Newbie here!

Hey everyone, another newbie here to poke fun at for all you pros out there I'm still in college, with a small apartment, but I really want to get started on this. I've read countless forums, looked at a lot of illustrated homebrew steps, and am reading "How to Brew" by John Palmer right now. I recently just aquired three 5 gallon glass carboys, and want to use them for fermenting, but I know a 6.5 gallon is reccomended for primary fermentation...but I want to start out on a one stage fermentation-bottling. Any ideas on how I can use these carboys without having to buy another bucket/carboy? Thanks for any info guys!

-Matt Abs

Make slightly smaller batches if you're dead set on using the 5 gal for fermentors and attach blow off tubing instead of an airlock (that method is described in Palmer's book) after the intense fermentation is done you can remove the blow off tubing and insert an airlock and rubber stopper.

IMHO you'd be better off staying in from the bar one night save $20 or $25 and a get a 6.5 gal glass fermentor, then you don't have to scale down your batches. The really bad thing about scaling batches down is you go through the same amount of work and run out of beer faster.

My $0.02

Good luck

Yeah I was actually planning on doing the blow off tubing...but since I have more than one of these carboys, would it be fine for me to make a whole batch, and put half in one and half in the other? I know that probably sounds stupid, but I really want to get started on this, but I am set on not buying another carboy at this time (later I will).

I don't see any problem with splitting up your batch into two different carboys if you don't want to lose any brew to blowoff. The biggest downside I see is having to clean two carboys at once instead of just one.

Well, that and forgetting to put yeast into BOTH of them (which I could totally see myself doing)