To top-off or not to top-off?

[EALynx]

I have a very interesting question on topping off my carboy after the blowoff to get back to my original amount (5 gal.). My LHBSH told me that this is what they do and I have performed this in the past with boiled water that I cooled down to the carboy temp. I have been very lucky to have not had any infection problems by doing this, however I am curious as to what the rest of you are doing. If I would have known that I would lose as much as I do, I would have bought 6 gal. carboys to iliminate this problem. Unfortunately, I have four 5 gal. carboys and I dont want to go out and buy all new ones untill I can unload the ones I already have. So are any of you doing this same technique or do you just go with what you end up with?

 

[Desert_Sky]

personally I would just leave it alone and start planning your next batch

you may want to look into 6.5 gallon carboys for future batches

 

[EALynx]

Chimone, Do you experience any losses by using 6.5 gal. carboys? Further, do you have to worry about using a blow-off tube or do you just lock it after you pitch your yeast?

 

[Desert_Sky]

Chimone, Do you experience any losses by using 6.5 gal. carboys? Further, do you have to worry about using a blow-off tube or do you just lock it after you pitch your yeast?

No, I think Ive only needed a blow off tube twice. 6.5 leaves you with alot of room. I also use them for my secondaries without worry of oxidation

 

[EALynx]

Chimone, thanks for the input.

 

[david_42]

Don't unload the 5 gallon carboys, use them for clearing tanks. Just buy one or two 6.5's.

 

[Kaiser]

Don't top off to compensate for the loss. You are changing the recipe and there is not much benefit to this practice, just increased risk of messing it up.

Kai

 

[Orfy]

It makes me chuckle when I read these threads.

I brew 5 gallons at a time but 5 UK gallon is 6 US gallon so I boil down to 6.5 us gallon for 6 in the primary. No worries. Any loss from blow off is minimal and only krausen that gets left behind when racking any way. If I brewed to 5 gallon US , I'd only end up with around 4 gallon UK instead of 5.

Why not just increase your recipe to get a larger amount of wort out?

 

[Torchiest]

Another alternative would be to start brewing 4 gallon batches. That way you don't have to buy any more carboys and you have enough headspace to eliminate concerns about blowoff and topping off. Then later, when you decide to get big carboys for primary, you can go back to larger recipes.

 

[EALynx]

Good advice guys, thanks for all the input. I guess Ill be buying at least 2 6.5's and then keep the others for secondary containers. I like that alot! More reason to brew more!

 

[boo boo]

I'm the same as Orfy. I brew 5 imp gal or 23 litres or 6 us gallons, whichever recipie I happen to make up at the time. I prefer to get at least 20 litres of finished beer for my efforts, so I scale to suit for that amount.

I have 2- 5 us gal glass carboys I was fortunate to pick up at a garage sale this past fall. Perfect for lagering in. I use my 23 litre carboys and plastic buckets to ferment in.
As for a blowoff tube.... well I just pitched onto a hobgoblin clone and hooked one up anyway. Why have to worry.

 

[RichBrewer]

Keep the 5 gallon carboys and use them for secondaries. I would also recommend not topping up with water. I would rather have a bit less of better beer.

 

[AiredAle]

I've done a lot of my primary fermentations in 5 gal (US) carboys, and cope with blowoff in either of two ways. Brew the beer a little bigger and dilute with boiled cooled water, or brew to the desired OG, put 4.5 gal in the carboy, and when primary is done, add another 1/2 gal of the same wort.

In the first case, if I want a 1.045 OG beer, I design my wort to be 1.050 OG, put 4.75 gal in the carboy, assume another quart will be blown off, and top up with cool boiled water before transferring to secondary in another carboy. The dilution will bring the "virtual OG" back to 1.045. I like British bitters, and this is middle of the road for OG for them.

In the second case I design the wort to be 1.045 and put 4.5 gal in the primary. I re-boil the last 1/2 gal of wort to sterilize and hot pack it in sterilized canning jars, then put them in the fridge. This is taken out of the fridge to come to room temp, and added to the carboy when vigorous fermentation is done. I'm very careful about cleaning and sanitizing, and so far no infections with either method.

Yep, it is more work, but I have only one 6.5 gal carboy at present, and I can fit two of the 5 gallon ones in my fermentation water bath but only the one 6.5, and I usually brew in 10 gallon batch sizes.