Glass carboys for beer primary fermentation question

Hi all,

I'm using a couple glass carboys as my primary fermenter, and plan on leaving the wort in the fermenter for a couple weeks or until it's ready to bottle, and not use a secondary fermenter at all.

My one and only plastic bucket currently is busy with a batch of Festa West Coast IPA, all I had left to use were the glass carboys.

Since this is my 1st time using the glass carboy as a primary as opposed to the usual plastic bucket what I'm concerned about is the amount of krausen that may form in the glass carboy, and what to do about it if it's to much.

I had a batch of Pale Ale go crazy with a really violent fermentation recently in the plastic bucket, so now I'm wondering if the glass carboys even have enough room.

I've seen some people use glass carboys as primary fermenter and they use a drainage hose type thing, which is a hose in the bung instead of the airlock, which goes to a large jar of water next to the carboy, so it still bubbles up under water to maintain an airlock, but the krausen has somewhere to go if it gets too much.

Should I use this kind of setup?

Right now, there is just the usual airlock in the carboys, and I just pitched the yeast a few hours ago, so there's still time to unplug the airlock and replace with a tube if you think it will get messy!

I just started a batch of Brew House Oktoberfest, and a batch of Brew House Winterfest Ale at the same time, maybe the hoses could both go into the same jar of water, or would that be a bad cross contamination thing?

Thanks!!

Chris

If you have one, set up the blow off. It is less messy it it does blow and no consequence if it doesn't. You can just leave the blowoff set up or switch to an airlock after the peak of fermentation has passed.

second question: there should be no problem putting 2 blowoffs in the same jar.

You can put a hose on the airlock. I use a 1" hose on carboys. I rigged this one up when my IPA suddenly had a freak ferment and filled 2 gallons of the bucket with krausen and started coming out the airlock. Only thing I'd worry about in smaller diameter hose is something plugging it.

Thanks for that info!

Hopefully I can swap out the airlocks tomorrow without disturbing it too much, it won't let an infection in or anything by opening up the airlock for that short amount of time to switch to a blow off tube will it?

Here's what it's looking like right now:



Incidentally, that little jar you see on the top of the black plastic covered fermenter is a fruit fly trap, they just will not die here in Nova Scotia right now where we live!!

The little buggers LOVE to land in Iodophor for some reason, makes it very hard to sanitize everything! Grrrr!

This is what I don't want to happen again:

Yup, this morning when I got up there was krausen everywhere, and the airlocks were overflowing! Sticky mess...lol.

Here's what I rigged up, what do you think??

Should I leave it like this until done, or just plug in the airlocks once fermentation seems to subside?

I'd remove half the water from the container the tubes are going into, so there's space for any blowoff. I like the round vessel on the left, where did you get it?

I usually leave the blow off tubes on for the first week and then swap out for the airlocks. I don't like using such small hoses for my blow offs because I've had my large diameter ones clog before. You local hardware should have tubing that will fit directly into the mouth of the carboy. You may never need it...but when that thing blows from the pressure, it's a friggin mess.

usfmikeb said:

I'd remove half the water from the container the tubes are going into, so there's space for any blowoff. I like the round vessel on the left, where did you get it?

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Thanks guys for those suggestions, much appreciated!

I'm still getting the hang of things, but I learn quickly

That round container on the left is actually Pyrex lab ware, it's a 6000ml volume container, not sure what it was used for, I bought it at auction. Needless to say I've cleaned it REALLY well, for all I know it could have been used to make meth or something bad like that.

I am going to make a test batch of apple cider in that round container, but that's a whole other story, hehe.

The liquid in the container is actually Iodophor solution, I had to sterilize the tubing anyhow, so i thought since it eventually just dissipates I'd just leave it in the container since it's sterile. Hope that wasn't a mistake.

It actually is filling up quite a bit from the blow off, so I'm gonna remove some of it right now!

I would have used that fat tubing you showed, but I had to make due with what I had on hand, next time I'll be more prepared!

Thanks again!

Chris

I'm still getting the hang of things, but I learn quickly

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Then your gonna go far!! LOL

Hammy71 said:

Then your gonna go far!! LOL

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Thanks Hammy,
I've got nothing better to do with my time, I'm disabled with a chronic pain syndrome and stuck in the house, even my doctor suggests I drink beer to help with the pain!

Nothing better than brewing your own cure! LOL

Chris

NScooknet said:

Thanks guys for those suggestions, much appreciated!

I'm still getting the hang of things, but I learn quickly

That round container on the left is actually Pyrex lab ware, it's a 6000ml volume container, not sure what it was used for, I bought it at auction. Needless to say I've cleaned it REALLY well, for all I know it could have been used to make meth or something bad like that.

I am going to make a test batch of apple cider in that round container, but that's a whole other story, hehe.

The liquid in the container is actually Iodophor solution, I had to sterilize the tubing anyhow, so i thought since it eventually just dissipates I'd just leave it in the container since it's sterile. Hope that wasn't a mistake.

It actually is filling up quite a bit from the blow off, so I'm gonna remove some of it right now!

