6 Gallon Carboy

[millerspiel]

Can I transfer from a 5 gallon bucket to a 6 gallon carboy for my dry hopping or do i need a 5 gallon carboy?
Thanks,

 

[Coldies]

Yes you can. Welcome to the forum by the way from Carlsbad, CA

 

[AnOldUR]

Yes you can.

Well, you can, but it's better to have a minumum amount of head space in your secondary. If your primary was a 5 gallon bucket, you have what, 4 gallons of beer? If it were me, I'd fill a 3 gallon carboy up to the neck for dry hopping and bottle the rest with Coopers drops without the dry hopping.

 

[jdlev]

What sort of changes will you see in the beer from dry hopping as opposed to simply adding the hops at the end of your boil? I've had fantastic results from just adding them to the end of my boil for 2 minutes...about the best part of my beer has been the aroma (mainly because I screwed up the bitter hops with the aroma hops lol)

 

[JonK331]

What sort of changes will you see in the beer from dry hopping as opposed to simply adding the hops at the end of your boil? I've had fantastic results from just adding them to the end of my boil for 2 minutes...

Lots of hop flavor without adding ANY ibus.

The head space is not that big of an issue, when you transfer, you will stir the yeast slightly and the beer will off gas some CO2. This will create a protective layer on top of the beer, protecting it from oxygen.

 

[igotsand]

How much headspace do you have now with the 5 gallon bucket?
If you are throwing in pellets, and you have some headspace, just throw them into the bucket, or just rack them in the carboy then...
how many oz's are you dryhopping with?

Vista here

 

[AnOldUR]

The head space is not that big of an issue, when you transfer, you will stir the yeast slightly and the beer will off gas some CO2. This will create a protective layer on top of the beer, protecting it from oxygen.

This myth has taken root here, but don't believe it. Gasses will mix. There is no "protective layer" unless CO2 is constantly being produced by active fermentation (which it shouldn't be in the secondary vessel.) If you’ve allowed for enough time in the primary the CO2 in suspension will equalize to meet the pressure / temperature environment, so you will have minimal off gassing. The gasses in the head space will combine and your beer will be exposed to oxygen.

That said, off flavors from oxygen take time. If you’ll be consuming your beer quickly you may not even notice, but it is simply good practice to minimize the head space when conditioning your beer in a secondary vessel.

Lots of hop flavor without adding ANY ibus.

This is also misleading. Dry hopping is all about aroma, not flavor. The idea that aroma can be confused with flavor was brought up in a recent BYO article on hops. They also say that IBU’s are increased slightly by dry hopping, but the perceived bitterness is not.

 

[millerspiel]

This myth has taken root here, but don't believe it. Gasses will mix. There is no "protective layer" unless CO2 is constantly being produced by active fermentation (which it shouldn't be in the secondary vessel.) If you’ve allowed for enough time in the primary the CO2 in suspension will equalize to meet the pressure / temperature environment, so you will have minimal off gassing. The gasses in the head space will combine and your beer will be exposed to oxygen.

That said, off flavors from oxygen take time. If you’ll be consuming your beer quickly you may not even notice, but it is simply good practice to minimize the head space when conditioning your beer in a secondary vessel.



This is also misleading. Dry hopping is all about aroma, not flavor. The idea that aroma can be confused with flavor was brought up in a recent BYO article on hops. They also say that IBU’s are increased slightly by dry hopping, but the perceived bitterness is not.

Thanks for all the advice. Sorry I wasn't too clear. My bucket is a 6 gallon bucket but I have 5 gallons fermenting in it. I was a little worried about the oxygen. As AnOldUR said I am dry hopping for aroma. I plan on keeping it in the secondary for 7 days. I must admit I am a novice. This is only my second batch.