5 gal recipe in 5 gal carboy?

[BoisePorter]

I'm quite sure this has been answered 1000+ times but whatever I searched for wasn't the right thing. So I'll ask anyway.

Is a 5 gal carboy large enough for doing a 5 gal recipe? Last night I filled my carboy up 1/2 gal at a time to mark with a sharpie where they fall. The 5 gal mark is quite close to the top.

With a large (maybe 1 inch?) blow off hose, will the krausen be too much and go all over? How big of a receptacle do you want/need at the non-carboy end of the tube, and how much liquid (sanitized h2o, vodka, etc.) do you want in it?

Thanks In Advance.

 

[motobrewer]

yeah, i've done it a few times. blow-off tube obviously....

i just have a regular small bucket with water and a bit of starsan. enough to cover the bottom of the tube

 

[mfraier]

Messy, but its been done. Buckets are cheap.....a bigger carboy is also an option.

 

[BoisePorter]

I would love to get bigger carboys (I actually have 2 of these 5 gal ones). But I haven't seen any place that would let me trade them and pay the difference. And since I got these for free, I might as well use them. I do have a fermenting bucket, I would assume it is the 6.5 gal variety. It has a lid with a hole and rubber grommet, and the airlocks I have appear to fit in the hole. I certainly could use the bucket, but I'm not 100% sure how well it seals, and the whole not being clear is just annoying for a non-patient person. So if in the future I wanted to make 4 gal recipes to use in the 5 gal carboys, would I just cut everything in a 5 gal recipe by 20% and leave the time amounts the same?

 

[mfraier]

If you have a bucket for a primary use it. They seal fine; you can make great beer with them, and they are much easier to clean. The 5 gallon carboy is mainly used as a secondary.....

 

[dvdanny]

I would love to get bigger carboys (I actually have 2 of these 5 gal ones). But I haven't seen any place that would let me trade them and pay the difference. And since I got these for free, I might as well use them. I do have a fermenting bucket, I would assume it is the 6.5 gal variety. It has a lid with a hole and rubber grommet, and the airlocks I have appear to fit in the hole. I certainly could use the bucket, but I'm not 100% sure how well it seals, and the whole not being clear is just annoying for a non-patient person. So if in the future I wanted to make 4 gal recipes to use in the 5 gal carboys, would I just cut everything in a 5 gal recipe by 20% and leave the time amounts the same?

I'd use that bucket if you have it, just so long as it isn't really scratched up. I use plastic 50% of the time and have had zero issues with them. Whether they seal or not isn't really an issue, and you can look at their opacity as a benefit, it'll prevent light from getting to the beer better then clear glass! (I still cover my plastic and glass fermenters with two layers of black trash bags though)