My first 5 gallon fermenter.

[ReaperOnefour]

Hello all. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. So i'll be brewing my first five gallon batch in about 2-3 weeks. I've been brewing 2.5 gallons, & before that i was brewing 1 gallon batches. I did some research, & i bought the fermenter that i like. Its the Chapman 7 gallon (ported) stainless steel brew bucket. I got it on amazon for a $133. Which i thought was a good deal. If anyone out there by the way has used this chapman fermenter before could you please drop me any tips on cleaning, maintenance, or any advice that you may have? Thanks in advance. Anyways. My question is. I also have the SS Brewtech 3.5 gallon brew bucket mini. ( which i used in brewing my 1, & 2.5 gallon batches.) When i wanted 2.5 gallons i would top off to 3 gallons to compensate for all the trub & gunk at the bottom of the conical. I would just estimate about 1/2 a gallon lost, like i said because of all the trub & gunk left behind. So do you think i should use the same concept when using the new fermenter? Topping off to 5 1/2 gallons to get 5 gallons. Or should i only use this concept when using the mini brew bucket? Thanks in advance for any tips or advice that you can help me out with.

 

[Jag75]

I'm not sure what everyone else does but my measurements are based on everything before the fermenter. If you want to leave a half gallon in your fermenter I'd just make a 5.5 gallon batch . When I make NEIPAs or any beer that gets soaked up by stuff I do 5.5 gallon batches that way i have 5 gallons going into my keg.

 

[ncbrewer]

I'm guessing you're thinking of doing a partial boil in the 3.5 gallon kettle, and topping off with water. If you're doing extract it should be ok. Late extract addition would be beneficial. If all-grain, it would be unusual - lautering would be inefficient. I've read about brewers doing it, but I've never done it.

 

[BrewInspector]

I think I understand where you are going here. When I want I specific amount of packagable beer, I would design my recipe accounting for the loss. So if you want 5 gallons and expect to lose 1/2 gallon to trub, I would design a recipe for 5.5 gallons rather than brewing a 5 gallon recipe and adding 1/2 gallon of extra water to that.

I would expect that your trub loss will be very similar to what you are currently experiencing perhaps only slightly larger.

 

[ReaperOnefour]

Thanks guys. I'll be trying the northern brewer mosaic IPA. (Extract) It sounds like a really good beer. My stove isn't very strong, & struggles to get two gallons up to a boil. When i was brewing 2.5 gallons, i would fill my brew kettle up to two gallons of hot tap water, then bring it to a low rolling boil. ( which is as high a boil as i can get.) Then top off to 3 gallons. So i guess ill have to do the same thing with the 5 gallon batch too. Just top off to 5.5 gallons though. I was looking at these immersion water heaters on amazon. All you do is plug it in to a wall outlet, & your all set. Maybe that would help.

 

[Jag75]

I didnt know you were brewing extract. Do you use whrilfoc?

 

[kh54s10]

Use a hop spider, cylinder or paint strainer bag to contain your hops. Then you shouldn't have too much gunk in the bottom of the fermenter that you need to adjust for. Some say this will mute the hop presence. I don't notice that but it is easy enough to just use a little more hops. I typically get less than 1/2 inch in the bottom of my fermenters. When I save the yeast cake I get about a quart.

I would not just top up with water unless you are taking that into account with your recipe. You would be diluting the beer.

I design all my recipes, often the same as a kit. I use Beersmith and adjust the recipe to remain the same but to give me 5.25 gallons into the fermenter, I then get 5 gallons for packaging.

 

[ReaperOnefour]

Cool. No, I don't use whrilflock. I thought about using it though.