I would have used that fat tubing you showed, but I had to make due with what I had on hand, next time I'll be more prepared!

Thanks again!

Chris

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Those blowoff tubes look badly stained from hops. Have you tried soaking them in PBW overnight to brighten them up? I would consider replacing. Your soft plastics should be replaced every year or two or converted to use on wild/sour batches.

Do you mean MY hoses?

They are stained from Iodophor

Me? Mine are extra from my reef tank set up. They came green..... Besides, they are for a blow off. I soak in Starsan for about 1/2 hour before I install. Never a problem.

What a mess!

I've drained the blow off container like 5 times so far and it's still overflowing with foam....lol.

Am I losing some volume of the beer after fermentation due to the amount of blow off that I'm dumping out?

Maybe the large plastic bucket is better afterall if I'm losing beer.

I'm just wonderig if the krausen makes up a volume of the beer, meaning if it's a bigger fermenter, will the krausen fall back into the fermenter when fermentation is done, and preserve the original volume of beer, as opposed to a glass fermenter with less room to overflow that dumps the excess krausen off via the blow off tube?

It was pretty clear from the earlier pictures that this was going to happen. Doesn't matter what kind of vessel you ferment in, if they're darned near filled to the top going into primary they're going to lose beer...

Cheers!

Wow I bet that's going to be a good beer. Best beer I have brewed in my short list was an IPA that almost blew the lid off the bucket. BTW you really aren't losing that much beer.

Yeah,
That's why I started this post to find out what to expect from fermentation using a glass carboy as the primary fermenter.

I anticipated the need for a blow off tube, but wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do or not, but I didn't anticipate fluid loss from lots of blow off that's for sure.

It's only gone down a half centimeter or so, not very much really, i didn't really have a choice of how much liquid to put in the carboy, the instructions say to fill it with 8 liters of water, then add the wort to it which brings it up to 23L.

BTW, the Brew House instructions say that the OG should be around 1.040 - 1.050, but my Winter Fest Ale's OG was 1.060, is that a problem do you think?

I'm still figuring out the hydrometer...lol.

Chris

Haha, that higher OG isn't a problem if you like higher alcohol. You'll be fine.

The amount of beer you lose in the blow off hose is minimal. When i use my carboy's as primaries I use the larger hoses like Hammy. They work great, but I have had them get stuck with a couple wayward hop cones that somehow wandered into my fermenter. I think that was back in my dumping the whole kettle into the fermenter days.

Anyhow, good luck! I hope those beers turn out great.

I have started splitting my batches. I make 6 gallon batches and do three in each carboy. It leaves enough room for fermentation without a blowoff, and I can experiment with different yeast in each carboy. Just a thought, if you have two....

BainbridgeBrewer said:

Haha, that higher OG isn't a problem if you like higher alcohol. You'll be fine.

The amount of beer you lose in the blow off hose is minimal. When i use my carboy's as primaries I use the larger hoses like Hammy. They work great, but I have had them get stuck with a couple wayward hop cones that somehow wandered into my fermenter. I think that was back in my dumping the whole kettle into the fermenter days.

Anyhow, good luck! I hope those beers turn out great.

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I'm gonna get some of that larger tubing now that I know what I'm doing, it's not like I'm going to actually research things before jumping in with both feet and making a mess ya know, LOL

That Winterfest Ale kit has a really nice aroma, very fruity, like cranberries and raspberries mixed together, but this morning the sweet smell is notably less and it smells much more like beer now that probably most of those sugars have broken down.

It was a very interesting mixture of Oktoberfest and Winterfest in one blowoff container, yummy. Maybe I'll get creative and mix a couple bottles on bottling day, hehe.

The fermentation is tapering off a bit now, but overnight, the foam filled a whole stock pot if you can believe it!

It's still pretty active, but nothing like it was last night, my wife said she heard nothing but gurgling and popping sounds all night, haha.

The level has gone down about 1/2" in both carboys, not sure how much beer loss that equates to, but such is life, until I can afford giant SS fermenters, this will have to do!

Thanks!

Chris

Chris that does look like a crazy flask/beaker

Hammy71 said:

Me? Mine are extra from my reef tank set up. They came green..... Besides, they are for a blow off. I soak in Starsan for about 1/2 hour before I install. Never a problem.

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Gotcha, sorry, I'm just super paranoid about my soft plastics. I had a few bad batches over the years and I generally attribute it to that, whether I'm right or wrong.

joety said:

Gotcha, sorry, I'm just super paranoid about my soft plastics. I had a few bad batches over the years and I generally attribute it to that, whether I'm right or wrong.

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Speaking of plastics, what do you think of those plastic beer bottles?

The guy at the wine making store here that sells some beer making supplies says they are only good for a few uses, is that true?

I prefer glass bottles of course, and would never buy beer in a can, but I'm having such capping issues with twist off bottles, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to plastic bottles temporarily if it will not effect the taste of my beer until I can buy good pry off bottles.


