6 gallon carboy as a primary when brewing 5 gallons?

[Anthonytgm]

Just for some reassurance, we brewed a pumpkin ale Saturday night. And it's 5 gallons but we put it in out 6 gallon fermenter. We also Brewer an Irish red prior to that and put that in a 5 gallon fermenter. Now the red is bubbling like crazy there's some intense activity there. The pumpkin ale seemed to initially be the one that started to bubble but now the bubbles aren't as frequent as the red. When I got home from work the pumpkin had about 3 inches or more of krausen in there so I know there's activity.

I'm curious would the extra room in the 6 gallon be an issue?

Would it slow the fermenting process? Or will it just bubble less because there's more room in the fermenter. Still new to this. Sorry for the noob question. We just didn't wanna use our other 5 gallon fermenter due to the old IPA smell not quite leaving.

 

[day_trippr]

I use 6.5 gallon carboys for fermenting with target yield of 5.25 gallons to the keg.

Space is your friend during primary fermentation...

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

You need some space for the krausen during primary fermentation.. Some would say a 6 gallon vessel is not big enough for a 5 gallon batch.. If the Irish Red is a 5 gallon recipe in a 5 gallon fermenter you are going to get some blow off. Set up a blow off tube ASAP....

The amount of space in the fermenter will have no effect on the length of time the fermentation takes..

I do all my fermentations, 5 gallons in 6 gallon Better Bottles with a blow off tube to start.....

 

[Rcbandl]

You want the extra room during primary fermentation. For secondary or long aging is when you should have as little headroom as possible to reduce exposure to oxygen.

 

[Gavin C]

You want headspace in the fermentor for the krausen to form.

A 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy will result in you losing beer like this.

The fermentor should be bigger than the batch size.

Like this.

5.5 gallons in 6 gallon carboy.

 

[Anthonytgm]

This is what it looks like now

 

[Anthonytgm]

Anyone have any advice on do's and donts of adding the blow off tube to the big mouth bubbler?

 

[day_trippr]

I'd try to find some thick wall vinyl tubing that would provide a tight fit in the lid without the bung.
Skinny tubing like that in the picture is prone to clogging (just look at the chunks atop the wort in that pic).
I use 1" ID/1-1/4" OD vinyl tubing jammed into the necks of my 6.5g carboys and have never had one clog...

Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

Extra space for primary fermentation is a good thing. See how these guys do it in their commercial brewery. http://www.cheshirebrewhouse.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Elgoods-Open-Fermentation.jpg