primary in carboy and not bucket

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new to brewing and had a simple question.

All of my previous batches have involved primary and secondary fermentations. Primary in a bucket and then racking to a secondary fermenter, a carboy.

However, I have read that many brewers are able to use a single fermenter for the entire process, and then rack back and forth at the end of fermentation to rid of sediment.

So my question is, is it possible to use my carboy for the entire process? Do I need to use the bucket at all?

Thanks, any help and tips would be much appreciated here.

You can use a carboy to primary in, and then do no secondary, I do it all the time. I do use a 6.5 gallon carboy though. The 5 gallon carboy would probably be too small to contain the krausen (foam on top during fermentation and you'd definitely get a lot of blow-off)

You also don't need to rack back and forth. I just rack into my bottling bucket carefully from the carboy primary when I bottle.

I really need to type faster -

Quick answer - You can use the carboy as a primary and you do not have to use a secondary.

However, if your carboy is only 5 gallons, then you do not have much headspace for fermentation and you will need to use a blow-off tube (a quick search will return hundreds of links). You will more than likely lose some of your beer or you could just start with less.

Also, you need to take into consideration how long you will keep it in the primary - no direct answer as to how long is too long but I believe 3-4 months is the max for a regular OG beer.

I'm not sure of racking back and forth after fermentation (risky to me) I only rack once when fermentation is complete and that is to the bottling bucket. Hope this helps

you can also chill the primary (glass or bucket) for a few days before racking after fermentation is complete. This is called Cold Crashing. It helps to clear the beer (allow more sediment to fall out and compact nice and tight at the bottom.)

Okay, so two more questions:

a) Say I still want to use a normal airlock with my primary carboy. How much less liquid should I have to put in the carboy in order to allow room for the head?

b) What is the minimum amount of time it will take to ferment with just one fermenter (as opposed to 2)? I have heard that three weeks is sufficient. I'm talking about regular everyday ales, nothing special.

1. I would say at least a gallon

2. 3 weeks should be good. You can wait awhile longer as well.
All fermentation should occur in the primary. When we transfer to the "secondary" we (homebrewers) are really not transferring to a secondary fermentation vessel. It really is used more as a clearing vessel.