Demijohn vs Carboy

[mennyg19]

Menny: Most of the supply stores sell either 5 gallon carboys or 54 liter demijohns. Other sizes (at least around where I live) are an oddity.

Interesting, all they have in the stores around here are demis. No carboys...

 

[drainsurgeon]

I had purchased enolmatic bottle fillers about 15 years ago. This was WAY before I know about the all-in-one. This filler has a vacuum pump much like the all-in-one and I use it every time a rack a demijohn.

I do not, though, recommend that you use anything like a "headspace-eliminator" on it.

They really are much more durable than you would think. With a little care, a demijohn is just as reliable as a carboy, only cheaper, more compact, and much less work to maintain.

As far as cold stabilization, you should be just fine as long as the wine does not freeze solid and you have very limited head space.




Menny: Most of the supply stores sell either 5 gallon carboys or 54 liter demijohns. Other sizes (at least around where I live) are an oddity.

I don't know about cheaper. Go look at them on Ebay or Craigslist. The 14 gallon (54L) Demijohn's go for $80-$200. Plus shipping! And you have dozens of them? You've got a little gold mine there JohnT

 

[JohnT]

I don't know about cheaper. Go look at them on Ebay or Craigslist. The 14 gallon (54L) Demijohn's go for $80-$200. Plus shipping! And you have dozens of them? You've got a little gold mine there JohnT

I pick mine up from my local supplier. When I bought them they were 4 for $100.00. Obviously, the price has gone up but they are still cheaper than the cost of 2.5 5-gallon carboys (from a volume/cost perspective).

 

[Rocky]

Yes, JohnT, prices have gone up substantially. As I have pointed out, I have been "involved" (meaning stripping grapes and leaves from bunches at 8 years if age) in winemaking for many, many years (about 66!) and I have seen some real price increases. Here are a couple just for fun:

For example, I remember when:

1. a 5 gallon carboy was $5! (or $.50 if you sacrificed the deposit on the water bottle from your office water cooler)
2. a 42 pound lug of grapes from California was $.75 in Pittsburgh, PA!
3. a 53 gallon whiskey barrel fresh from the distillery (Schenley) was $5! (and it probably had that much whiskey still in it)
4. new wine barrels were roughly "a dollar a gallon" i.e. a 20 gallon barrel cost $20!
5. 1 gallon jugs were $1.

HOWEVER, I also remember when a small tube of Sodium Metabisulfite (maybe a tablespoonful) cost $4.75 in 1960's. Sometimes I wish I had the money I have now, back then. However, I am really fortunate that I do not have the money I had then, now. I would not have enough to be living in poverty.

 

[JohnT]

What is really funny is that I sold off a couple dozen and converted to 300 liter tanks. I remember being overjoyed to find someone that was willing to pay me the price I paid when they were new. I giggled thinking that I got 10 or 15 years of use out of them and then sold them for what I paid.

I was happy to get my money back and the buyer was happy to get a great deal. The perfect trade... Everyone walks away happy.

 

[Darleeka]

Well, after some reading both on Google and here, I have decided to avoid a demijohn purchase for a couple of reasons. Although I could find no hard evidence of the thin glass of a demijohn, there is enough reading right here to convince me that they ARE much thinner. People HAVE imploded them. And the most common size, it sounds like, is 15 gallons!. I have a 20 gallon Brute if I want to ferment a big batch. As far as identifying them, they are pear shaped and someone on a thread here said the 15 gallon demijohn weighs the same as a 3 gallon carboy. That should be easy to spot by just lifting. The demijohn did originate in Europe in the late 1700s. Nothing more than a cheap, metric, carboy!

Nice wine cellar Rocky!

I used to make a lot of elderberry wine 20 odd years ago and used 1gallon demijohns. The glass was very thick and they weren't cheap... I've never seen one bigger than a gallon and thought that's what a carboy was so pretty confused lol I was living in England when making the elderberry but now home in Ireland and the demijohns I bought here ARE thinner and cheaper.