I acquired 2 CRISA carboys from my parents; they used them to make cordials.
I am not concerned about their structural integrity; these are pretty thick and heavy. I am concerned about the chemical composition; is it possible that the glass has lead in it? I am not sure what year they were made but they appear to be tinted blue.
One is labeled with “eagle spring water company” and the other is unlabeled.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
MT
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This is only my opinion and not anything scientific, but I believe the blue tint tells the story. I would use them for something other that a fermentation vessel.
Why does the blue tint concern you?
Much is the glass vessels that were produced many decades ago contained lead. It is my opinion, the blue tint may be a sign of lead containment. Perhaps you can simply Bing the question. I know there are lead testing products on the market. However, I’ve never heard of one for glass. The vessels are old and blue. That’s a red flag as far as I’m concerned; unless they say “Made in China” somewhere on the vessel. 
FWIW, I found this…
“Unlike ceramics and clay, glass normally does not leach lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals.”
This jogged my memory this morning. After HomebrewCon we stopped in Corning NY and toured the Corning Glass Museum, which was absolutely fabulous. In the history of glass section I learned that many antique glass pieces have a green color due to impurities in the local sand, often copper or iron.
I didn’t know CRISA, google said it is a Mexican glass manufacturer. Hey, I have one, the first I bought, and it is in use right now.
Leaded glass is clear, it is known as lead Crystal (a misnomer). The current thinking is that it is fine for drinking, but not long term storage.
The CRISA carboy would probably fall under the term Aqua glass in the link below. Old guys like me can remember that Coke bottles and Ball jars had that color at one time. Good for storage I would think.
You might do more searching online to see if it is lead free. You might look for a group of antique glass collecters, and see what they say. Get it tested?
https://sha.org/bottle/colors.htm#Greens%20&%20Blue-greens
One last thought. My sister collects depression ware glass. She has mom’s and has added pieces she comes across. I found out today that certain color was due to uranium oxide. :o
Wasn’t that just maybe 10 years ago? It’s been so long since I’ve seen Coke in a glass bottle I didn’t realize they had switched.
When we were kids we would eat candy out of my grandma’s uranium glassware. :o
I don’t drink soft drinks, so no idea when they changed.
Mom only pulled the depression ware out for certain occasions.
If anyone loves art class, and is a technophile, I recommend The Corning Glass Museum. We spent 4 hours there, that was not nearly enough.
Usually, a blue tint suggests that there may be some cobalt in the glass. I have some cobalt blue beer glasses, one from the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh and if I remember correctly, the other one is from a defunct Colorado Springs brewery. They are a deep blue color.
I have a light bluish carboy here that I use from time to time and never worried about it. As Denny said glass won’t leach any nasty stuff.
I too have a CRISA carboy. It’s a short and wide cone shape. It’s about a two gallon capacity, so nice for small batch or experimental things. Mine is stamped ‘Made in Mexico’ on the bottom and definitely has a blue tint. This thread got me curious so I ran a few searches. I found this page: http://boroclass.crisa.com/en/About/Sustainability/Why-Choose-Glass. The relevant statement on the linked page says this about Crisa glass:
Crisa glassware is made in Mexico and starts with sand as the most basic ingredient.
Just as all beaches are not the same, not all of the sand we use is the same, but you can rest assured that the raw materials we use in making our glass are considered free from BPA, cadmium, mercury and lead.
I’ve used this carboy multiple times and won’t hesitate to use it again.
Recently enough that I remember it is all I can say. Interestingly (or maybe not) I was just pulling a Mexican Coke out of the soft drink fridge and they do still use the tinted glass.
Cobalt gives a deep blue, see my link above.
Light blue, blue green is aqua glass, iron and copper.
I talked to my parents this afternoon and apparently these carboys were used by my italian greatgrandma to make wine. Based on the feedback here and their prior uses I will use them in my brewing and wine process after a some cleaning with PBW. Thanks everyone!
You’re welcome. I like threads that make me think a little.
Great information! Who would think a person could learn so much about colored antique glass on a Home Brewing forum? I love it!