would you use a 6G carboy as a primary?

I specifically ordered a kit that contained a glass carboy. It arrived a few weeks ago and i was measuring it out recently and it turns out it is 6 gallon not 6.5 gallon.

I was planning on using the carboy as a primary and then bottle conditioning after a few weeks. Now I'm not so sure I want to do so. Wouldn't it make a big mess? Is 6G a little too small?

That will be fine... if a beer is going to blow off, it wont matter of it is 6 gal or 6.5... it will blow off anyway.

Many of us use 6g Better Bottles as primaries. With a blow off hose you may lose a quart or so of beer from a 5g batch. With good temperature control on many lower gravity beers I lose none.

GT

I use 6 gallons and 6.5 gallons, and they work great for 5.5 gallon batches. Actually, there is quite a bit of headspace and I don't get any blowoffs except when brewing a wheat beer or something high gravity.

well that is good to know.

so can i just shove a tube into my stopper where the airlock was supposed to go? Or should I get a bigger hose?

I use a short section of racking cane, and shove it into the rubber stopper. Then, fit a piece of normal 3/8" racking tubing over that and put the end in a jar of sanitizer. Works great!

how far down into the carboy should a blowoff tube (or cane) go?

If you use Fermacap-S you pretty much never have to worry about a blowoff. I have yet to have one with it. Up to a 1.090 beer.

Fermcap-S Foam Inhibitor- 1 oz. :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies

Can get it at most online places, but here is a link.

I use 6 gal carboys as my primaries too. Works well. I go get a blowoff sometimes, but who doesn't.

A blow-off tube like the one pictures above (tube shoved into stopper) will work fine. Unless of course you use whole leaf hops and don't strain them out. I learned that the hard way (beer on ceiling ).

TacoGuthrie said:

how far down into the carboy should a blowoff tube (or cane) go?

Click to expand...

Just far enough to go through the rubber stopper. It just needs to make a seal, and give you something to slip the 3/8 tubing over.

When I saw the following type of blow off contraption on here, I had to have one. The parts are very cheap and I have no worry of a tube ever plugging.

Blow off Tube - HomeBrewTalk Gallery

haha, that's awesome...the king of all blowoff tubes! The only problem is I can't tell if it's a piece of brewing equipment or part of my saltwater aquarium setup.

that pvc blow off is something else.

2Heads do you ever have any issues with clogging considering how narrow the racking cane is?

TacoGuthrie said:

that pvc blow off is something else.

2Heads do you ever have any issues with clogging considering how narrow the racking cane is?

Click to expand...

Nope, never had a problem. Others here have also taken a 1/2" racking tubing and put the end over the inner pipe on a normal airlock. I already had some extra 3/8" so that's what I've used. Works great, and no clogs yet. Just make sure to use a BIG container of sanitizer and change it out once a day. When fermentation slows, or if temps drop you don't want to suck all that nasty stuff back into your fermenter. :cross:

i'll try it out.

I think my equipment is a little smaller. i looked at the hose and it's 5/16". I don't think the cane had a # on it but obviously smaller than that. It takes some force to get the cane through the stopper.

I'll set it up and keep an eye on it.

We brew tonight!