4 Gallon Batch in a Carboy

I have a 5 gallon carboy that was used as a secondary and would like to brew up a 4 gallon batch tonight or tomorrow night and ferment in this container. Does this leave enough room at the top where an airlock will suffice? Or should I consider a blow off tube?

My main question is how to customize or create a recipe to use for 4 gallons total. I have been purchasing the 5 gallon kits from the LHBS. I would like to do an American Pale Ale or even take it to an IPA. I am open to suggestions from anyone who happens upon this thread today!

I plan on doing a full boil (start with about 4.75 to 5 gallons) and would like to steep some grains for flavor and can use either LME or DME to add fermentables. My problem is I don't know what ingredients to get!

That is a very intimidating invitation for contributions. I'm going to decline but wish you the best of luck and give you a bump as a gesture of goodwill. I guess I can offer an opinion on the volume; if you have a blowoff use it to be safe. I tend to ferment things cool and get less vigorous fermentation as a result so I don't tend to have huge blowoffs, but YMMV. Good luck!

Yeah I may as well just go ahead and invest in a blowoff tube they have to be pretty cheap right?

Unless it's a super active fermentation, a gallon's worth of headspace should be fine.

Now as to converting a 5 gallon or any other size to another size, it's not rocket science. The easiest way to do it is with brewing software, it will do it automatically.

But it's still not difficult to fathom....If your taking a 5 gallon recipe and want to brew a 4 gallon recipe, just decrease everything by 1/5. Want to make a 2.5 gallon batch from a 5 gallon recipe, use 1/2 what the recipe calls for....Want to brew a one gallon batch beasd on a 5 gallon? Just use 1/5 of wat the recipe calls for.

Recipes are scalable.

So I am just throwing something out here I am not at a level yet to understand recipe building and how to calculate for styles but:

Maybe someone can help me with adjustments using the following ingredients

• 1 can of Light LME
• 3 pounds of DME
• 1 pound of Crystal malt Steeped
• 1 ounce of hops (variety I am unsure of) for 60 minutes
• 1/2 ounce at 5 or 10 minutes?
• 1 Smack Pack of an Ale Yeast
• Dry Hop with another ounce of same hops?

Not sure of the quantities here, I am not trying to win a contest or match a style or anything. Just would like some input on making a simple recipe for a 4 gallon batch.

Cheers!

Revvy said:

If your taking a 5 gallon recipe and want to brew a 4 gallon recipe, just decrease everything by 1/5. Want to make a 2.5 gallon batch from a 5 gallon recipe, use 1/2 what the recipe calls for....Want to brew a one gallon batch beasd on a 5 gallon? Just use 1/5 of wat the recipe calls for.

Recipes are scalable.

Click to expand...

Thanks Revvy! I suppose I could just have the LHBS open up a kit for me so I can see the specific ingredients then buy them separately