Carboy confusion

sour_grapes · Oct 25, 2013

I own 3 carboys, all purchased from the same place. I've had the first two for a while, then recently bought the third.

Last night, I racked wine from one of the full carboys into the new one. It didn't fit! I had about 1/2 gallon left over (which I put into quart mason jars temporarily).

Of course I thought "Shoot, I bought two 6.5 gal. carboys and one 6 gal." However, the website of the LHBS shows that their 6.5 gal. carboys are "acid-style," with smooth sidewalls; all three of mine have the same appearance, with ridges on the sidewall. Also, I found the receipts for the first ones, and they rang up as 6 gal.

Of course, I will call the LHBS when they open, but does anyone have any insight? Specifically, do 6.5 gal. carboys come in both smooth-sided and ribbed styles? Is there significant variation in actual capacity of nominal 6 gal. carboys?

Thanks!

jamesngalveston · Oct 25, 2013

I have 3 and 6 gallon, in both smooth and ribbed, and there is a capacity diffrence in both sizes. The ribbed ones hold a little more..

Rocky · Oct 25, 2013

Paul, this happens all the time with my carboys. I have a variety of sizes and I can go from one 5 gallon to another and have wine left over or not enough. I think the carboys are "nominally" 3 gallon, 5 gallon, 6 gallon or 6.5 gallon. There is some variance in actual volume.

tonyt · Oct 25, 2013

You really have got to measure every carboy with gallon measures. They are all a bit different. Your experience is expected. I have measured and marked my 7 carboys and 2 barrelsand labeled the actual volumes. Actually makes racking down in size easy.

sour_grapes · Oct 25, 2013

Thanks for the responses. Not sure if that makes me feel better or not! I think I would rather just have the proper size for all of them, so I don't have to keep track...

I will update you tomorrow, but I had a rather strange conversation with someone at my LHBS. He kept getting sidetracked off of my nominal problem of mismatched carboys onto winemaking. But get this -- he insisted that you would never want to put a 6-gallon wine kit into a 6-gallon carboy. Rather, he averred, you need to leave more headroom than that would afford.

Now, I am a newbie kit-winemaker, and he is the LHBS expert, who says that that is what they teach in their winemaking classes. However, this flies in the face of soooo much that I have read that I politely held my ground. When I see him tomorrow, perhaps I will ask why the kit instructions AND the instructions that his company gives out both say to use 6-gallon carboys and to top off to minimize headspace to avoid oxygen contact. Sheesh.

On the plus side, he seemed genuinely concerned that they may have gotten carboys from suppliers that differed just too much.

iVivid · Oct 25, 2013

Yup, my ribbed one holds about half a gallon more than my smooth sided ones! I rack to it when I'm ready to vacuum degas :-D

vacuumpumpman · Oct 25, 2013

tonyt said:
You really have got to measure every carboy with gallon measures. They are all a bit different. Your experience is expected. I have measured and marked my 7 carboys and 2 barrelsand labeled the actual volumes. Actually makes racking down in size easy.

This is what I do exactly - it works very well but of course the carboy you really need is not available - LOL

pjd · Oct 26, 2013

I find that my carboys made in Italy are larger than the few Chinese ones I bought on Amazon.

sour_grapes · Oct 27, 2013

Okay, thanks for all the info. It makes sense.

I took the Chinese carboy back to my LHBS, and we took it to their brew room and measured the volume. It was about 24 liters to get into the neck. Then we took that same water and racked it into an Italian one. From there, it took a further 1.5 liters to get into the neck.

They did not have any Italian ones left to swap for my Chinese, so they offered to allow me to return the Chinese one. I had mixed feelings about this, because, at tonyt taught me, it may be convenient to have a smaller one to rack down to. However, I decided to go ahead and return it. (After all, I can always go back to them and buy a new one!)

I then bought a new Italian one on ebay . Time will tell if I come to regret this momentous decision

Only remaining problem is that I am itching to start a new kit!

Thanks, all.

sour_grapes · Oct 27, 2013

Arrgghh! As I said, I ordered an Italian carboy from ebay. I forgot this: Our own Doug sells Italian carboys.

Brew and Wine Supply said:
We only carry the Italian carboys.

I am bummed that I forgot. Sorry, Doug.

bkisel · Oct 27, 2013

What you showed on Ebay looks identical to the three Italian carboys I have that came in a box marked as 23 Liters. They are however at least 6.5 gallons and perhaps even a bit more - I've never measured their actually capcity. I've found that my 2 BBs are much closer to a true 6 gallons and as a result require less topping off which I see as plus for the BB over the glass Italian carboys.

jamesngalveston · Oct 27, 2013

i have 6 of the italian ones, and they are 6.5, and as bkisel, said my 6 gallon better bottles are 6 gallons...I use the 6.5 as secondary, and then rack to my bb, and clear it up there.

sour_grapes · Oct 27, 2013

Yeah, as I said above, the Italian one I had my mitts on measured out to about 25.5 liters (6.7 gallons).

Should I be concerned that when I make my 6-gallon kit to fill that carboy, that my wine will be a bit thin?

tonyt · Oct 28, 2013

sour_grapes said:
Yeah, as I said above, the Italian one I had my mitts on measured out to about 25.5 liters (6.7 gallons).

Should I be concerned that when I make my 6-gallon kit to fill that carboy, that my wine will be a bit thin?

No, you always ferment six gallons. Then in secondary or clearing top up to the neck with like wine. You can then top with wine you previously bottled or similar commercial wine you like and hope to imulate.

bkisel · Oct 28, 2013

sour_grapes said:
Yeah, as I said above, the Italian one I had my mitts on measured out to about 25.5 liters (6.7 gallons).

Should I be concerned that when I make my 6-gallon kit to fill that carboy, that my wine will be a bit thin?

Speaking with RJS CS awhile back it was said in response to their instructions about topping off with water that about 750ML should be the limit. If 750ML or less doesn't do the trick then use like wine or marbles.

I use a lot of like wine and marbles when using my glass carboys after "secondary". Not so with BB which is a reason why the BB is beginning to grow on me.

sour_grapes · Jan 6, 2014

sour_grapes said:
Arrgghh! As I said, I ordered an Italian carboy from ebay. I forgot this: Our own Doug sells Italian carboys.

I am bummed that I forgot. Sorry, Doug.

Doug just "liked" the post above, which led me to revisit this post. I am pleased to report that I got my next carboy from him (along with a kit and a few other supplies), and the experience was top-notch. :br

Pumpkinman · Jan 6, 2014

You will find that if you come across a Mexican carboy, it'll hold less than the Italian one as well. I wouldn't keep the Chinese carboy, they tend to break easily.

richmke · Jan 6, 2014

My guess is that the difference in carboy sizes is due to the fact that they are not measuring instruments. They are containers, and the 6 gal will hold AT LEAST 6 gal. How much more is up to the manufacturer. The difference in size (as long as it holds the stated amount) is not a manufacturing error, but a manufacturing difference in the amount of head space.

Manufacturing to a precision container volume would significantly drive up the cost.

Obviously the additional material for a larger head space increases cost. So, it becomes a cost/benefit - What is the least amount of material to consistently produce a container that holds at least the stated amount?

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