primary carboy size?

[kevy_kev]

is it a bad idea to have the primary and secondary be 5 gallon glass carboys? I just placed an equipment order and am thinking it wasnt a god one. Should the Primary be bigger than the secondary?

thanks

 

[cweston]

I think that a 5-gallon is OK for primary as long as you use a blow-off hose. Otherwise, a good healthy kreusen could overflow the carboy and clogg your airlock and then something really bad might happen.

 

[El Pistolero]

You would prefer your primary to be 6.5 gallons...that leaves plenty of headroom for the krauzen. Also, most of us shoot for 5.5 gallons in the primary, so that after sampling and loss from racking there's still 5 gallons left to bottle or keg. I don't think you can quite fit 5.5 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy.

 

[kevy_kev]

yeah only 4 dollars more for a 6.5...
time to make a phone call..
thanks

 

[Walker]

a slightly bigger primary is better, IMO. I use a 6.5 Gal carboy for a primary, and 5 Gal carboy for secondary.

There's no reason you can't use a 5 gallon carboy for the primary, but be aware of a couple of things:

(1) when fermentation is rocking at the beginning, you will probably need a blow-off tube to allow the kraeuzen to spill out someplace.

(2) You are going to end up with less than 5 gallons in the bottles, maybe 4.5 Gallons. (you lose some volume when you rack from primary to secondary, and some more when racking from secondary to bottling bucket.)

I usually make my batches 5.5 Gallons and put them in the 6.5 Gal carboy. There is plenty of headspace for the kraeuzen (no blow-off needed), and I end up with a tad over 5 gallons in the secondary after racking, and pretty much nail 5 gallons on the money in the bottling bucket when it's all said and done.

-walker

 

[cgravier]

i think we all agree on this one...definitely 6.5g for primary. the good news is that eventually you will realize that 2 secondaries is a really good thing to have.

i think the 5 g. are actually 5.5g anyway, so you dont have to fill them to the top. and if your going to dry hop, which most breweres either try it once, or do it all the time, you will need a little space on the top for the hops before they settle out. (no matter what they tell you hops, whether it be pellets or not,are not denser than water.and therefore do not sink right away!!! for a few days they will just sit, all puffed up on top of your beer) and after some time willsettle out nicely to the bottom.

 

[Walker]

i think we all agree on this one...definitely 6.5g for primary. the good news is that eventually you will realize that 2 secondaries is a really good thing to have.

i think the 5 g. are actually 5.5g anyway, so you dont have to fill them to the top. and if your going to dry hop, which most breweres either try it once, or do it all the time, you will need a little space on the top for the hops before they settle out. (no matter what they tell you hops, whether it be pellets or not,are not denser than water.and therefore do not sink right away!!! for a few days they will just sit, all puffed up on top of your beer) and after some time willsettle out nicely to the bottom.

I've only dry-hopped once (and I'll do it again with the current batch when it comes time to rack it), but my hops NEVER settled out.

I used 1 oz of cascade plugs for my dryhopping, and they fluffled up instantly and just sat there on the top of the beer for 14 days... never sank.

-walker

 

[cgravier]

ive never dry hopped with anything other than peletes, and contrary to poular believe as soon as they hit the beer, boom, the are turned into thousands of little flakes that happily float on top for at least a day. after that they do mostly settle out, with slight, or no encouragerment, (i gently move the carboy ever so slightly)

for whole hops or plugs you would have to some how weigh them down with a hop sock and some mrbles, but this is alot of trouble really...

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

Right now I've got two 5 gallon carboys, but I think I will eventually get a 6.5 for my primary and have two secondarys. With the 5 gallon even with using a blow-off tube I almost always am a bottle or two short of two cases.

 

[Kaiser]

i think we all agree on this one...definitely 6.5g for primary. the good news is that eventually you will realize that 2 secondaries is a really good thing to have.

I actually like to have only 5 gal carboys. I don't worry about the kraeusen since I use a blow-off tube. The advantage is, that every carboy can be primary or secondary and I don't need different sized carboy caps for starting the siphon.

But I actually get only 5gal from the boil and have indeed a lower bottling yield. But this is OK since I waste only as much as the brewers who aim for 5.5 gal. Having only the 30qt turkey fryer pot as boil kettle makes things difficult.

But there is one thing where I see a true benefit in starting out sligtly larger than 5gal: there will be less head space in the secodary. This is a concern if you can't flush the carboy with CO2 and there isn't much fermentation going on anymore, since the O2 in the air may get absorbed into the beer.

Kai

 

[cgravier]

i entertained the idea of using a 5g primary w/ blowoff. im not sure how comfortable id feel with the blowoff tube restinin in a bucket of bleach water or whatever your supposed to do. The advatages i guess is that you lose all that nasty stuff in the kreasun, but also some beer, as much as a half gallon? too.

whar are the advatages? besides less nasties in your beer, i dont know of any?

you still need a secondary.

 

[KopyKat]

I guess I am the odd duck here. I have a 6 gallon carboy for my primary and two 5 gallon carboys for secondaries. I am filling to 5.5 gallons and using a blow off tube. (I think the 6 gallon holds a little over 6 - in fact, I suspect all carboys hold their stated capacity to somewhere just short of the neck.)

 

[RichBrewer]

I've got 6 1/2 gal for both primary and secondary. I want to have over 5 gallons in the secondary when I bottle or keg because I need extra to account for wasted beer lost due to yeast in the bottom of the secondary. I actually shoot for 6 gallons in the primary. With the loss of about a gallon in the kettle from trub/hops, I brew a 7 gallon batch to get 5 in the keg. I would love to find a better way that doesn't waste so much wort/beer but I've yet to figure one out.