Time to retire the LBKs

[teutonic terror]

Woke up this morning and came down the stairs to a strong beer odor.
Got to looking around, because I store bottles down there too, and thought maybe
I hadn't rinsed a couple well enough.

Opened my beer closet to get my Star San to sanitize a couple of dry hop sacks and what do I see...
an experimental batch of almost black beer pooled in the floor.

Spigot broke.

Luckily, it's cement. But it has wicked under the carpet strip and is now bleeding up
thru my white carpet. It has also wicked up the plywood on the back wall as well as crept under my beer fridge.
I use that closet for storage as well, and I can't remember if there were any electronics in the boxes directly
under the table because they are soaked too.

Just venting and I shoulda known better. I gave one of the LBKs to a friend that wanted to try brewing but luckily
his kids got him a 5 gallon starter kit for Christmas. I woulda hated for that to happen to him.

Now, I get to go to work for 12 hrs and spend another hour or more cleaning up an un-necessary mess.

I couldn't use my most colorful descriptors but, thanks for listening!

[FedoraDave]

Wow, that's a rough situation to wake up to. Sorry for the loss of the beer, and sorry for the mess, too. I've replaced my LBKs with Better Bottle 3 gallon carboys, and I'm very pleased with them. They need more vertical space, but that's actually an advantage in my situation.

[Inkleg]

Ouch, sorry TT. It's bad when not only do you lose beer, but have to clean up too.

[RedBEERd]

That happened to me at least twice when I was using those.......even after using one of the supposedly 'new' designs. That really sucks. Sorry for your loss.

[RickBeer]

Painful. I have mine in a frig, it has a drain, and there is an ice tray under the drain. I guess if one totally let go the bottom of the frig wouldn't handle it all and neither would the ice tray, but the cement floor shouldn't have an issue.

I hate how they go days later, figure there is no "load" on it just sitting there.

[joechianti]

That sucks. I've been lucky as far as the mess goes. I've had two of those spigots snap in half on me, but both times it was on an empty LBK just sitting and waiting for the next use. Good thing it only happens to one in 10,000, just like they told us. I keep every single loaded LBK in an ice chest now because I have no faith in the spigots.

[John Sand]

Testify. I also gave up my LBKs, due to leaks, and difficulty cleaning. I still use one BDC, but worry about it, and generally keep it in a bucket or cooler. Though right now it is in an upstairs closet "cold crashing" Hmmm, I think I have an empty tote.

[BlackDuck]

Man that is a bummer. Sorry for the loss.

[braukasper]

That SUCKS!!!!!! Do you know anybody in food service? They may be able to score you a couple of pie-filling buckets. The ones I had were 3.5 gallons, perfect for 2.5 - 3 gallon batches. Unfortunately, I no longer have them

[DaYooper]

Ive had one out of my 4 go, and they replaced the spigot and batch of beer. I bought a summer seasonal and added my own hops and LME to make the recipe. Not only did they replace the spigot and HME, they replaced the stuff I bought elsewhere. It was annoying as to the failure mode though and that it just seemed to snap for no reason down the road rather than while I was putting it on the LBK or opening and closing it.

My buddy's wife works in the bakery, and she gave me a whole slew of buckets ranging from 1 gallon to 4 to augment my 5.5-7 gallon vessels. Started with wanting to make rice wine. The tops arent the best as they are meant to be disposable but they look like they will work if and when I ever get a chance to convert them over. If you go to the bakery they will probably just give them to you if you let them know in advance since it saves them room in their dumpster.

[braukasper]

The ones we used to get at work had a nice rubber seal on them. We stop used pre-made fillings at wort shortly after I stared brewing. As far I know my BIL & nephews are still using them. Another thought would to be. Use filling buckets to do you sours in.

[mashani]

FWIW you can order the old style locking spigots on ebay, and they work fine in both the LBKs and the Brew Demon LBCs.

Just search for "water crock spigot" and you will find them.

I've never had one of those break. Both my LBCs sport them.

[Kealia]

Sorry to hear about the loss. The only LBK I have left is regulated to a bottling bucket at this point.

If I were to lose a spigot, it would be in real-time and I would be able to deal with it accordingly. They were great, but I moved on a long time ago to other vessels.

[jimjohson]

I still use LBKs, got a spot in my fermentation chamber that only 2 LBKs will fit in.

[teutonic terror]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!
And thanks to SWMBO that had most of this mess cleaned up before I got home this afternoon!

This is the third spigot I've lost. The first was on an LBK storing Star San.
The other I caught shortly after it started and I only lost about a quart.
So, I'm just about out of functional spigots now. Two are still in action, but that will
change this weekend. I think I have one, maybe two spares left.

The filling buckets sound like an interesting alternative.

Dave, how expensive are the three gallon better bottles and are they difficult to clean, or like the LBK, a soak in
Oxy and a good rinse and they're good to go? Plus, you get to watch beer pron!

Mashani, I didn't know they still made the old spigots. I might look hard at this because the LBK's are what I lager in
because I'm using a dorm fridge for a lager chamber, and two are a perfect fit.