With so many things staged for online presentation, your question is on point.
Unfortunately, so many people still believe, "if it's on the internet, it must be true!"
Glass or Plastic Carboy ?
- Thread starter sommadogg
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Unfortunately, so many people still believe, "if it's on the internet, it must be true!"
If you either pump or vacuum pump there is no reason to lift a full carboy. All of my carboys and barrels are on casters. The only thing I lift are 3 gallon and under. I make these dollies to fit 2 milk crates with no waisted space. They are 13" x 26" and even if they have two 7 gallon carboys on them they are not too heavy to roll around easily.
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I use Speidel fermenters for AF and clear PET 6gal carboys for cold stabilizing wine in the winter (garage). I have to carry those carboys up and down the basement stairs, so heavy glass is an issue. After that I keep the wine in oak barrels or glass carboys for aging. I've manufactured both a vacuum transfer pump and a positive pressure pump for wine transfer, and plastic carboys are not an issue from that point of view.
Can you get a long enough hose to pump the wine instead of carrying?
Maybe, but that would be a 60 ft hose an an elevation of 10-12 ft. The setup, transfer and cleanup afterwards would take longer than just moving the carboys.
The way I do it now is to bring the carboys in their wood carriers to the base of the stairs on a dolly, carry them up the stairs and outside in the driveway, then use another dolly to move them in the garage. It's not that bad with plastic carboys, but the glass ones are a struggle to carry up and down the basement stairs.
True but, when I broke my 6gal its was putting it back on the table after cleaning. Just bumped a full one and the empty shattered. At that point I bought new Speidels and said 'No more glass".
I’m designing a wall-mounted platform lift for my stairs so I can get full Brutes into the basement. I’ll power it with an Electric hoist. Think of one of those chair lifts… kinda like that. It won’t be pretty or OSHA approved but it will work.
sommadogg
Junior
the one i saw the guy was filming making a kit , and broke while degassing ... i have no problem with the gallon carboy i use , but i was worried when making 5 gallons ..
i use glass only. For first fill (from fermentation bucket) carboy goes into milk crate first. That gives me secure hold when needed to move around before transfering with all in one pump to clean carboy on the counter.
Charles DeVier
Junior
I use plastic 5 gallon (water) jugs to hold my wine during fermentation. Two of the jugs are almost 20 years old. Should I worry about them breaking due to age. They look just like the jugs that all the wine shops sell.
Last fall, I had 2 five gallon buckets crack; one cracked at the top and the other had a crack near the bottom. I was lucky and got the mash transfered before lost much.
Last fall, I had 2 five gallon buckets crack; one cracked at the top and the other had a crack near the bottom. I was lucky and got the mash transfered before lost much.
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I mostly use 3 gallon carboys and I size my batches to those. If I am making a 6 gallon batch, I split it into two 3 gallon carboys. For kits, if I bottle on kit schedule, I don't worry about topping up (since a 6 gallon kit usually ends up being a little less than 2 full 3 gallon carboys due to loss when racking off the lees).
For non kit wines, I make sure I have closer to 7 gallons so I can split it into two full 3 gallon carboys.
I do have a couple of 5 gallon carboys but I don't move them when full. I have an AIO pump so I don't have to move them until they're empty again.
sommadogg
Junior
I was thinking of splitting it into 5/6 one gallon carboys just to be safe 
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if I am technically correct, I do have some off size volumes that are in EvOH bags. (note this is vacuumed/ check valve)
As much as I like carboys, I haven’t been willing to buy a lot of 1000 two gallon or six liter glass or PET off of China
As much as I like carboys, I haven’t been willing to buy a lot of 1000 two gallon or six liter glass or PET off of China
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Ratfinger
I love my Speidel fermenters, but not because they are plastic. I can get my hand inside easily to clean them, love the side drain for racking, heavy plastic, what is not to like. I have also gone back and forth with carboys.
I get pissed every time I toss a plastic carboy because it is stained. Because I can not get a hand inside a carboy I think glass is easier to clean. I have wasted so much money going back and forth between plastic and glass I just can;t answer which is better
I love my Speidel fermenters, but not because they are plastic. I can get my hand inside easily to clean them, love the side drain for racking, heavy plastic, what is not to like. I have also gone back and forth with carboys.
I get pissed every time I toss a plastic carboy because it is stained. Because I can not get a hand inside a carboy I think glass is easier to clean. I have wasted so much money going back and forth between plastic and glass I just can;t answer which is better
This happened once to me when lifting a full plastic carboy up onto the counter for bottling. Some of the Kmeta solution in the 3 piece airlock I was using was sucked into the carboy as I lifted it, thus changing the carboy's shape. I switched to twin bubble airlocks for plastic carboys after that. Those airlocks readily respond to air pressure changes coming from either direction of the airlock without loosing any of the fluids contained in them.
@Rice_Guy where do you buy EVOH bags from? I'm looking for different sizes that would accomodate my 8, 16, 22 and 44 gallon fermenters.
I looked on Amazon but the search returned a lot of colostomy bags and nothing else usable for winemaking. I learned a little bit about co-polymers and I would like to give a try to EVOH film for its mechanical characteristics and oxygen barrier properties. My thought is that an EVOH bag with the fermented grapes inside could be sealed easily for extended maceration after being flushed with Ar. The temperature could be managed from the outside, with the EVOH bag submerged in water temp-controlled by a circulator.
I actually tried this concept with food grade PET liners for my fermenters, but the Poly is still permeable to oxygen while the EVOH is not. Also PET is kind of fragile and I'm always scared the the bag would rip and I'll lose the whole batch.
@MiBor You have several choices for oxygen barrier. I first saw The concept of using a bag for fermentation demonstrated at 2019 winemaker magazine conference by one of the vendors. They had a metalized film pallet size liner similar to what I would buy tomato dice in/ 3” spout. ,,, You don’t have to flush with argon. Consider a cork with a burper valve / check valve and vacuum pump. ,,, you could use a metalized film like some of the three liter box wines, the oxygen transmission rating will be 0.1 or less. Next if you play with a wide / or oval box shape you should expect to hold more ,,, (as 50%) than the bag rating. For cleaning I use a pint of winery cleaner as one step followed by sloshing several pint rinses of soft water and as a final step slosh an ounce of grain alcohol. The EvOH is a coextruded film, it seems to delaminate when used a second time, ,,, but it still works.
When I bought my supply the description on Amazon was fair, I have both spout In middle and spout in the corner bags. They work best with different box shapes. I also have US commercial vendors but they will only sell to me in case quantities. (no samples). And, sell cube/ gusseted shapes.
Search “Amazon wine bag in box”. — example: https://www.amazon.com/Astropaq-Win...2&psc=1&mcid=2ec85ecfbdf93ac495a9a5eaa9ad1e2a
When I bought my supply the description on Amazon was fair, I have both spout In middle and spout in the corner bags. They work best with different box shapes. I also have US commercial vendors but they will only sell to me in case quantities. (no samples). And, sell cube/ gusseted shapes.
Search “Amazon wine bag in box”. — example: https://www.amazon.com/Astropaq-Win...2&psc=1&mcid=2ec85ecfbdf93ac495a9a5eaa9ad1e2a
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