Batch size for 5 gallon primary?

[BrewinHooligan]

I was given a Mr Beer kit for Christmas and have been loving it, but want to expand my wings. I have gotten my hands on a 5 gallon carboy I will be using as a primary and am curious what others have experienced with using this size for primary. I am concerned about blow-offs. Would I be able to ferment 5 gallons in here without too much trouble, or would I be better to modify my batch size to 4 gallons?

 

[jmprdood]

I have a 5g plastic bucket and usually brew 4.5 in it - but that depends on how "big" the beer is. You wuld be safe at 4g I think.

 

[spokaniac]

I used a 5 gallon carboy for my first batch. Had quite a bit of blow off (I thought) about a quart or so. Still ended up with 48 bottles worth when I bottled last Sat, so about 4.5 gal. Only bad part....... still waiting on them to carb up

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Just tried my first brew that has been carbing for 10 days now... Carbed well, but a little green yet. The waiting is the hardest part! I found that Costco has cases of Kirkland beer for $19 that I am drinking in the meantime to add to my bottle arsenal so that helps some. Their beer is actually pretty good too and gives a description of the malts, hops, and IBU so you can clone it if you like it well enough.

 

[klnosaj]

I brew many 3.25-3.5 gallon batches as experiments. I primary in a 5 gal and secondary in a 3 gal. Never had a single blow-off issue at that rate and have gone as high as 4.25 gals in a "5" gal carboy. The actual volume of a 5 gal carboy is closer to 5.5 gals (similarly, at least one of my "3" gal carboys has a 3.5 gal capacity) so you have some room to play with.

 

[sonex]

if you ferment at the coldest end of a yeasts range the blow off is negligible. if you can control your fermentation temp at the very low side you don't need much head space for most yeasts. There are a few yeasts that go nuts though and with those all bets are off.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I live in Arizona and temps can be an issue... I have a swamp cooling system that seems to keep things in check. What yeasts should I look out for to avoid?