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winehomie

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I bought a 3 and 5 gallon plastic carboys and the label says they have 53mm caps so I am guessing hole would be 50-52 mm what size rubber bung would I need to buy for these?
 
Thanks, these are my first real carboys lol up until now I have used recycled 1 gallon pickle jars for carboys, found these 4 (two 5 gallon and two 3 gallon) carboys at a yard sale for $10 for the lot, couldn't pass that up. I also picked up a couple of food grade 6 gallon buckets with lids for $1 each and 2 cases of wine bottles for $5 each. Exwife selling Exhubbies crap lol.
 
most all mine (carboys) are glass and use the small universal bung, but i have two plastic carboys that are from a water dispenser, crystal water i believe, they both use a large universal bung, i forget what size bung they use. my Italian glass ones use either a 6 or 6 &1/2 the plastics are somewhere around a 10 0r 10&1/2, but as i said they are not better boy carboys these are made to go in offices for drinking water , I've went towards using universals i like the lip on top with regular bungs if your not carful you can push them threw an into the carboy then you have to fish them out in little pieces, if the neck of your carboy is damp then i have to seat mine deeper so they don't creep up an i fear a air leak, the universals when wet you can push them clean down to the lip they can be tuff pulling sometimes but breaking apart a bung inside a carboy is way beyond tuff.
just my 2-cent worth,
Dawg
 
Yeah the carboys are water bottles, they all have screw on caps so I guess the bung size isn't really that much of a issue, I can just drill whatever size hole I need into the lid and go from there, I didn't really think of that at first lol
 
I really don't know anything about them but I would be worried about fermenting anything in plastic that the only thing it was designed to hold is water. You should be able to pick up some 5 gallon glass carboys on craig's list for around $20 to $25
 
I really don't know anything about them but I would be worried about fermenting anything in plastic that the only thing it was designed to hold is water. You should be able to pick up some 5 gallon glass carboys on craig's list for around $20 to $25

Can you give me your reasons for this causing you to worry?
 
alcohol is a little more aggressive than water, I would be concerned that during fermentation the plastic would leech into the wine.
 
i don't know about you but beings i'm disabled i used plastic for a couple years and i had to build up to glass carboys slowly, which luckily for me by the time i stated buying glass carboys I had learned that for all but for the same price of a new Chinese carboy i could by new Italian glass carboys which have a thicker glass so they are better, with my plastics which is the same plastic rating as food grade open top barrels for which i use still to this very day to ferment in, 2 were/are water bottles and 4 were square containers that caramelized simple syrup came in, just water and sugar, as a matter of fact the only reason i changed from plastic to glass was because you can not use a vacuum pump to rack and bottle with because once you pull a vacuum in a plastic carboy the sides collapsed. but if you wish to convert from plastic slowly or quickly i get my Italian glass carboys at www.brewandwinesupply.com , and if you ever decide to go to a vacuum pump system then vacuumpumpman (Steve) on this site will fix you up, a vacuum pump that degasses an filters every time you rack, and you even bottle with it, no more lifting heavy carboys. and you can get a filter housing from his site, to polish/filter your wines, when i rack i rack, degas and filter all at the same time, so it speeds things up, makes less of a mess to clean, you can not even compare a vacuumpump to any other pump system, since under vacuum you are pulling your co2 gasses out at every racking and you also use that vacuum pump to fill bottles quickly with out exposing your wine to oxygen and you fill every bottle to the same level automatically i get my filters from e-bay they run about $30 for 16# 2&1/2" by 10" spun propylene filters, 1 micron for whites and 5 microns for reds, and you can wash them out then place them in a freezer gallon bag an keep them in the freezer, i usually filter around 30 or 40 gallons per filter by washing then freezeing them so that really keeps your cost down, Steve's site is www.allinonewinepump.com,
and for fruit, berry or other wine basses look at www.homewinery.com under wine concentrates , the bases you see that come in a number 10 can or gallon can are watery if you make a five gallon batch they are really more so made to make 3 gallon batches so to make good 5 gallon batches you need 2 cans at around $40 a can or $80 a 5 gallon batch, where as homewinery.com you get a half gallon jug for around $30 for a 64 ounce jug that makes a very favorable 5 gallons of wine with just one 64 ounce jug and if you want even more flavor you can call the and buy a pint to go with the 64 ounce jug for a very full flavor wine. welp best of luck to you an i hope I might of helped you lord knows these people have helped me more then i can ever say,
Dawg





