I’m very new to home brewing and on Sunday I started a English Brown Ale. The recipe was pre-made by my local brew shop. It was brewed in a 1 gallon carboy and the wort/boil seemed to go well…the siphoning went ehh. I checked on the fermentation last night and it appears I had a blow out. carboy cap blown off and foam on the ground. Is this a case of not enough headspace? If so, is there a case of too much headspace if I would have used the 5 gallon carboy? Thanks in advance. I can add pics later if necessary.
You’ve pretty much nailed it… your fermenter is too small. You’ll be fine with a 5 gal. fermenter
And welcome to the forum! You can get most things answered here, because many of us have made the mistakes that newer brewers face and can easily avoid. It is a great hobby and I can say without hesitation that homebrews can be as well made or even better than commercial beers - keep on brewing!
Cool. So just to clarify, even if i brewed a 1 gallon recipe a 5 gallon carboy is good for fermenting?
Yep.
You mentioned that the carboy cap had “blown off”. Just want to make sure that you had an airlock of some kind to allow gas to escape, and not a screw on cap that sealed the container.
Correct, airlock was on the cap.
Quick follow up, I’m assuming I’ve lost this batch?
I certainly wouldn’t assume that until you taste it. Beer can be very forgiving of homebrewers.
I ageee with Denny. I have had many blowouts where I had to search for the airlock and bung and the beer still turned out great! Play it out and learn from your experiance.