Glass Carboy Blow off

I just recently purchased two 5 gal. glass carboy. I was going to use one for a fermentor and the other as the secondary. I was thinking that i would just put a stpper on it with a 3 pice air lock i would be fine. Today i decided to catch up on some reading about brewing and read that with the 3 pice air lock i will be running a chance of getting it cloged and the carboy exploding... does anyone have a setup of to glass carboys and what do you use for blw off. im thinking about just buying a 1 in. tube to be safe. but i would just like your input.

A 5 gallon carboy is going to be a problem as a primary - it's not big enough for a 5 gallon recipe. If you're going to use it for that, you should scale back the recipe or at the VERY least, use a blow off tube. If you don't, you're going to have a big mess on your hands

5 gallon carboy for fermentation is going to be TIGHT!!!!

yeah im happy i did some reading today. i could have made a big mess. i think ill get that 1 in tubing for a blow off. the book also said that some use the 5 gal carboy with the blow off so that some of the gunk goes through the blow off and it's less sediment to float back to the bottom. but do you think i should still cut back with the blow off or i should be safe?

In all honesty - I'd go get a 6.5 gallon carboy. You're gonna want one eventually anyway or you're going to have long waits between brews. You can try the tube, but you're going to end up with quite a bit less than 5 gallons when all is said and done

I'd go with an ale pail or the like and use the glass for secondaries.

Unless you scale your brews down to 4 gallon US.

well i better get i the phone with the company to see if i can change my order. well im happy i fould out the troubles now. ahh well i guess no carboy bomb for chrismas

I've used the large piece of airlock --- and I have a piece of tubing that will fit tightly on the post that comes up the middle of it... pop that tubing in a bowl of star-san, and BINGO! Instant blowoff.

A 1" ID hose (1.25" OD) will fit into the neck of the carboy. Stick the other end into a jar of water or something. All I have are 5 gallon carboys, and I always start with a blow off tube.

-S

You won't get exploding carboys if you don't have a blowoff tube. The only thing that will happen is this: :rockin:




That would be my 6 gallon carboy with my IIPA and a yeast cake of pacman yeast in it. There is, or rather, WAS 5.5 gal of beer in there. Yes, I now have a blowoff tube but it was late and I felt lazy.

i just finished cleaning up a similar mess even though i used a blow off tube my overflow container was too small and it overflowed.
this got me wondering, does a large blow-off affect the head in the finished beer
as i assume the "sticky" compounds responsible for head retention are carried off in the blow-off??
any ideas??

Here is an easy way of doing it, I hardly ever use airlocks anymore.



As you can see the one in the milk crate is a 6.5 gal Primary and the other is a 5 gal Secondary.

As others have said, 5 gal is small for a primary. The stuff coming out the tube has a lot of very active yeast that you are expelling by using a smaller vessel. A 4 gal batch seems like a waste. I use a 6 gal better bottle and for a high gravity/big starter brew it ends up wasting a good bit of yeast. Bigger beers get a 6.5 gal bucket.

I've got to say, Chill, after seeing your BB, and lifting it into my car very easily, I'm definately thinking that my next new fermenter will be a BB. Not sure that I'll change my secondaries from 5 gallon glass, but the whole 5.5 gallons of wort in your BB weighed just about as much as an empty 6.5 gallon carboy. It was just so much easier to move around.

I use a 5 gallon bucket as my primary.
I do partial boil batches and just don't quite top the bucket up all the way.

Yeah, I lose some beer in the blowoff, but not much. I get 4.5 gallons of beer out of each batch. Maybe loose a quart or two in blowoff.

Just use a big tube for your blowoff, and make sure the receptacle at the end is big enough.