A carboy is a rigid glass container that
many sons and daughters of wine making immigrants came to accept as a
fixture of their home, or that of their family.
Back in the day, glass carboys were the only method to carry many
liquids and beverages before the invention of plastic decimated
the industry.
At one point in American history there were over 75 manufacturing
facilities that dedicated their workforce to build stronger, safer
and more reliable carboy carriers.
It was a smart business decision, as glass often breaks when handled
roughly. Keep in mind this is before shock absorbers were as advanced
as today.
So if your business relied upon the successful delivery
of a liquid via a glass containment vehicle, you didn't want any
breakage. Nor do home wine making enthusiasts want today. Beside losing
the cost of materials, serious physical harm has been known to
occur when dropping a carboy.
According to Wikipedia, a carboy is a container with a typical
capacity of 5 to 15 gallons (20 to 60 L). However, most wine enthusiasts
really call a 3, 5 or 6 gallon vessel a Carboy and anything larger
a Demi John.
Back in the day, Carboys were primarily
used for transporting fluids, often water or chemicals. While
they are used for such today, the volume has great ely reduced industry
demand as other, less expensive materials were developed through
advanced plastics.
 In
the the case of the home wine maker they are also used for in-home
fermentation of beverages, often wine and beer. It is not unusually
for home wine making enthusiasts to have several to a dozen glass
carboys used mostly for secondary fermentation and aging.
Brewing
In brewing,
a carboy is also known as a demijohn. It is a
glass or plastic vessel used in fermenting beverages such as wine, mead,
and beer.
Usually it is fitted with a rubber stopper and
a fermentation
lock to prevent bacteria and oxygen from
entering during the fermentation process.
During the homebrewing process,
a primary carboy is used for fermentation. Once primary fermentation
is complete, the beer is either transferred to a secondary carboy
for conditioning or it can be transferred directly to bottles for
conditioning. (This process of transferring is usually called racking.)
Polypropylene carboys
are also commonly used in laboratories to transfer purified water.
They are typically filled at the top and have a spigot at the bottom
for dispensing.
The word carboy is from the Persian qarabah (قرابه),
from Arabic qarraba, "big jug".
Carboys come in various volumes ranging from 3.8 to 24.7 liters.
The term carboy itself usually refers to a 19 L carboy, unless
otherwise noted. A 4.5 liter carboy is usually called a jug. A
57 L carboy is usually called a demijohn (in the Philippines, "dama
juana".)
"Demijohn" is an old
word that formerly referred to any glass vessel with a large
body and small neck, enclosed in wickerwork.
The word may derive from the name of a Persian town, Damghan,
but this is not supported by any historical evidence. According
to The
Oxford English Dictionary the word comes from the French dame-jeanne,
literally "Lady Jane", as a popular appellation. This
is in accordance with the historical evidence at present known,
since the word occurred initially in France in the 17th century,
and no earlier trace of it has been found elsewhere.
In Britain, demijohn refers to a 4.5 liter glass brewing
vessel.
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