Carboy mouth extension - a new one on me

[bearpaw8491]

I ran across an old carboy pushed to back of my equipment several months ago. Cleaned it up and put it in service but failed to notice an “extension” on top of the carboy mouth (see photo). The extension presented no problem when fitted with a bung and airlock so all was well for a period of time. I vacuum rack and bottle my wines using an orange 2 port carboy cap on the receiving carboy and I discovered too late that the extension prevents the cap from seating tightly until the vacuum is established and this can be a real pain. The workaround is obviously to swap the carboy cap for a 2 hole bung that will fit the ID of the extension with an extra racking cane and vacuum port but this would create a unique situation applicable only to this specific carboy. Since I’m big on standardization, I’d rather find some other solution. Any ideas of a way to cut the extension off without wrecking an otherwise good carboy?

 

[VinesnBines]

I have a smaller, brown two hole carboy cap. I think this is the one I have. I got it with a bunch of carboys from a defunct winery. Acid Carboy Cap- 6.5 Gallon Acid Carboys

Also this is one at MoreWine that fits threaded carboy necks. Yours appears to be threaded. Carboy Blow Off Hood (Threaded Neck Carboys) | MoreWine

 

[bearpaw8491]

Thanks for the suggestions and yup, it's threaded; not sure how I ended up with this thing. I'd like to figure a way to remove the extension so I don't have another piece of equipment to keep up with but that may not be possible in which case I'll have to go with the caps. I'm logging those in my files in case push comes to shove. Thanks again.

 

[Gilmango]

I have 4 of those threaded carboys and I think that the ones I have are all pretty massive Italian glass carboys that clock in at over 25 liters or more than 6.5 gallons. Great size for brewing beer in or bulk aging wine, but for the latter you need to top off even more than usual.

I don't often use carboy caps but I know I bought at least one of the smaller ones designed to fit those threads. If you do that, I learned, you want to also put a rubber band around where the smaller cap meets the threads as it is hard to get a tight seal there with the way the threads are instead of the more normal "lip".

I would not cut off the threads as you would risk screwing up a nice large Italian glass carboy, which seem to cost a pretty penny these days and which don't have annealing problems like some other carboys - $70 in this link:

Italian Glass Carboy (6.5 Gallon) - Threaded Neck | MoreWine

Good luck.

 

[bearpaw8491]

Thanks Gilmango and Vinesnbines. I checked the links you provided and that's it; still not sure how I ended up with it since I haven't purchased any carboys in a long time - may have been a gift at some point and that's why it was relegated to the dark recess of equipment storage. Guess it was wishful thinking on my part concerning removing the extension and a better plan of attack will be to get the correct size carboy hood/racking cane/vacuum port and keep everything together as a single system.
Thanks to all for the suggestions and happy winemaking.