5 Gallon Carboy for Fermentation

If I were to use my 5 gallon carboy for fermentation how much beer loss would I incur? Also will you lose some with a 6 gallon carboy as well? I have the opportunity to pick up a 6 gallon but not sure if I should or not. If I were to get a 6 gallon can I use just an airlock instead of a blowoff tube?

Any thoughts or opinions will be greatly appreciated. I also have a 6.5 gallon bottling bucket. Would it be even better to just use that for my primary fermenter? Too many options and not sure which is better than the other or more superior than the other.

Thanks in advance.

Eric

It depends on the size of ur batch if its 5 gals using a 5 gal carboy is a really bad idea imo because u don't have enough head space for the krasen. I have done 5 gal batchs in a 6 gal carboy with not problem and a blow off tube is not nessasaly needed but is nice. Imo I would never use a bottle bucket for a fermentor because I would be afraid the spigot would leak like it does when I'm bottling

That was my concern. Yes I do 5 gallon batches when I brew as it works out better for me. I have heard of people using the 5 gallon carboy with a blowoff tube and then you end up losing some beer. Not the best route I wanted to go. I was reading a couple of magazines and it stated the 6.5 gallon carboy is better for brewing beer. Wasn't sure if the whole 1/2 gallon would make that much of a difference so I thought I would ask here as everyone has been very helpful so far.

It kind of depends on how much you fill the 5 gallon carboy up, and how particular you are about volumes. Other variables include fermentation temperatures, yeast strains, and wort composition - all things that effect the vigor of fermentation.

I actually do my fermenting in a 5 gallon better bottle because it fits a little better in my fermentation fridge. FWIW, I collect exactly 5 gallons, than pitch a whole starter (1-1.5L). No secondary in the equation, but a blow-off assembly is certainly needed. In fact, I have used the 6 gallon carboy on those same 5 gallon batches, and still had tremendous blowoff.

In my experience, the beer loss from blowoff is a drop in the bucket (literally) compared to the amount of absorption from the trub and hop material that you either carry over from the kettle or that you add during dry hop.

I try to minimize break material, but some huge dry hop bills have costed me about 1/2 gallon of finished beer. A small price to pay when you live in hop land.

Joe

I have a 6 gallon Better Bottle, it is fine for most fermentations. I almost always start every beer with a blow off. The few very vigorous ferments that I've had haven't really resulted in much loss. Also, I usually put about 5.5 gallons into the ferementer. I wouldn't put 5 gallons into a 5 gallon carboy, I would bet that in some cases you could lose .5-1 gallon to blow off. If you really want a lot of room, look at some of the buckets, they are cheap and I've seen them up to 7.5 gallons.

I have only done one batch of beer so far. The first time I used a friends equipment the first time. I actually have the 5 gallon glass carboy and was thinking of using that for a while before possibly upgrading. All my fermentation is going to take place in my basement in a dark corner. As for hops and etc...well being new I am still using the beer brewing kits you can get so nothing to over the top or fancy that I am aware of. So I don't know if that will help any with the answers either. Surprised to hear about the 6 gallon needing a blowoff too though. I thought maybe I could get away with using a 6 gallon and an airlock.

Blow off is a piece of tubing that runs into another container. You'll regret it when the gas build up blows your airlock and beer gets everywhere.

If I use the 5 gallon I planned on using the blowoff tube. I have read all about it was just looking for some opinions and to see what others have done. I have also heard of some people that ran a blowoff tube for the first couple of days when the majority of the fermentation was taking place and when things "settled" down they then put an airlock on it. But does this sound like a good practice? I would think that would allow some air into the fermenter by doing that.

I use a 6.5 gal carboy and always use a blow off tube and switch to an airlock there is very little chance of oxygen gettin in the carboy cuz so much co2 is getting pushed out. As long as ur cork and airlock is sanatized ur good

I can now strongly recommend a blow off tube. Around the same time this thread started, I decided to be lazy and ferment in my carboy because I didn't feel like cleaning a bucket and the carboy was easier to get to. I put my RIS in the carboy, with an airlock, and stuck it in the spare bedroom to get fermenting per usual. That was on Monday. There was no visible fermentation by Thursday, it just looked like flat cola. But I took a reading and noticed the gravity was dropping, so I just stirred it up a little instead of repitching.

When I came home on Friday I opened the door to find my wall, ceiling and floor splattered with the fruits of my labor. The stopper was still in the top, but my air lock lid and inner piece were blown right off the top. I sanitized some tubing I had and shoved it through my stopper. After it settles I will most likely put the airlock on...but I learned my lesson...I have pics if anyone is interested.

Also another lesson to new brewers reading this...don't freak out if your airlock doesn't bubble or if you don't see any Krausen...this took 5 days with absolutely no visual indication anything was happening, just had to stir it up a little. Patience is by far the coolest and best brew gadget you could ever have.

Pics! Pics! Pics! Show the non blow off tube brewers the outcome.

The last one is of my ceiling...

Hmmmm very interesting and good information. Was that a 5 gallon carboy?

Another point to ponder. I have found that if you have a vigorous fermentation the air lock sanitizer will either evaporate or get blown out. So I use a blow off tube all the time regardless if I am expecting any krausen to reach the top.

fishcrazy06 said:

Hmmmm very interesting and good information. Was that a 5 gallon carboy?

