Capn_Bill

Recipes 

Thoughts on using 6.5 gallon buckets to primary ferment a 2 gallon batch? I want to do some smash trials without buying smaller fermenters. I don't plan to secondary, so I'm hoping that the yeast will produce enough co2 so that the headspace isn't an issue.

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Primary:
Secondary: Boddington's Clone 1 (London Ale III), Boddington's Clone 2 (S-04), Magic Hat #9 Clone
Bottled: Chocolate Covered BEAVR Nuts, Redemption Pale Ale, Houblonmonstre IPA
Kegged:

On Deck:

slowbie

Recipes 

You'll be fine if you do primary only. I do 3 gallon batches in my 6.5 gallon bucket all the time.

HighGrav

Recipes 

It would probably be fine but that is a lot of headspace to contend with. A couple other options come to mind:

1) If you have a CO2 tank, you could purge the headspace before putting the lid on the fermenter.

2) You could also put something in the bucket to displace the volume such as sanitized marbles so there is less headspace.

3) You could ferment in a couple 1 gallon plastic water/milk jugs or 2 gallon if you can find them for cheap.

Or just don't worry about it, ferment in the 6.5g bucket and see how it turns out.

Capn_Bill

Recipes 

Thanks slowbie. My understanding is a lot of headspace

__________________
Primary:
Secondary: Boddington's Clone 1 (London Ale III), Boddington's Clone 2 (S-04), Magic Hat #9 Clone
Bottled: Chocolate Covered BEAVR Nuts, Redemption Pale Ale, Houblonmonstre IPA
Kegged:

On Deck:

Capn_Bill

Recipes 

(Ugh. Sausage fingers and iPhones don't mix)

What I was saying is headspace in primaries is ok, headspace in secondaries is bad.

__________________
Primary:
Secondary: Boddington's Clone 1 (London Ale III), Boddington's Clone 2 (S-04), Magic Hat #9 Clone
Bottled: Chocolate Covered BEAVR Nuts, Redemption Pale Ale, Houblonmonstre IPA
Kegged:

On Deck:

slowbie

Recipes 

I should add that I only take one FG reading on bottling day (provided it falls in an expected range). By only opening it once, the headspace doesn't really matter, because fermentation pushes the oxygen out, and the only time it has a chance to get back in is while I'm bottling.

Dynachrome

Recipes 

There was a post about two weeks back about using dry ice to cap the head-space also.

Dry Ice Method

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Clicky: It will be beer

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I drink therefore I am.

Capn_Bill

Recipes 

Good point. I'll keep that in mind. I assume that the fermentation takes a similar amount of time, assuming an equal ratio of yeast to a typical 5 gallon? Maybe for a pale ale with us05, let it go for 2 weeks to be safe?

__________________
Primary:
Secondary: Boddington's Clone 1 (London Ale III), Boddington's Clone 2 (S-04), Magic Hat #9 Clone
Bottled: Chocolate Covered BEAVR Nuts, Redemption Pale Ale, Houblonmonstre IPA
Kegged:

On Deck: