Got two 5 gal carboys as a gift from father in law

[GABrewguy]

I got two 5 gallon carboys from my father in law, he used them for making wine. I'd like to brew beer in them. I've been brewing 5 gallon kits with very good success in a 6.5 gallon plastic pail.

My questin is: how should I take the 5 gal kits and use the 5 gal carboys?

1. Split a 5 gal batch in half and divide it between two carboys?
2. Add ingredients to make a 7 gal batch and divide it between two carboys?

 

[Face Eater]

Well if your primary is the bucket you can use the 5 gallon carboys for secondaries (which a lot of people don't bother with secondaries anymore) or you can make smaller batches to fit into one or larger batches to split into two. Splitting batches could lead to some experimenting which may be good depending on your brewing style.

 

[GABrewguy]

Whats the easiest way to scale a 5 gal batch up to 7 ga?

 

[Face Eater]

Usually I just use some brewing software which you can scale up easily. Beer Smith is one of the more popular ones. Or you can divide your ingredients by 5 from one of your recipes and them multiply that by 7 which will get you on the ballpark for 7 gallon batch. The only thing that really won't work on well is hops since there utilization will be different especially boiling the full amount.

There are some good free apps online for brewing software that can make this easy. Hopefully someone can chime in with some other options as well.

 

[beergolf]

I do 4 galon batches in mine. Scale evything down 20%.

 

[mysteryshrimp]

Brewersfriend.com has a scaling tool in it's recipe calculator.

 

[RM-MN]

I do a bunch of 2 1/2 gallon batches in a 6 1/2 gallon fermenter bucket and it works fine for them. You should be fine with splitting a 5 gallon batch between the 2 of them. You wouldn't even have to split them evenly. A gallon of wort should still produce enough CO2 to purge the air out of a 5 gallon carboy.

 

[mysteryshrimp]

I do a bunch of 2 1/2 gallon batches in a 6 1/2 gallon fermenter bucket and it works fine for them. You should be fine with splitting a 5 gallon batch between the 2 of them. You wouldn't even have to split them evenly. A gallon of wort should still produce enough CO2 to purge the air out of a 5 gallon carboy.

Yes. This.

I do mostly 3 gallon batches, 6 gallon buckets are fine for primary. If you want to secondary, you do need something close to your final volume.

 

[Jbird]

Let me just say badass gift. I want my family to start gifting like that. Right now they think I have it all. Ass we all know we can always use more.

 

[amandabab]

Whats the easiest way to scale a 5 gal batch up to 7 ga?

ingredients / 5 multiplied by 7

 

[Snisup]

i do 4 galon batches in mine. Scale evything down 20%.

+1