Demijohn neck sizes

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hedgerowpete

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Been a naughty boy and put one of those £1 ebay bids on something i dont need but worthy of a punt for a quid.

Unfortunately i won.
so 26 demijohns later!
fjjLJ4l.jpg

flowers for the wife to ease the rollicking helps, honest i do have a reason for 46 demijohns at home plus all the 25litre fermentors.

something that many do not realise it there are twwo neck sizes to demijohns 3/4 and 0ne, not inches they are just known as three quarter size or full size.

most of these are three quarter necks, in old english its roughly one inch and inch and quarter openings. now years ago i removed and sorted all my demijohns and scrapped the three quarter neck and rubber bunds i had hacked down to suit and standardised all my kit to one shape and size

in case you never knew 25mm or 1" is the smaller three quarter and 30mm or 1 1/4" is standard size bungs, we used to be able to buy bungs as 3/4 or full,

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fully inserted full size stopperin a 30mm neck opening
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same stopper same gentle pressure and smallerneck opening
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standard opening and small two piece air lock

all you have to do if you have a smaller opening is to pare the side of the stopper untill it fits and carry on as normal







but i dont see that very often anymore and a lot of shops dont realise what i am asking for, i even asked someone last week for the larger two piece air lock and he had never heard they cam in two different sizes till then and this is a shop keeper!
 
just out of interest demi johns come with two neck sizes, they also come with two styles of necks too.

first one is rounded over neck like this
riyaipP.jpg

The idea of the round over is a thickness increase to better hold the stress of the rubber or cork bung stopper, when pushed home

the second sort is a screw thread style.
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demijohns used to come with a screw one black cap about 35mm round and 15mm flat, which was also used to keep the demi john clean.

some where always made and sold to be demi johns some are recycled acid bottles and vinegar also used to come in 1 gallon sizes too. i can remeember cider coming in one of these two and many people used to sell the empties to wine makers rather than the refund on return of the bottle.

does having a screw thread and a slightly thinner neck make any differents,, we no not really, as a demi john is a zero pressure vessel theres no pressure stress and as for a gorillia my size ramming home a stopper i have get to bust a demijohn with a runner or natural cork stopper.

quickest way i know to break a demijohn is cold wet fingers and a quarry tile floor with added gravity just to help things along
 
The wilko ones are a different size to my other ones. They are wider. I had to use a cork bung instead of a rubber one because it nearly fell in.

Make sure you have some of both bungs, just in case.
 
Blimey 26 DJs! Must tell OH, who tends to look askance if I am caught eyeing up any large glass jars...ashock1:laugh8:

Useful to know this stuff. I wondered why some of the bungs went in lower than others.
 
The wilko ones are a different size to my other ones. They are wider. I had to use a cork bung instead of a rubber one because it nearly fell in.

Make sure you have some of both bungs, just in case.
it could be that your main stoppers are the smaller ones and the others are the larger sized necks
 
Blimey 26 DJs! Must tell OH, who tends to look askance if I am caught eyeing up any large glass jars...ashock1:laugh8:

Useful to know this stuff. I wondered why some of the bungs went in lower than others.

if you have loadsof demijohns its a pain in the backside as you never have enough bungs of the right sizes and your always hacking down a bung to fit and the sides are always to flat and never quite seal as well as you want to. we went through ours 20 years ago and standardised all the demi johns and the one type of fermentor and one type of beer barrel, it makes spares easier and you get a set way with dealing with and working them. like i said 26 demijohns 13 for the tip tomorrow and 12 to keep, makes the wobbly whippet winery total 46 demijohns and 6 25l fermentors and four youngs pressure barrels and a very obscene amount of buckets.

right at the moment we have 12 demijohns in use and three 25l fermentors and beer sat in 2 barrels and roughly 200+ bottle of wine stood in the winerack, I also own a shed load of glrosch bottles and crates but thats only because we down sized a few years ago, at the old house 50 demijohns for fermenting and storing was normal and beer was in bottles , but we threw a massive amount away when we moved houses
 
Actually I hadn’t considered it could be the bungs, fair point.

Jesus Christ you guys have a lot of demijohns lol.

I have 4 demijohns and a 5 gallon bucket. I deliberately haven’t bought myself any more because I’d just go mental with them.
 
I don't get it. You got 24 demijohns for a quid and you have to buy her indoors flowers???
I'd be celebrating with champagne!

You don't need bungs, by the way. Put a small freezer bag over the top, held in place with an elastic band.

Blimey. It sounds like a complaint that you've found a hundred quid in the street, but you haven't got a wallet.
 
Actually I hadn’t considered it could be the bungs, fair point.

Jesus Christ you guys have a lot of demijohns lol.

I have 4 demijohns and a 5 gallon bucket. I deliberately haven’t bought myself any more because I’d just go mental with them.

i use the smaller demi johns for experiements and trials,

say i make a wheat wine, one demijohn is the classic recipe i use, i might use a second one for a second run wine or make an adjustment to the recipe, with the carrot i did recently, two was standard recipe, the third was extra ginger and steamed ,the four was juiced carrot and low ginger, but as its a years wait to find out, why wait four years to try them all
 
Lol that is so cool. You can literally try all the variations at once.

I have to limit myself or I end up with too many bottles lol. I already have about 60 bottles floating around at the moment, and 4 gallons on the go as well. And I’m only allowed to drink on Fridays Saturdays and Sundays.

Also it’s only me and my girlfriend drinking it, so I can’t make too many lol.

And I’m always finding these mad recipes to try, like the mead one the other day, the tea one (merrily bubbling away), I got a tomato one lined up for fun (yeah it’ll probably taste like **** but who knows, miracles can happen lol)

I can’t imagine having that many demijohns, I’d have so much wine lol
 
Good to know as I seem to have a mix. Some seem a greener glass too, while others are essentially clear.

Last year I saw a full one for sale at a car boot sale, and still had the raspberry ice cream flavouring in it with a wax seal and original advertising labels on it. I never knew they sold products in them from new until then.
 
Good to know as I seem to have a mix. Some seem a greener glass too, while others are essentially clear.

Last year I saw a full one for sale at a car boot sale, and still had the raspberry ice cream flavouring in it with a wax seal and original advertising labels on it. I never knew they sold products in them from new until then.


they were an extreamly common vessel size pre 1980's and many items were brought and sold, it was glass so it was a deposit returned item which was better for every one
 
Measured all me bungs and DJS, standard size (phew). I have one DJ which is seriously green tinted. I use that one for first stage of filtering. Slight variation in colour of these others, but all adds to the mix. I feel very virtuous only having 15 DJs @hedgerowpete wink...
 
Measured all me bungs and DJS, standard size (phew). I have one DJ which is seriously green tinted. I use that one for first stage of filtering. Slight variation in colour of these others, but all adds to the mix. I feel very virtuous only having 15 DJs @hedgerowpete wink...


the green tint is iron in the glass i believe, very common
 
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