Getting ready to start my second batch and was thinking about something I haven't seen discussed anywhere. What if you end up with a batch that is bigger than your fermenter? Is there any thing to considered when splitting things up? The wort seems pretty straight forward. Dry hopping is a bit of a pain but doable. For some reason my mind says there is probably more to the yeast than I am thinking about, but I guess that is probably just dividing it as well. I'm sure you could get a bit of different flavor between the two fermenters for various reasons. Just checking to see if there is anything else I need to consider. (I'm actually thinking this is probably pretty common with batch sizes above 5 gallons and the biggest carboys I see at 6.5 gallons).
Background - The next recipe I am planning to do says 6 gallons. I originally thought I'd scale it but I have the ingredients and last time my volume was a little under what I expected so my thought now is why not just go for 6. If I end up with extra I have a couple options. 1) I originally bought a 5 gallon carboy thinking "5 gallon batch = 5 gallon carboy". I've since bought a 6.5 so I could split evenly between them. 2) I also have a couple 1 gallon glass jars with drilled lids that I would put a gallon or so in so make room in the larger carboy. I think I'm leaning toward option 2 since it keeps the majority of the batch all together and I can focus mainly on that and treat the small jar as a bonus.
Note somewhat this question was started thinking about it when I was just going to brew in the 5 gallon carboy, but then just decided to order the 6.5 and wait and brew next weekend instead of this weekend so it's not as big an issue, but now I'm also thinking "I have two carboys and I started with a larger kettle than I needed for 5 gallons. It wouldn't be hard to do bigger batches in the future"
Background - The next recipe I am planning to do says 6 gallons. I originally thought I'd scale it but I have the ingredients and last time my volume was a little under what I expected so my thought now is why not just go for 6. If I end up with extra I have a couple options. 1) I originally bought a 5 gallon carboy thinking "5 gallon batch = 5 gallon carboy". I've since bought a 6.5 so I could split evenly between them. 2) I also have a couple 1 gallon glass jars with drilled lids that I would put a gallon or so in so make room in the larger carboy. I think I'm leaning toward option 2 since it keeps the majority of the batch all together and I can focus mainly on that and treat the small jar as a bonus.
Note somewhat this question was started thinking about it when I was just going to brew in the 5 gallon carboy, but then just decided to order the 6.5 and wait and brew next weekend instead of this weekend so it's not as big an issue, but now I'm also thinking "I have two carboys and I started with a larger kettle than I needed for 5 gallons. It wouldn't be hard to do bigger batches in the future"