How Many Carboys You Got?

[montanaWineGuy]

I've 8 six gallon (4 plastic + 4 glass) and am thinking of picking up a few more.

On Amazon there are glass 6 gallon carboys selling for $36 and change with free shipping. Damn! Probably 1/2 of that is the cost of shipping.

Should I buy 2 more, 4 more, or.....?

 

[montanaWineGuy]

And for those interested.

Kegco KC FP-CB-06 Glass Carboy, 6 gallon, Clear

 

[jburtner]

I picked up a bunch locally on craigslist recently. No have quite an array of 6g, 5g, 3g which is great.... I think it cost me about $150 for 12 or something...

Now I have empty carboys.... I might be moving in a year so I don't want to fill too many up....

They all need to be empty in about 12 months.. Depending on how things develop.... I think I can start two batches of red now and do some whites in the fall...

Now bottles are the other thing......

Cheers!
-johann

 

[Boatboy24]

And for those interested.

Kegco KC FP-CB-06 Glass Carboy, 6 gallon, Clear

That's a good deal!

 

[montanaWineGuy]

I picked up a bunch locally on craigslist recently. No have quite an array of 6g, 5g, 3g which is great.... I think it cost me about $150 for 12 or something...

Now I have empty carboys.... I might be moving in a year so I don't want to fill too many up....

They all need to be empty in about 12 months.. Depending on how things develop.... I think I can start two batches of red now and do some whites in the fall...

Now bottles are the other thing......

Cheers!
-johann

I just check Craigslist. Damn! Locally they are asking full price.

Sounds like you did well. Last year, I picked up 4 glass ones from a neighbor for $100. I should check with him and see if there's anymore he wants to part with.

 

[Ajmassa]

In south jersey there's a supplier Gino Pintos that sell new carboys for cheap. 6 gal for $29. Can't be beat. Sadly they don't ship I don't think
I think they have their own glass maker for these prices. There's no identifying marks on em. And they have some flaws with little bubbles or something within the glass. But I'm not picky. And those prices are amazing.

 

[Noontime]

We have two 6 gallon glass, one 5 gallon glass, two 1 gallon glass, four 6 gallon plastic, and four 3 gallon plastic. The glass we keep for vacuum degassing and the 1 gallons come in handy if after racking we end up with something closer to 4 gallons. The 3 gallons we use mostly for experiments and ports.

 

[Johnd]

We have 18 six gallon, 4 three gallon, 6 one gallon, 6 half gallons, and two demi's. Most are full, although oak dissatisfaction has kept me from bottling several batches lately.

 

[CryptoStorm]

(8) 5 gallon glass
(2) 6.5 gallon glass
(2) 3 gallon glass
(1) 6.5? Gal better bottles
(6) 1gal glass
A collection of different sized mason jars
(5) 20gal HDPE open head drums with sealable lids.

 

[CryptoStorm]

I definitely agree that if you watch Craigslist diligently for 6 mos you can find some real deals on equipment.

I got my floor corker for $20.. looks brand new.

 

[Ron0126]

One 6.5 gallon, five 5 gallon, five 3 gallon, two 1 gallon. Have a Cabernet in one of the 5's, a Chardonnay in another, an apple wine in one of the 3's and a white grape concentrate in another. Have a strawberry in one of the one gallons right now. About to start a Malbec and a Pinot Noir and maybe a Sauvignon Blanc in the other 5 gallon carboys. Blackberries and blueberries are about to come into season here and I'll start a three gallon batch of each. Next up is a Skeeter Pee and for the 6.5 maybe another Dragon's Blood (a.k.a. Panty Dropper -- or Culotte Décapants for the label!). Also want to try making a Mead but only one gallon for the first try.

 

[montanaWineGuy]

It's looking like I'm a nub. I got to get more carboys. My 8 sixes are a week away from being all occupied, and I still have fruit from last Aug in the freezer needing to be processed. The goal is to have all last years fruit complete and bottled such that I'm ready for another big winemaking session in Aug to be completed by Wintertime. Here in bumfook Montana during the winter there is little to do but read, watch Netflix and drink wine. I love living here..

 

[Ajmassa]

I have all that I can handle right now. And I don't want any more. Eventually something like a tank and barrel for one big batch a year. With some smaller batches to continue to tinker with. At least that's the plan.
x2 15 gal demijohns (empty till fall)
x4 6 gal glass
x4 5 gal glass.
x1 3 gal glass filled
x3 1 gal glass jugs
x1 1/2 gal glass jug

I set up Craigslist to send me alerts for my area. And I need to add "wine press" and "crusher" to that list.

 

[CryptoStorm]

Presses are pretty reasonable new.. crushers - not so much..

I too might be trading up to some larger capacity tanks. Even 15gal Demis would be good.

My favorite grape is Riesling; drink a ton of it. Most of the other stuff I make are just for friends and family. Plus it's something to do..

 

[lilvixen]

I'm a bit jealous of the space y'all must have! I have four 6g Better Bottles and four 1g glass jugs, and I try to keep one carboy/jug empty for easier racking.

 

[dcbrown73]

I keep an odd number of carboys so I can always have a free carboy for racking.

(9) six gallon carboys
(5) three gallon carboys
(4) one gallon jugs for what doesn't fit in the 6/3 gallon carboys
(24) 32oz mason jars for what doesn't fit in a 1 gallon jug.
(1) Winemaker to drink what doesn't fit in a 32oz mason jar!

 

[CryptoStorm]

I have a large ferm chamber (old giant *** deep freezer with small heater and t-stat) that will hold 5 carboys at a time.. or 2 or my 20 gal drums..

I lined the top of the freezer with HDPE.. so you can just sanitize the whole business.

 

[ceeaton]

This thread made me check:

(2) 6 gallon glass
(8) 6 gallon plastic (better bottle type)
(5) 5 gallon glass
(1) 5 gallon plastic
(3) 3 gallon glass
(1) 3 gallon plastic
(3) 4 L glass jugs (only use in a pinch)
(2) 7.9 gallon plastic fermentation buckets
(1) 20 gallon brute fermentor

Like Cat, I always keep one 6 gallon carboy open for racking (happens to be glass so I can rack with the AIO, then clean and gravity rack back into the original container). Most of the glass ones I have were originally for beer brewing.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I need to find more time to make more wine -

This is my carboy list

1/2 = 3
1 = 7
3 = 5
5 = 5
6 = 14
7 = 3
all the above are glass and I have 1 - 6 gallon pet and 2 - 5 gallon water jugs

unfortunately alot of them are empty at this moment

 

[ceeaton]

...unfortunately alot of them are empty at this moment

Seems that when they are full, they are not a problem, but the empty ones always seem to be "in the way" for some reason, like if they aren't full they are useless. I have 5 right now getting in my way with only one batch on deck to fill one up. Guess I need to make some more beer...