So as I dropped by my hbs, small talk brought up that the Mexico manufacturer for the glass carboys that he uses is going out of business. I'm sure there are more than one carboy man. but that would be a huge bummer. It also explains why my last 6.5 gal carboy was expensive, more than the one before that, anyway. Has anyone heard anything about this, or is it all just talk?

My sister works for Mt Valley water and they use 2.8 (2.5 gals of water) and 5 gal glass, I'll
give her a call and see what she has to say.
I'll get back to ya.
Matt

Vitro in Mexico makes all the glass carboys used in the U.S. They aren't going out of business - they just found the carboy market wasn't worth doing. So, they stopped last August. The built up reserves are pretty much gone.

There's an Italian manufacturer but your next glass carboy is going to be about twice as expensive.

Plastic anyone?

Ive been using plastic for almost a year and love it, easier to clean the dry hops out of and more convenient to store in between brew sessions. The only draw backs are you can't visually see whats going on in there and you have to be careful not to scratch up the inside which can make it harder to sanitize. And the price can't be beat at $17 each.

Yeah, I'm glad I like plastic.

I prefer the blurping sounds from my bucket fermenters more than the simple blurp from the Carboys airlock.... I'm still in the middle of switching to buckets...

That said, I have 2 6.5 and 1 5.0 glass carboyus available...

Mt.Valley Water has a contract with the company and will keep getting them as far as my Sis
knows but if they don't make them anymore I can't see how they could still get them.
6.5 gal? I don't know. The truck drivers will sell them to you sometimes for the $7 deposit.
If anyone is ever in south Ark. look me up they don't cost me anything and would gladly share.

If carboys went away, homebrewers would ultimately be safer. There are good alternatives, as stated above.

I have used both. Started with plastic, moved to glass and moved back to plastic. I will use glass sometimes, but buckets are so much easier to clean, lift, etc.

a friend of mine with a keen eye spotted his neighbor piling up 5 gallon glass water bottles on his front lawn. he remembered seeing some like it at my house, so he promptly called me and asked me if i wanted them.. "hell yes" i said, and was rewarded with 4 more 5 gallon carboys. (one of them broke in transport) needless to say, he drinks for free at my house.

one question though.. i brew 5 gallon batches, any drawbacks to blow off brewing? i'm used to my big 7 gallon carboy and have never done a blow off batch.

i heard somewhere that you loose some of elements that lead to hangovers.

plastic??
What about steel.
I think it's like the 3rd commandment or something, "To make proper beers thou must use thy steely fermenters." Swear to gawd it does.

Erik - The drawback to using a carboy that will lead to blow-off is simply the potential mess. Even if you use a large diameter blow-off tube and everything goes as planned, you will have to clean the blow-off tube (which will be encrusted with gunk) and the bucket that you put the tube into, etc. If things don't go well, for instance if you use an airlock and it gets clogged with gunk, I have heard bad things can happen (see Carboy Bomb).

As far as reducing the tendancy for hangovers, I have never heard that. I think Papazian says that the blow-off will eject some harshly bitter material and thus make the beer more smooth, but I have never noticed a difference between beers that eject material and beers that don't. I should note that I haven't actually tried to compare directly, nor do I have enough experience to say that I really know for sure one way or the other. My instinct is: Why would you want to eject bitter material that you put in there purposely? Couldn't that make the beer unbalanced?

yeah it does seem like a PIA. i think i will just use the little carboys for secondary and small batches.. i keg, so they will be good for any batches i do that i do not intend to keg. also, a good place to condition a big old Belgian trippel

"i heard somewhere that you loose some of elements that lead to hangovers."...old wive's tale

N8, steel's nice, but conicals are impractical for a lot of us. Cronies can work well, but 5 gal. cornies are too small for primary and 10 gal. cornies are hard to find and expensive. Other than the snob value of SS, buckets work great.

After the great 6.5 gallon glass carboy im
plosion of '02, I'm a plastic man meself.

Ya know, I was going to put my 6.5G and 5G glass carboys on the curb. Now I may have to stick em in the attic or on craigslist....

I love that you can stack buckets for storage....

Better Bottle and never turning back.

Bob - Implosion? Do tell, I'm curious.

I guess I just like glass. I'm not sure why, since they're heavy, breakable, and generally annoying for storage. Where I work we have hundreds of those blue plastic water jugs for big coolers in offices. A few of them don't have handles on them, and are smooth on the inside, I do wish I could grab a few of those...

I returned to glass because it cleans up easily but it is ALWAYS in a crate with rope handles on it or a lifting cradle