Chris

If you have room I use a new 5 gallon paint bucket. Plenty of room and the bubbling sound is louder. Helps me sleep at night!

Cimerian said:

Wow I bet that's going to be a good beer. Best beer I have brewed in my short list was an IPA that almost blew the lid off the bucket. BTW you really aren't losing that much beer.

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Actually, between the 2 carboys, I'm guessing that about 6 liters of beer has been blown out the tubes.

There's 4 liters in the blowoff container now, and I've emptied it a few times partially, bummer.

Is it normal to lose that much wort if you ferment in a glass carboy like that?

I don't have much choice about the volume of liquid used with a Brew House kit, I have to use what it calls for.

If so, that's a good reason to use either a plastic bucket and rack to the glass secondary, or just leave it in the plastic bucket the whole time.

I think I'll buy more plastic buckets and save my beer!


Chris

NScooknet said:

Speaking of plastics, what do you think of those plastic beer bottles?

The guy at the wine making store here that sells some beer making supplies says they are only good for a few uses, is that true?

I prefer glass bottles of course, and would never buy beer in a can, but I'm having such capping issues with twist off bottles, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to plastic bottles temporarily if it will not effect the taste of my beer until I can buy good pry off bottles.


Chris

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I haven't bottled anything in two years. In fact, the beer gun is out on loan since I don't use it.

NScooknet said:

Speaking of plastics, what do you think of those plastic beer bottles?

The guy at the wine making store here that sells some beer making supplies says they are only good for a few uses, is that true?Chris
I prefer glass bottles of course, and would never buy beer in a can, but I'm having such capping issues with twist off bottles, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to plastic bottles temporarily if it will not effect the taste of my beer until I can buy good pry off bottles.


Chris

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They are good for a lot more than a few uses. You should replace the plastic seal in the lid every third or fourth time you use them. By the way plastic cola bottles work great for beer! Colas are carbonated at a lot higher rate than beer. I like to use 1 liter ones for going to the park. anyone who see them just thinks you are drinking pop.

NScooknet said:

[...]Is it normal to lose that much wort if you ferment in a glass carboy like that?[...]

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Not if you use a properly sized carboy for the batch size (eg: a 6.5 gallon model for a five gallon batch).

If you try to ferment five gallons in a five gallon container, you're most likely going to lose some beer (or in your example, a lot of beer). Doesn't matter if it's plastic, glass, metal, carboy, bucket or keg...

Cheers!

Like day_trippr said, a larger glass carboy will prevent the need of a blow off tube. I used to use the 5 gallon carboys for primary until I brewed a high gravity Tripel. After seeing the amount of blowoff I invested in s 6.5 gallon glass carboy.

aryoung1980 said:

Like day_trippr said, a larger glass carboy will prevent the need of a blow off tube. I used to use the 5 gallon carboys for primary until I brewed a high gravity Tripel. After seeing the amount of blowoff I invested in s 6.5 gallon glass carboy.

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Actually, I always use 1" ID blow-offs at the start of primary because my typical batch size going in is a bit over 5.25 gallons and even with temperature controlled fermentation of my 6.5 gallon carboys I almost always get some foamy blow-off.

It never adds up to any significant volume loss, but it doesn't take much chunky krausen to plug up a ferm lock and after having launched one once and having to clean the resulting mess out of one of my fridges I immediately switched to blow-off tubes.

I have one 5 gallon carboy. I use it as a Star San reservoir...

Cheers!

Honestly, I've never seen the larger carboys around here anywhere, they are all the same size, the ones that hold 23 liters where the liquid level comes right up to the point where the class starts to curve inwards toward the neck when 23 liters of wort are in them.

The 1st one came with the beer kit, and the second one I bought was the only one the place had.

If this is the way it's gonna be, I'm using those glass ones for wine or something else, and getting more plastic ones that can handle the excess krausen.

Just outta curiosity, what would happen if you fermented in a plastic bucket as your primary, then, after it all settled down and primary fermentation stopped after a few days, you stirred it all up and got the yeast cake all suspended in the wort, and then racked it to a glass secondary, and let it "re-settle" in the secondary glass carboy?

Since the main issue with racking to a secondary seems to be leaving the yeast cake behind and the wort not sitting on it long enough, wouldn't it be beneficial to siphon all that yeast over to the secondary fermenter along with the wort??

That way, one could ferment in the larger plastic bucket, but still let it age in the glass carboys, and not feel the pain of beer loss.

Of course the proper thing would be to just buy bigger carboys, but ya gotta work with what ya got!

Chris

Have you tried using Fermacap? It works pretty well at preventing boilovers and blowoff

digitalhifi said:

Have you tried using Fermacap? It works pretty well at preventing boilovers and blowoff

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I've heard of that stuff, but never seen it in the local supply stores here.

I'm a bit leery of putting anything artificial into my wort, one of the whole appeals to me of home brewing is to get good quality beer that has no preservatives or any other nasties in it that make you feel like crap the next day after drinking it.

I wonder if drinking a silicone based additive would effect you much?

Thanks for the suggestion, if it's safe I might consider it.

Chris