RIS in a 6 Gallon Carboy

Next Saturday I will be brewing NB's imperial stout. Which is a 14 pounds extract with 1.5 pound specialty grains. I dont really wanna do a blowoff so i am asking if you think doing a 5 gallon batch in a 6 gallon carboy with airlock will be good enough? Or will i absolutely need a blowoff?

What yeast are you using?

I will be brewing that kit for the first time in 3 weeks. By everything I have read, I am worried about a blowoff in my bucket (7 gallon). I plan on doing the blowoff tube just to be safe, one of those better safe than sorry situations.

But maybe someone with experience with that kit can give us more info.

Here is a photo of my last RIS in a 6 gallon Better-Bottle! It speaks for itself! This also had the recommended dosage of foam control drops! Suffice it to say, you'll need a blow off tube.

I bet wrapping some tin foil around the tube one the blowoff vessel would be a good way to harvest some yeast,,,

squeekybobo said:

I bet wrapping some tin foil around the tube one the blowoff vessel would be a good way to harvest some yeast,,,

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That RIS above puked out so much liquid, trub and yeast that it started fermenting in my sanitizer filled blow off vessel!

johnsma22 said:

Here is a photo of my last RIS in a 6 gallon Better-Bottle! It speaks for itself! This also had the recommended dosage of foam control drops! Suffice it to say, you'll need a blow off tube.

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That picture is getting me all hot and bothered. Im planning my first RIS, thanks for the advice

I am using Wyeast 1728. Thanks for the advice everyone. I will for sure use a blowoff assembly.

Now for my second question. I will be letting it sit on secondary for about 6 months. With a beer that big will I need to repitch yeast before bottling for optimum carb?

At 6 months you should be fine with the original yeast. Might take a couple of months to fully carb.

DTBird said:

I am using Wyeast 1728. Thanks for the advice everyone. I will for sure use a blowoff assembly.

Now for my second question. I will be letting it sit on secondary for about 6 months. With a beer that big will I need to repitch yeast before bottling for optimum carb?

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I would add more yeast. I let a barleywine sit for 6 months and it never carbed.

I did NB's RIS extract kit using two packets of S-04 and we def could have used a blow off tube. We had wort through the airlock. I did however do AHB's Old Rasputin Clone using 18.5# of grain and US-05 and I did not need a blow off tube. The krausen did come almost to the top but it was not needed. Both were 5 gallon batches.

Going by memory, NB's RIS has only 12lbs of dark LME. Anyway, I added some things to mine when I brewed it and used a Belgian yeast. I'm glad I used an 8gal fermenter because even a 6.5gal fermenter would have had blow off issues.

Blowoffs rule, they give you piece of mind while you're at work all day. Get a 6 gallon better bottle carboy and blowoff hose. In my experience my Krausen's have been minimal with dry yeast compared to liquid. My current RIS started at 1.083 and is down to 1.028 in just over a week, 2 packs of S05.

Thanks guys I brewed 4 days ago and I will still blowing off krausen this morning. I am happy cause for the first 24 hours there was no activity. But man am I glad I used a blowoff tube. My wife would.have been pissed

I brewed a 1.105 RIS (~6 gallons gallons)and split it between two plastic buckets. No blow off necessary with all that headspace, but when I racked it I could see the krausen had come within an inch or two from the lid. There was a hell of a lot of sugar in there. I hadn't seen such syrupy wort before. It gave a slick sheen to thermometers, hydrometers, etc.

Just 5 or 6 more weeks till bottling, I'm psyched!