Putting less than 3 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy?

Hi. I bought a 5 gallon home brew kit last year, and used it about 4 times before I put it away for the summer. I don't have a cellar and put it in the corner of my room to ferment, and it was just too hot in the house to do it year round.

But anyways, I don't have the space in my fridge to make another 5 gallons. I was thinking I could make maybe 3 gallons or less this time around. But is it ok to put 3 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy? Would there be too much air/space for it to work properly? Thanks for the help.

P.S. Coincidentally. I stopped drinking beer last year. I know, strange thing to do for someone that wanted to home brew, but I'm going to experiment with some things. Make small batches of beer or wine, find something that may get me back in the mood to drink. I found a recipe that uses frozen concentrated grape juice to make wine, sounded interesting.

if this is primary fermentation the the headspace is more or less meaningless. the yeast will more than fill that with CO2 during fermentation.

what exactly do you mean by "I don't have the space in my fridge to make another 5 gallons"?

I've only just started brewing but this is my knowledge on it. As far as I know you don't have to worry about it if you are only doing a primary. I believe if you secondary that is where you want to minimize headspace in the container, because there isn't much C02 being produced anymore.

If you use a bucket, I would make sure to only open the lid once you're ready to bottle... so your not letting that protective layer of C02 escape. I guess taking hydrometer reading might be difficult in this situation though.

Just my insight on this, someone can correct me if I'm wrong

what exactly do you mean by "I don't have the space in my fridge to make another 5 gallons"?

After I bottle. I know its not necessary to store them in the fridge but I'm kinda weird. I get too worried about it going bad or contaminants. My whole family is like one big Germiphobe Psyche ward.

But I figure if I make a small batch I can handle it better. You should have seen me with my first few batches. I actually made about 7 batches. only 3 made it to the bottles. I threw the other 4 out because my OCD freaked on me. It's a long arduous process to be a home brewer with germ phobias...

But anyways, thanks for the help. I really liked home brewing, I really am anxious to get started again.


Edit: So I shouldn't use a secondary? Will it be ok if I leave it in the primary the whole time?

Once it's fermented, the alcohol will keep out any harmful bacteria so germs really aren't an issue at that point. Anything that can get into your beer will not kill you and will not make you sick.

if you stick it in the fridge after bottling how do you carb your beer?

it will be perfectly fine to leave your beer on the yeast for as long as you want after fermentation.

Lateraliss said:

You should have seen me with my first few batches. I actually made about 7 batches. only 3 made it to the bottles. I threw the other 4 out because my OCD freaked on me. It's a long arduous process to be a home brewer with germ phobias...

Click to expand...

This seems like alcohol abuse! There isn't anything in beer that is supposed to be able to harm you... ...(wait for it)... ... except the alcohol!