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Yep

So would it be a good practice to use the blow off tube for a while then switch to the airlock? I have heard of this. Also if I were to use a 5 gallon carboy for fermentation how much beer loss should I expect? Thanks for all the replies. Like I stated in another thread this forum is nothing but very helpful.

Yes, you can swap the tube for a standard airlock after the bulk of fermentation finishes up. There's little risk of getting air in there, as it'll have a nice layer of CO2 on top of the beer. So long as you don't stir it up, it'll be fine. I usually swap the airlock in after a week or so of fermentation, particularly with large brews like an RIS or IIPA.

Cool how much beer will one typically lose by using a 5 gallon carboy with a blow off tube?

Every ferment is different, can't give you a set number, plus never did 5 gallons in a 5 gallon container.

Some people use the silicone based fermcap to prevent loss - not something I personally use however.

Maybe I am just better off not using the 5 gallon carboy for my primary and getting a fermenting bucket.

I'd definitely go with something larger than 5 gallons for primary. A 5 gallon carboy makes an excellent secondary (if you choose to use one), but for typical batches of beer, will simply be insufficient.

And as samc stated, there's no way to really predict how much you'll lose, as it varies from brew to brew. A wort with an OG of 1.040 is far less likely to blow off a whole lot than one with an OG of 1.111, for example. For what it's worth, I use buckets exclusively and have no problems with them.

I do plan on doing secondary. I think I may use my 5 gallon as a secondary. I won't get into the debate weather to primary and then secondary or just primary. I was curious what everyone does. Thanks for all the replies though.

I use 5-gallon carboys as primaries fairly regularly with excellent results. Just be sure to use a blowoff.

If you're buying something new to be used as a primary, definitely get the 6+ gallon size. But if you're like me and you've accumulated a mixed collection of carboys and buckets... don't be afraid to use 'em.

Nope I am like you this is something I accumulated from friends and relatives and if I don't need to buy anything i would rather put the money towards more beer kits.

Care to explain your process to me either here or via PM Seven?

Thanks for the responses.

fishcrazy06 said:

Nope I am like you this is something I accumulated from friends and relatives and if I don't need to buy anything i would rather put the money towards more beer kits.

Care to explain your process to me either here or via PM Seven?

Thanks for the responses.

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When you add 5-gals of wort to a 5-gal carboy you'll have less headspace in the carboy than you would with a 6+ gallon carboy or bucket. The main thing to watch out for when using 5-gallon carboys is the blowoff that you will most likely get because of the smaller vessel size.

Here's what I recommend when using a 5-gallon fermentor:

1. A blowoff tube is a must
2. Don't add more than 5-gals to the fermentor. 5-gals of wort in a 5-gal fermentor should still leave you with some headspace since 5-gal carboys typically hold a bit more than 5-gals
3. Place the full carboy into a large plastic bin or tub so it won't make a mess of your floors if something goes wrong
4. I haven't tried this myself yet but consider using fermcap or some other foam-reducing agent to help keep the foam to a minimum

There are plenty of threads here at HBT that describe how to rig up a blowoff. I also found these on youtube that may help:

• [ame]http://youtu.be/xX4D5ffT5sc[/ame]
• [ame]http://youtu.be/1v24YVP2b5c[/ame]
• [ame]http://youtu.be/mUNjAx3Omzg[/ame]

If you expect and plan for the blowoff from the beginning then things will go much more smoothly. In fact, I've had explosive fermentations using 6.5 gallon buckets in the past so now I always use a blowoff tube no matter what size vessel I'm using. You can switch the blowoff out for a regular airlock once the vigorous fermentation slows down after the first few days.

fishcrazy06 said:

If I were to use my 5 gallon carboy for fermentation how much beer loss would I incur?

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You'll lose very little to none if you follow the above recommendations. You'll get some foam through the blowoff but this won't reduce your wort/beer volume in the carboy by any noticeable amount.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much for the reply Seven. This was exactly what I was looking for for information. I am going to look up the video's and then do the blowoff tube search here as well. Thanks again.

You could always just scale back your recipes to 4 or 4.5 gallons when you want to use the 5 gallon carboy. Less beer, less mess.

Now I just need to decide if I leave it in Primary for a few weeks or move it over to a secondary. Hmmmmmmm

fishcrazy06 said:

Maybe I am just better off not using the 5 gallon carboy for my primary and getting a fermenting bucket.

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Yup.

I use 5 gallon glass carboy's exclusively...I get them dirt cheap from the culligan water guy that delivers water to my work.

When I make a batch, I place the carboy's in their plastic crates and plug in a #7 stopper. I place a glass pitcher nearby filled about 1/2 way with water, and run some 3/8 inch tubing into the hole in the stopper and coiled up at the bottom of my glass pitcher. I just leave it this way until its time to keg or transfer to a secondary

The loss of beer should be very minimal (the batches I have going now never even reached the plug)

On a side note, I only use airlocks when I secondary a beer (they are a PITA to clean) and I only secondary when I'm making something with a lot of sediment (like pureed fruit)

Sounds like quite a few people are using 5 gallon carboys for their primary's. I will definitely be giving this a try the next batch I ferment. I would like to hear more replies on how you set it up. Seems to me like I will just go this route. Thanks for the replies.