Yeah the carboys are water bottles, they all have screw on caps so I guess the bung size isn't really that much of a issue, I can just drill whatever size hole I need into the lid and go from there, I didn't really think of that at first lol
 
i don't know about you but beings i'm disabled i used plastic for a couple years and i had to build up to glass carboys slowly, which luckily for me by the time i stated buying glass carboys I had learned that for all but for the same price of a new Chinese carboy i could by new Italian glass carboys which have a thicker glass so they are better, with my plastics which is the same plastic rating as food grade open top barrels for which i use still to this very day to ferment in, 2 were/are water bottles and 4 were square containers that caramelized simple syrup came in, just water and sugar, as a matter of fact the only reason i changed from plastic to glass was because you can not use a vacuum pump to rack and bottle with because once you pull a vacuum in a plastic carboy the sides collapsed. but if you wish to convert from plastic slowly or quickly i get my Italian glass carboys at www.brewandwinesupply.com , and if you ever decide to go to a vacuum pump system then vacuumpumpman (Steve) on this site will fix you up, a vacuum pump that degasses an filters every time you rack, and you even bottle with it, no more lifting heavy carboys. and you can get a filter housing from his site, to polish/filter your wines, when i rack i rack, degas and filter all at the same time, so it speeds things up, makes less of a mess to clean, you can not even compare a vacuumpump to any other pump system, since under vacuum you are pulling your co2 gasses out at every racking and you also use that vacuum pump to fill bottles quickly with out exposing your wine to oxygen and you fill every bottle to the same level automatically i get my filters from e-bay they run about $30 for 16# 2&1/2" by 10" spun propylene filters, 1 micron for whites and 5 microns for reds, and you can wash them out then place them in a freezer gallon bag an keep them in the freezer, i usually filter around 30 or 40 gallons per filter by washing then freezeing them so that really keeps your cost down, Steve's site is www.allinonewinepump.com,
and for fruit, berry or other wine basses look at www.homewinery.com under wine concentrates , the bases you see that come in a number 10 can or gallon can are watery if you make a five gallon batch they are really more so made to make 3 gallon batches so to make good 5 gallon batches you need 2 cans at around $40 a can or $80 a 5 gallon batch, where as homewinery.com you get a half gallon jug for around $30 for a 64 ounce jug that makes a very favorable 5 gallons of wine with just one 64 ounce jug and if you want even more flavor you can call the and buy a pint to go with the 64 ounce jug for a very full flavor wine. welp best of luck to you an i hope I might of helped you lord knows these people have helped me more then i can ever say,
Dawg
Thanks for all the advice, it is always welcome. Right now I am really small time, but I really enjoy making wine. I plan to move into glass carboys when my finances allow, I was really excited to find the plastic ones so cheap, like I said earlier up until now I have been using recycled pickle jars for carboys lol. Hopefully the plastic will work fine for now I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.
 
i seen no problem at all with food grade plastic, and i still keep 2 in case i need extra for bulk ageing, and like you i was beyond proud of my plastic carboys, the sites I sent you are for further down the line. the carboys when the time comes are your best deal, i figured out to get them at there cheapest is to get 2 to 3 because shipping is where they really nail you, and on fruit bases I've not found not only better quality but by far the cheapest and when you check out they offer you yeast nutrient and the other chemicals you need. what i don't have \then homewinery is the only place i order from , they deliver more taste at a lower price, i think they have some of different grape wines , but i use only countries wines from semi-sweet to sweet. you have trouble with bottles i use labelpleers, as well as a place for corks i use a couple different types but nothing rated for less then 10 years.
as i said i have to work into things easy due to my budget, as for plastics I've fermented in them even bulk aged for better then 2 years with zero problems, the reason i changed to glass was to vacuum my stuff, i have trouble moving full carboys, right leg amputated below the knee ,, 1/2 of left foot amputated, 5 bulging disk, t-12 crushed and all the c's in my neck grinded open to the spinal cord. wasn't for that I'd still be using plastic.
Dawg





Thanks for all the advice, it is always welcome. Right now I am really small time, but I really enjoy making wine. I plan to move into glass carboys when my finances allow, I was really excited to find the plastic ones so cheap, like I said earlier up until now I have been using recycled pickle jars for carboys lol. Hopefully the plastic will work fine for now I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.
 

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