable prices. I'm tempted to do a road trip so I don't have to deal with shipping costs. I'll update with results.
I mean there's very good reasons to not brew in plastic. Stainless versus glass is certainly more about personal taste. As it's my understanding stainless can cause some weird stuff with flavor profiles somehow. Glass is pretty much inert, so it seems like managing light exposure is all that's left to do.
Common sense goes along way. Never broke a carboy yet. I don't use plastic buckets. I have had ruined batches. When the inside gets scratched. Bacteria ruins beer
another okie channel? ill sub. i just stumbled onto your channel from my feed, somehow. but being an okie, ill gladly sub and possibly learn yet another hobby, like i need another money draining hobby.
Also remember, "cheap" and "inexpensive" are not necessarily the same thing. Quality is important, more so than price, but if enough people buy quality over price, the price of quality may well come down as more is sold.
Curios what your etched carboy look like through the Polaris scope? Does etching do anything or is just such a fine modification that doesnt hurt them?
A whole load of Chinese fabric and clothing manufacturers setting up businesses in Milan Italy in order to have the made in Italy stamp. It is something to watch out for.
Shouldn't brew in glass and should use plastic or metal? But plastic has several issues, and metal can implant metallic taste which isnt always desirable. Glass just generally implants the least additional flavor in things, is also usually quite easy to clean and doesnt hold funk like plastic tends to.
I wonder how the white light background setup would work with a good pair of polarized sunglasses... both straight on and with your head tilted at various angles. If it works, maybe a better way or easier way to inspect the glass while in the store?
I mean. I use plastic because it is lighter and doesnt have a shattering risk. It flexes a lot more to prevent cracks or breakage and you can see swelling ahead if you check your brews everyday
I have bought vintage and antique carboys at auctions, flea markets or yard sales. I bought 2 6 gal. Carboys very inexpensively, and knowing that the older carboys are sturdier, I’m glad I bought them.
