No headspace in carboy!!

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Irena

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i brewed a batch of brown ale today but after boiling for 2 hours there was about 6 gallon wort in brew pot (i have a 5 gallon carboy),so i filled the carboy till it was full of wort without any headspace ,actually when i putted the lid some wort spilled out.i don't know but suddenly i remembred i was reading somewhere there should be a headspace in carboy but couldn't find it! is that right ?
thanks.
 
Yeah, you'll want a gallon to a gallon and a half of headspace in the carboy. Recommend that you syphon off the excess or you're going to have a big mess when the yeast start fermentation.
 
You will need some head space, or all your yeast will just spew out the top.

6.5 Gal fermenter pails work well, and are cheap. Then you can use your carboy for secondary, as the volume will be less once you rack.
 
other than that (exploding carboy) will there be any issue ? i mean final beer differences ?
 
you risk contamination via suckback from the airlock or blowoff tube. I would siphon off some wort and use a blowoff tube rather than an airlock. just to be safe.
 
if it was meant to be five gallons and is six then it will probably be lighter than was intended. what was your OG?
 
if it was meant to be five gallons and is six then it will probably be lighter than was intended. what was your OG?
yes,the OG is a bit lower than what is said in recipe(recipie OG=1.050 and mine is 1.038),but i don't care ABV too much.

That's why I bought a van boy.
i have a van boy already but he(it) doesn't like beer.
 
yeah. i dont care about abv much either. other wise i would drink wiskey:D
but i meant body and everything else. but it will still be beer, and it should definately be tastey
 
Curious how much headspace is needed if I am using a blowoff. Any tips? I have a similar issue with only maybe 1/2 gallon of space left. Should I transfer a bit into a one gallon jug and try to ferment part in there?
 
When you don't have enough headspace you will lose some beer through the blowoff. You will lose less if you control how active the ferment is by keeping the fermenting beer cool. I tend to see (through the side of my bucket) about 1 1/2 inch of krausen and if my bucket lid seals good, the airlock bubbles once or twice per second at the fastest. I wouldn't move any of the wort, just ferment it where it is and accept that you may have a little loss. If you transfer you risk contaminating the entire batch. Better to lose a little than lose it all.
 
Late comment...

Was thinking about this...

The issue with removing some wort, you risk contamination, but then so do you with suckback - even if your blowoff tube is immersed in sanitizer, you risk pouring some sanitizer in your beer.

Also, what do you do with the wort? You could prime with gyle if you are bottling or cask conditioning or you could simply add it back, like a staged fermentation, or a combination.

I have not fermented in my 5 gallon carboys lately. I used to more often, but the problem is, different recipes and different yeast have different degrees of blowback and while sometimes I get away with, not always... I'm also doing all grain now, and haven't completely dialed in my equipment and evaporation loss, so my batches are anywhere from 4.5 to 5.5 gallons (though the last two seem to be settling about 5.25). That would just barely fit in my carboys, so been using buckets. I do prefer carboy fermentation, because you can easily see what's going on, but I think I'll invest in a couple of 6.5 gallon carboys. I really hate plastic since it breaks (and breaks down) on me and is harder to clean. I also do sours and won't let those touch plastic. My last sour blew out on me pretty good. The neck was nearly stopped up with trub, but I also didn't use a blowoff tube (didn't want to get sour in my blowoff tube - kind of hard to clean). I ended up tossing a sanitized towel over it to minimize the cleanup...

I think if I end up with too little (4.5 gal or under) I would use a 5g carboy, but otherwise, it has the potential to blow out a bunch of your beer (my greatest concern). Depending on the recipe, it can be quite a mess as well as risk ruining your beer.
 
If you are really good with sanitizing and have the 1gallon available I would probably have racked a gallon and fermented it separately. I've done it a couple of times without fail. SANITIZE WELL!
 
Not to be a jerk..but am I the only one wondering how this guy made it to a senior member not knowing about headspace in a carboy?? Dude spend 20 minutes doing some research on Google. :drunk:
 
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