Okay to do 5 gallon kit in 6 gallon carboy?

[rocketsan]

Okay to do that? Seen quite a few threads with fermenting brews with tons of headspace. Coming from cider world where headspace is kept to a minimum, I was surprised to see how much people were leaving in their carboys.

 

[grathan]

A lot depends on fermentation temperature and yeast variety.

 

[rocketsan]

It'll be an Irish stout or a milk stout

 

[flars]

If you don't let your fermentation temperatures go wild, five gallons in a six gallon fermentor is okay. Have a blow off tube assembly ready to go if you can't control wort temperature.
Caveat; When I use WY3068 the fermentor is 7.5 gallons.

 

[beowolf1911]

I don't think the op is concerned about overflow so much as O2 exposure, I always use a 6.5 gallon for my 5 gallon batches, the CO2 will displace the O2 pretty quickly.

 

[neo71665]

All my 5 gallon batches are done in a 6 gallon bucket. I haven't done anything but wine in my carboys for years.

 

[rocketsan]

I don't think the op is concerned about overflow so much as O2 exposure, I always use a 6.5 gallon for my 5 gallon batches, the CO2 will displace the O2 pretty quickly.

Right O2 exposure is my worry. Not going to secondary just leave it in carboy for 2-3 weeks. So 5 in a 6 should be okay?

 

[beowolf1911]

you're find CO2 will displace the air in the carboy quite quickly. How many brewers use plastic and that is somewhat air permeable.

 

[unionrdr]

And even the plastic FV's aren't all that o2 permiable. People think it's really quick & bad,but it's a rather slow process. Plastic is fine within normal time frames. And that extra gallon of head space is def needed for the krausen foam that buils up on top of the beer during fermentation.