78camperbus

Recipes 

I was wondering if I could use a 7-gallon plastic bucket for secondary ferm. instead of 5-gallon glass carboy? If I did this, would there be a difference?

Truble

Recipes 

With a secondary, you won't need the extra space that you might with a primary, so all that will do is put more air on top of the brew. This will get displaced with CO2 as it ferments, but one thing that I had been told was that once the primary fermentation is done, you want to limit that exposure. That is why most will primary in a 6.5G carboy or bucket, and secondary in a 5G.

That said, as long as it is food grade, not scratched, and has a lid that will seal and accept an airlock, it should work.

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Even the strongest blade of grass bends in the wind
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Primary: Octoberfest
mini 1G Primary: nichts
Secondary #1: #97 Pale Ale
Secondary #2 nichts
Bottled/Conditioning: nichts
Fully ConditionedDrinking: nichts
All Gone!: Everything

voodoochild7

Recipes 

I thought plastic was not a good choice for secondary as it is not 100% air tight it will eventually oxidize.

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Chuck

Primary 1: Imperial Stout
Primary 2: Golden Ale
Keg 1: Nothing
Keg 2: Nothing

deranged_hermit

Recipes 

does a 5 gallon glass carboy fit all of a 5 gallon batch of brew? how much air space is left at the top?

Dark_Ale

Recipes 

Just to the edge where it starts to taper(on the 18.7 liter) I measured one gal at a time and made marks on my buckets and glass. Most everyone says boil as much of the 5 gallons as you can but if you come up short you can top off to 5 gal with clean sanitary water.....The reason I made marks was to figure priming sugar if I was short.

wild

Recipes 

That's true if it's a Barleywine or other big beer that will sit in secondary for months. Plastic is porous and will allow air to pass through but over a great deal of time. So for most beers that will sit in secondary from 2-4 weeks, a bucket will work just fine.

Wild

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On Tap -

1. 3 year old Oak Aged Bourbon Porter
2. Irish Red Rye
3. Robust Porter
4. Russian Imperial Stout
5. Mirror Pond Clone dry hopped with Citra
6. Mirror Pond Clone dry hopped with Centennial

Primary - Nada
Secondary -

From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world. -- Saint Arnoldus