New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Marketplace => Classifieds => Topic started by: Duncan on September 28, 2011, 09:10:51 AM
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Does anyone have an over-stock of carboys? ...or is that an emotional impossibility? Seriously I've over produced and have stuff coming out of primary that needs a home, pronto; I'm looking to buy 2 if anyone has them, cheers,
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you do have 8 kegs, why not keg something to free up carboy space, or even ferment in a keg?
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I've been working on the assumption that I'd do primary in a carboy, rack to a second and then to a keg for a bit of aging before swilling. If I ferment in a keg won't I get a ton of skunge in the bottom and will the yeast be happy working under pressure? And do you have to blow off pressure?
Actually what I need the carboys for is wine, so the need will continue, but have you been fermenting in kegs, and hows the beer for clarity?
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1)I've been working on the assumption that I'd do primary in a carboy, rack to a second and then to a keg for a bit of aging before swilling. 2)If I ferment in a keg won't I get a ton of skunge in the bottom and 3)will the yeast be happy working under pressure? 4)And do you have to blow off pressure?
Actually what I need the carboys for is wine, so the need will continue, but have you been fermenting in kegs, and 5)hows the beer for clarity?
1. I do a primary for 2 weeks to a month depending on the recipe (stronger beers getting more time, smaller beers getting less within that range), and then I keg. There is no need to secondary: I dry hop and even add fruit in primary, after active fermentation.
2. It does, but this can be remedied but this is remedied by disposing of the first pint or so of gunky stuff that comes when you are ready to transfer under about 2psi CO2 presure from the primary keg to the serving keg. Basically, if you partially unscrew the top of the liquid disconnect in set it in a sanitized bowl, and plug the other end of the liquid to liquid cable onto the liquid out of the keg, you can vent out the gooey stuff, and then when the beer appears reasonably clear, re cap the open disconnect, and put on your serving keg, with the release valve open to fill it.
3. the optimal pressure for beer yeast is about 7psi, and if you us this method, you can actually go grain to glass in a few days, it's called Spunding, but you need additional equipment to do it.
4. you need the spunding valve to avoid a beer explosion if you want to ferment under pressure, but you can also just use a bit of hose attached to the gas-post recepticle on the keg (with post and dip tube removed) to attach an airlock. My current brown ale was done in that way.
5. the clarity is slightly less than with the other methods, nothing seroius. If you want, you can chop off the botom 3/4 inch of the dip tube on the fermentation keg to remedy this issue.
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I actually need to track down some carboys too at some point, let me know if you find a deal
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This won't make me popular, but the <$30 bucks each i paid for mine at NG seemed very reasonable.
Failing that, "better bottles" work. Shawn knows better about that, though - I suspect being plastic they'd be cheaper.
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Thanks Kyle (I can see that the Thesis is just ripping along this morning!) So if I get you correctly, I'm going to rack my primary down into a keg after visible fermentation has stopped (or are you looking for a final SG?) after some time (?) I transfer to a second (serving keg) dumping the first outflow. The time in the first keg requires an airlock vent and fruit or hops (pellets?) can be added as required at this phase. This it?
Second subject: I pitched my last batch of pale ale with SafAle s-04 while it was in the 70F range and the fermentation took off like a jaccussi! The yeast clumps were racing up and down the carboy walls like a Lava lamp on steroids; I've never seen any thing like it...the CO2 was coming out so fast it was almost a constant sound......any predictions? .....could this be the competition IPA??
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S-04 is a well known over-achiever, especially at temperatures above about 65F... That'll be fruity, for sure; like an extra special bitter or an english IPA. You need to give 04 at least a week after visible fermentation stops to clean up after itself before racking off the yeast.
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some better bottles
http://fredericton.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and- ... Z316373440 (http://fredericton.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-hobbies-crafts-Plastic-Wine-Carboys-23L-W0QQAdIdZ316373440)
i'd keep an eye on kijiji though for others...i've found the best way to get some is to look for deals of ppl selling large lots of equipment that are getting out of the hobby....keep what you want and sell off the stuff you don't need/want.
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Duncan, if you really need a couple of carboys, and they are out of stock in the stores in Fredericton, I can pick you up a couple here in Moncton and bring them to the meeting saturday if that's not too late. Like Richard said, they are around $25 each.
Let me know.
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are you looking to increase your carboy numbers anyways? or you just need a couple more for the time being cause you have alot on the go? i could loan you some if its just temporary......i'd rather not sell mine though.
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Duncan, if you really need a couple of carboys, and they are out of stock in the stores in Fredericton, I can pick you up a couple here in Moncton and bring them to the meeting saturday if that's not too late. Like Richard said, they are around $25 each.
Let me know.
That's really good of you but I managed to get The Grape's last one today and Kyle has me all fired up on in keg fermenting...so I'm cool for the time being, but thanks very much, and I look forward to meeting you on Sat. Cheers,
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are you looking to increase your carboy numbers anyways? or you just need a couple more for the time being cause you have alot on the go? i could loan you some if its just temporary......i'd rather not sell mine though.
Thanks but I got one today and it's for wine, Beaujolais nouveau, so I'm ok, but I appreciate your offer, see you Sat. Cheers,
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Duncan: slightly OT but since this thread is pretty much over anyways I'll go ahead...
Do you do many wine-kits, and if so is there a particular Pinot Noir "box" that you'd recommend?
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There are other beer and wine shops in town that carry carboys.
Winekitz (2 locations)
I think scoop and save has some
Blue Ridge has some
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hey Richard I can bring you a bottle of Pinot Noir from winekitz if you want to see what it's like.
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Failing that, "better bottles" work. Shawn knows better about that, though - I suspect being plastic they'd be cheaper.
Am I the only one that uses Better Bottles? I used to use glass carboys for awhile, but reading stories about them just shattering while even rinsing out, and cutting through arms was enough to make me switch. Mind you, since I can never find 5-gallon BBs, I still use glass in cases where I have to secondary (mostly just when brewing lagers).
You can get 6 gallon BBs at Noble Grape.. I think they're around 22 bucks or so.
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Jesus. Carboys cutting off arms ... and I thought this was a safe hobby. Far too dangerous for me; I quit.
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Coincidentally, I have artifical arms for sale, if you're interested...
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uhhh... I suspect (hope) that there are different grades of these glass carboys, for the arm-severing thing to be true. You'd need some serious heat stress - boiling water followed by very cold, I'm guessing - to get that kind of effect. The ones I have are all the italian ones - about half a centimetre thick at the thinnest point.
I have come close to dropping one before (starsan = slippery), and that did conjure up visions of mass laceration, but it wasn't enough to make me do any more than just be damn careful in future.
Dean: if Winekitz is a particular brand, then that would be great. I've had a couple of the NG ones, which were alright, but not really up to par with some bottles I could get for $10/bottle a year back. Got to admit I've not really had red wine in a long while due to another form of booze getting in the way, but I've got a bit of a desire to keep some around now I have the space to put up a rack somewhere :D
... will soon have 60 bottles of mead to fill my shelves!
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I'd like a bottle to share in class
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winekitz carries a different line than the others. They have 3 (well, 4 really) different "grades" which get progressively more expensive ...the main difference is the amount of water added to make 5 gallons - more $$ = less water. the Pinot Noir I have is the middle-grade, all the others I have (6 or 7 of them) are the higher grade. the Pinot Noir is the least favourite of my current collection but I haven't had one in a while and it should be really good now as it's over a year old. The best 2 reds that I have are a Barolo and a Shiraz.
so, do you want to specifically try the Pinot Noir, or would you prefer to try one of my particular favourites ....I'll trade for mead, LOL!
Dave - you talkin' to me or Richard?
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Talking to Richard ( Dave doesn't like grape wine :P)
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uhhh... I suspect (hope) that there are different grades of these glass carboys, for the arm-severing thing to be true. You'd need some serious heat stress - boiling water followed by very cold, I'm guessing - to get that kind of effect. The ones I have are all the italian ones - about half a centimetre thick at the thinnest point.
From what I understand, there ARE varying grades of carboys. I didn't mean to give the impression that using glass = guaranteed injury, and I didn't literally mean amputation, either. But I have read a couple of stories, one in particular I am referring to where a guy was rinsing it out, dumping the water out in the sink, and the bottle bottom broke and cut into his arm, lacerating a tendon or something. Didn't seem to be the usual things you hear about a) dropping/bumping them, or b) adding cold water to very hot wort.
Either way, if you have them and are ok using them, then by all means... but when I was given the option of buying other carboys that are plastic (and safer and lighter), virtually oxygen impermeable, and the same price or cheaper, it was a no-brainer for me.
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carboys that are plastic (and safer and lighter), virtually oxygen impermeable, and the same price or cheaper, it was a no-brainer for me.
Yeah I can see the allure - I'm guessing you clean them with CIP (oxyclean) rather than anything abrasive? Where do you get them?
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I actually use this product I bought at Blue Ridge, I think it's called Aseptox... it actually acts as a cleaner and no-rinse sanitizer. I pour a gallon of warm water in the BB, add a tbsp of Aseptox, shake, and then put a cork in the opening. Then, I turn it upside down in the sink, and leave it for 20 minutes or so so that the solution is in contact with the harder-to-clean area where the krausen was. I then drain most of it out, throw in a dishcloth, and roll it around to get the stains off. Usually works very well.
Blue Ridge use to sell them, but then they moved to something the owner claims is "better", and is about twice the price... which is ridiculous, I think. You can buy them at Noble Grape for low-20s, I believe.
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Low 20's is about as much as glass, and tbh it's the price of the BB's I was interested in - I heard they were like 10 bucks at one point for a 23L.
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i posted a link to a kijiji ad earlier in this thread for two plastic better bottles for $10 each ;)
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Yeah I think I may have been thinking about that :oops:
Looks like BB's are $25, the glass carboys are about $30. TBH, I'll be sticking with glass.
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Well, I know where you can get 18.9 litre stainless steel carboys for $20... :banana:
JQ