Question about glass carboy

[momodig]

A 23L glass carboy. Roughly, how much of it will be full, to reach the 23L mark. I think the plastic primary bucket was labeled wrong (I purchased it at a store). When I fill the plastic bucket up to the marked 23L mark, then the contents into the 23L carboy, the carboy is just slightly above 3/4 full.

 

[milwaukee]

In my experience, carboys vary a lot by manufacturer. And the best way to do this is to buy something dependable, measure water, and mark it yourself. Sorry if that's not helpful and you have beer on hand going in.

Good luck.

 

[momodig]

Yes, I don't have anything to measure with, it's sunday night all is closed and beer needs to into carboy... I can probably wait till one more to transfer.

 

[Rossnaree]

My 6-1/2 gallon carboys are the same way, I get over 7-gallons in mine; use this thread - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/marking-your-carboy-63174/ - for a guesstimate for now (some of the pics show 6-1/2 gallon, others show 5-gallon). From what I've noticed, the stated volume of the carboy SEEMS to be the liquid level at the shoulder (where the curve from the sides of the carboy begins, if that makes any sense). So, your 5-gallon being about 3/4 full would be almost right. I realize that the information that you're looking for is to verify wort volume, but for now I've got nothing better to offer than the approximation I've mentioned (meaning, right around the place where the vertical sides diverge in the S-curve up toward the neck). And as milwaukee already stated, they do vary from one manufacture to another.

 

[momodig]

The only reason I ask is this. I'm making all my beer ahead of time for next summer. My primary bucket, I fill to the 23L mark, and as I stated in the above post, when ever I rack to my 23L carboy it's is only about 3/4 full. And as doing as instructed, I top my carboy off with water, so it's two inches from the cap (to reduce the amount of airspace in the carboy).

So initially, my sugar level reading is at 1.040, at the 23L mark on my primary bucket... but when I top my carboy up, I have to add an 2-3L, so that the wort is 2inches from the cap of the carboy. So in theory I'm diluting my beer right?

If I'm wanting to have my carboy filled to the cap, should I be filling my primary bucket to about 27L mark. That way I'm not diluting the the beer?

I'm just little confused. Thanks

*note in reference to you link my carboy is about 5 1/2 or 6 mark on the carboy.

 

[jfr1111]

I don't get it. Once the beer has finished fermenting (take hydro readings for this) and you have left it on the yeast for clean up, you can bottle. You don't have to wait for ages in a secondary, especially not with a 1.040 beer. Wait for it to carb and stick it in the fridge a week before drinking in 6 months. The sediment at the bottom of each bottle will probably paper thin and rock solid.

 

[kgfitz]

on all my buckets the marks have been off so I will not trust them. When I get a new bucket I just fill it 1 gallon at a time and make my own marks.

 

[MrInternet]

So initially, my sugar level reading is at 1.040, at the 23L mark on my primary bucket... but when I top my carboy up, I have to add an 2-3L, so that the wort is 2inches from the cap of the carboy. So in theory I'm diluting my beer right?

If I'm wanting to have my carboy filled to the cap, should I be filling my primary bucket to about 27L mark. That way I'm not diluting the the beer?

I'm just little confused. Thanks

*note in reference to you link my carboy is about 5 1/2 or 6 mark on the carboy.

Dude, you should NOT be fermenting that close to the top of the carboy... 23L in a 6.5 Gallon carboy is quite enough, and will still give you a big blowoff on most medium gravity (and higher) beers. Unless you're using Fermcap-S or something similar...

There's no reason to "top up" a carboy just to get it to a certain physical level on the carboy... they need to have some headroom to breathe and ferment... they really shouldn't be filled higher than an inch or so above the "shoulder" if you can help it... I would recommend stopping at the shoulder, but there's no "rule". Just stop worrying about "topping it up" ... unless your recipe calls for a specific volume, you certainly shouldn't set your volume by "how it looks in the carboy" ...

 

[Brasco20]

If your doing extract, use bottled water. I buy 5 1 gallon bottles, after some evaporation during the boil and adding the ingredients im right at 5 gallons when im finished.

 

[BillTheSlink]

I have never heard of "topping off" beer in a carboy. Topping off is done in wine making, due to the fact of de-gassing the wine intentionally before racking at a point in the process and the fact wine may be continually racked repeatedly for over a year until it clears completely, thus there is no protective barrier of CO2. Even in wine making this is becoming unnecessary since they now have a canned gas you can spray into the carboy to form that barrier. Topping off has never been used in the case of beer to the best of my knowledge, because you actually want CO2 in it and you never take steps to drive it off.

Also, you don't really secondary a beer for long periods unless you have a very good reason too, such as you are doing a very high gravity beer and it needs to be aged and you want to age it all together for uniformity. You could even in those cases take it straight to the bottle, but the taste might very some from bottle to bottle.

There are other reasons to secondary, or put into a bright tank as it is called, but the are all very specific reasons. Unless you have a reason just bottle the beer. Once it is bottled it you keep it in a cool and dark place it should last you until next summer easy.

