Fermenting in 5 gallon buckets

[Travis H]

I have extra food grade buckets that had icing in them. I was wondering if that would be too big to let a 3 gallon batch ferment in?

 

[jrgtr42]

No, it wouldn't be too big - you want to have headroom in there for it to foam up.
I'd say you probably wouldn't want too much bigger than that for a 3 gallon batch, but 5 should be fine.

 

[Travis H]

No, it wouldn't be too big - you want to have headroom in there for it to foam up.
I'd say you probably wouldn't want too much bigger than that for a 3 gallon batch, but 5 should be fine.

thank you for backing up what I was thinking

 

[Travis H]

Would it be an issue if I use the same amount of yeast in a 3 gallon batch as a 5 gallon batch

 

[day_trippr]

Even if it was Day Zero yeast I doubt it would be any more of an issue than using 3/5s of the cell count.
More likely one has month-old yeast which by then has attenuated down to what could be a proper direct pitch for a 3 gallon batch.

That's pretty much the reason why most advise making starters to get the cell counts back up to a good pitch for five gallons...

Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

I have extra food grade buckets that had icing in them. I was wondering if that would be too big to let a 3 gallon batch ferment in?

I use a 6 1/2 gallon fermenter for 2 1/2 gallon batches with no problem.

Would it be an issue if I use the same amount of yeast in a 3 gallon batch as a 5 gallon batch

It is very difficult to overpitch enough to cause a flavor change that can be noticed. If you used 5 times the normal amount you probably could not notice much difference in the flavor....but your wallet would be lighter.