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Evan! · 08-23-2006, 01:44 PM

So it's Wednesday. On Saturday, my fiancee is going to Richmond for the day to do a final wedding dress fitting. I don't need to go. In other words, it's brew day.

Here's my problem:

Currently, my empty fermenting vessels are: a small (5.5 gal?) bucket and a small (5.5 gal?) glass carboy available, plus a big (6-6.5 gal?) glass carboy.

I currently have a Porter finishing up primary in a big carboy, and a barleywine finishing up primary in a big bucket.

I want to brew two batches on saturday; however, as of this morning (Wednesday), the Porter in the big carboy still has a 1" krausen on top, and bubbles through the airlock every once in awhile. As such, I'm not terribly confident that the yeast will have flocculated and fallen by saturday, so I'm not sure if I'll have 2 big carboys. I brewed the Porter + barleywine last friday, so I SHOULD be able to rack to secondary on Friday, but I don't want to rush it and rack before flocculation.

On that note, I DO still have a couple of free small vessels, as I mentioned above. I've never done primary fermentation of a 5-gallon batch in a small carboy---is this a good idea?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to proceed if I still have krausen as of friday night/saturday morning? Help please!!!

Desert_Sky · 08-23-2006, 02:59 PM

if you have a LHBS nearby, I would just go ahead and pick up another carboy.

Evan! · 08-23-2006, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chimone

if you have a LHBS nearby, I would just go ahead and pick up another carboy.

If I had a LHBS nearby, believe me, I wouldn't have the need to ask the question. Unfortunately, the closest one is somethin like an hour and a half away. Nuts to that. Is fermenting in a small carboy a bad idea?

Exo · 08-23-2006, 03:07 PM

If you think your recipe will give you huge blow-offs...you might lose considerable volume in a smaller carboy. Or you could build a DIY Burton Union system. It recycles your blow-off.

Evan! · 08-23-2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exo

If you think your recipe will give you huge blow-offs...you might lose considerable volume in a smaller carboy. Or you could build a DIY Burton Union system. It recycles your blow-off.

I've brewed 8 batches, and the only krausen that's gotten bigger than 2" thick was a bigass barleywine that had 11 or 12 lbs of extract in it in addition to the partial mash, so that was to be expected. I'm using dry yeast on both batches---a pumpkin amber and a imperial stout---I guess the imp stout might produce a big krausen, so I could ferment that one in the big carboy. I can't imagine the pumpkin would really get that bad. Any thoughts?

**Chairman Cheyco** · 08-23-2006, 03:12 PM

You should be fine - as long as you can rig up a proper blow-off tube.

**Jaybird** · 08-23-2006, 03:20 PM

MoreBeer.com could have it there to you in two days
JJ

**kornkob** · 08-23-2006, 03:42 PM

You could also brew a short batch. Back your recipe down to 4.5 gallons and a 5 gallon carboy has plenty of headspace.

gruntingfrog · 08-23-2006, 03:55 PM

The size of the Krausen has a lot to do with the yeast you use (not entirely, but a lot). I would say, if you're using the same yeast as your other batches, and you don't have a high gravity wort, go ahead with the full 5 gallon batch, but use a blowoff tube. You can rig one up with stuff you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Put the Imperial in the larger carboy and the pumpkin in the smaller.

Evan! · 08-23-2006, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gruntingfrog

The size of the Krausen has a lot to do with the yeast you use (not entirely, but a lot). I would say, if you're using the same yeast as your other batches, and you don't have a high gravity wort, go ahead with the full 5 gallon batch, but use a blowoff tube. You can rig one up with stuff you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Put the Imperial in the larger carboy and the pumpkin in the smaller.

I've never used a blowoff tube. How does it work? Do you just run a tube into a bucket of bleach water?