 

[momodig]

I appologize, it feels like i'm in grade school getting scorned The only reason I rack to a carboy is because I was told to so But my next batch I'll try the route of bottling straight from the primary bucket.

But reading through my instructions of my brew kit "Brewers Springs" it says after racking to secondary carboy, top off 2 inches from the bottem of the bung... I'm greatly confused....


Thanks, everything has been helpful so far..

All my instructions from brew kits and brew store say to use secondary: can someone please tell me how just to use primary? Thanks

 

[jfr1111]

Most kit instructions, unless they are written by people who actually know what they are doing (ie. vendors who actually care), are complete and utter trash. Even my Festa Brew kit, wich is high-end ready made wort from a microbrewery, had nonsense incorporated into the instructions, such as the need to pitch at 20 degrees celsius and not any lower.

You can use a secondary if you want, but there's really no need to leave a 1.040 beer for 6 months in it, unless you are working with Brett or other slow working bugs (wich you are not). Most people nowadays don't care for them unless they are brewing something that would benefit from bulk aging. I'd say that in your case, it would be the opposite: most low gravity styles don't really benefit from aging after the 2-3 months mark. Some even go downhill after a few weeks.

Just make sure it has finished fermenting (take hydro readings a week apart just to be completly sure) and then bottle at your convenience if the beer has sat on the yeast for a little while. Some swear 4 weeks is the absolute minimum, others just leave it be for a week after fermentation has completed and may use finings to clear. It's all a matter of personal preferences and process. To recap:

1. Brew beer.
2. Leave it be after fermentation has completed, you can rack to secondary if you wish (but nowadays many argue it's not necessary). The time frame comes from tasting and clarity (some beers take longer to clear, others you don't want to clear and thus bottle early). I personally give everything three weeks to a month in primary and may use finings.
3. Bottle: you need to rack to a bottling vessel though, being careful to leave most if not all of the trub behind. There exist many threads on here about how to go about bottling.

 

[momodig]

My last question is this. I noticed a lot of pictures have the primary bucket with a lid and air lock on it. My primary bucket only has a piece of plastic seran paper held tightly onto the top of the bucket with an elastic. And a hole is punctured into the top of the plastic to allow air to escape. Will my bucket and plastic seran paper be good enough to keep the wort in for 4 weeks?

Thanks everyone has been very helpful.

Also what is a finings?

 

[jfr1111]

I basically use the same method as you. I close the bucket except for a little opening. Sanitized foil goes over that opening if I care enough to add it: if not, it stays bare. Bacterias and wild yeast can't crawl, they need to drop into the fermetor, so if you have a draft/insect free environement, you are good to go. After fermentation has finished, I just close the lid down all the way and burp the bucket if needed. I would NOT pierce a hole in the top of the saran wrap though, since most of the crap will arrive from the top and can thus fall down into the fermenter. Just wrap it tightly and use an elastic to keep it in place: it will never be airtight enough to not allow the excess CO2 to escape. You can always get a lid and drill for an airlock: most hardware stores will have the correct sized rubber gasket to seal the deal. I use both techniques.

Finings refer to clarifying agents: you have a whole array of them. The most accesible (and cheap) fining to most homebrewers is gelatin. Yes, the Knox stuff that is a buck a pouch, available in any supermarket. You follow the instructions on the pouch, put into the fermentor (you can rack to secondary if you want, I don't) and wait for a few days to work its magic. Unless you wait three weeks to bottle afterwards, there will still be enough yeast in suspension to naturally carbonate the bottles. If you are worried, add a few grams of dry yeast at bottling time (something like 2-3 grams is often quoted).

 

[MrInternet]

All my instructions from brew kits and brew store say to use secondary: can someone please tell me how just to use primary? Thanks

My apologies, if fermentation is finished, then there is no danger to racking to a secondary to within 2 inches of the bung. There is absolutely no NEED to, but there is no danger factor like I initially feared. You should not be "topping up" after fermentation is already basically done. Unless you have a big strong beer that you wish to bulk, secondaries are not necessary... though many people do use them for clearing/fining.

Just doing it because the kit instructions tell you to is a bad reason... doing for a reason such as fining, clearing, or dry hopping is a good one.

 

[BillTheSlink]

Please don't feel like you're being scorned. We we all in the position of brewing our first beers at one time and had to make due with crappy instructions. You will learn if you read through the threads, especially the stickies, most can be thrown out the window.

If you are going to secondary putting it within two inches of the bung is fine, provided fermentation is complete; however, don't add water or anything to get to that level. Just rack what you have.

Really the only reasons to use a secondary is if you use finings, dry hop, bulk age, lagering, are adding fruit, dealing with a slow bug like Brett, want to let things settle out to clear on their own, and maybe a few other reason I can't think of at the moment. Now bare in mind wine making is a whole nother ball game and most likely have some baring on why your instructions read the way they do. You will find that even ingredient kits have poor instructions, such as telling you to boil in 2 &1/2 gallon of water and then diluting without doing late additions of your malt extract. It is just the nature of the game I guess.