Primary in glass?

[underwaterdan]

I am looking to primary two beers at once but I only have one fermentation bucket. I was thinking of using my glass carboy to primary the other beer. Is there anything I need to know in advance to do that? I guess this also means I would be skipping secondary for both beers.

 

[wyzazz]

How big is the carboy? You won't fit a 5 gallon batch of beer in a 5 gallon carboy without losing at least 1/2 gallon. Skipping secondary is no big deal, I almost never use a secondary.

 

[Strave19]

Umm... sanitize it first. Put an airlock on it (or blowoff) and you're good to go...

 

[pcollins]

Yeah. Sanitize it and use a blow off tube. When you transfer into the carboy you can either take the loss up front by leaving a fair bit of head space to allow for krausen or be ready for some really serious blow off and not leave any head space but be prepared to clean up... possibly. Either way, use a blow off tube until the krausen settles and you can safely switch to an airlock.

 

[CrookedTail]

I do that all the time. I bought a second airlock and have both the bucket and carboy going at the same time. Unless I'm really aiming for clarity I rarely do a secondary fermentation. Three weeks in the primary then straight to the keg.

 

[Bret86944]

I haven't used a secondary. I do 2 or 3 weeks in a glass carboy and then bottle. To deal with Krausen I just stuck a rubber tube into the rubber stopper, then put the other end into a half-filled one gallon milk container (half filled with water, not milk). It acts as an air lock but also has room for the Krausen. After a few days I just switched out the tube for a regular air lock. Worked great except I would recommend using a crappy tube because it's impossible to get all the krausen out of the tube.

 

[FiddleTilDeath]

This works fine - the only reason I don't use my glass carboy for primary is its way way harder to clean primary fermentation gunk out than a bucket. But I have used it for this, and there's definitely nothing wrong with it.

 

[944play]

This works fine - the only reason I don't use my glass carboy for primary is its way way harder to clean primary fermentation gunk out than a bucket.

PBW or Oxiclean and hot water does all the work!

I regularly ferment 4 gallon batches in my 5 gallon carboy. I'd sometimes like to have more beer, but it's kinda nice knowing that the keg won't overflow.

 

[nicegut]

Buy one more Bucket and one more Carboy. Look on Craigslist. There are plenty of people parting out their HB equipment. You'd be surprised what you can find for little $$. Or wait for AHB to have another free shipping promo. Shipped form TX to MA with no issues. They have the best prices, and great customer service.

 

[straycat]

brewing for 15 years and i've never used a plastic bucket for anything except bottling. glass has worked great for me. clean the carboys up real good after you use them and the next time you need them a quick wash and good sanitizing and you are golden.

 

[CrookedTail]

This works fine - the only reason I don't use my glass carboy for primary is its way way harder to clean primary fermentation gunk out than a bucket. But I have used it for this, and there's definitely nothing wrong with it.

Get yourself a carboy brush. It makes it easier.