OK, I cannot wait a month to re-use my 6.5 gallon carboy. I’ve been bitten by the brewing bug and an IPA clone recipe is staring at me. Can this be done with only a 5 gallon carboy? Thanks!
Order a 7 gallon bucket from a homebrew site, local homebrew store, or, if you can find it get food grade plastic buckets from local restaurants. As long as you can get the smells out they are great and cheap.
a 5 gallon carboy will be messy if you try to ferment 5 gallons in it. it would be fine for 4 gallons though. Maybe brew up a big barley wine where you won’t miss the extra gallon.
If you buy a 1 inch diameter Vinyl tube and put the far end in a big pot of sanitizer you have essentailly made yourself a airlock ala blowoff tube. a ton of the krausen will end up in the tube, but it works!
For the 6.5 carboy I am using now (just started fermentation) how much krausen would be created? The reason I ask is that so far it doesn’t look like it will go any higher than the 5 gallon mark.
I regularly have blow offs fermenting 5 gallons is a 6 gallon better bottle.
If you put 5 gallons in a 5 gallon fermenter, you’re going to blow out most of your yeast.
The best approach would be to brew a smaller batch or get a larger fermenter.
I have 4 6-gallon fermenters and sometimes they are all full.
Time for someone to pick up a couple buckets!
Thats what happened with me. Started with 1 bucket and 1 carboy and now i have 6 carboys and 3 buckets. once your friends and family find out you are brewing, things will start getting handed down too you;)
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For the 6.5 carboy I am using now (just started fermentation) how much krausen would be created? The reason I ask is that so far it doesn’t look like it will go any higher than the 5 gallon mark.
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This varries greatly. I like many others on this forum have blown out an airlock on a 5 gallon batch using a 6.5 gallon carboy or bucket. Your best bet is to get some additional large fermentors.
Use the 5 gallon carboy for your secondary fermentation purposes. You don’t want much head space when you’re clearing/conditioning batches that flocculate slowly, so the smaller carboy works well for this.
Like a skipping LP… I brew 3-4 batches a month and I don’t own any carboys
During my 2 5 gallon extract batches (6.5 gallon carboy) the krausen has always gone up about 2-3 inches. Still lots of room above. That being said, I’d love to ditch the carboys.
I use a 8gal bucket or 6.5gal glass carboy for a primary fermentation and haven’t needed to do a blow-off hose for a 5 gal batch. I do, however, prefer the 5gal glass carboy as a secondary fermentor because it has much less headspace so the beer doesn’t oxidize. Though I’m under the impression very few people have oxidation problems.
mostly because we don’t use a secondary. straight from primary to packaging (or bottling bucket) leads to much less worry about oxidation.