I have both off my primary 6 gal carboys full. And I was planning on brewing again saturday. An amber ale. It’s there enough room in a secondary 5 gal carboy to not have a major blow off issue? Or should I be ok?
Most likely not. Rack a beer from one of your primaries into the 5 gallon carboy. Then clean and use the open 6 gallon carboy for the new beer. That’s exactly what I have to do when I go home and brew tonight.
Or cut your recipe down to a 4 gallon batch and use the 5 gallon carboy. But the other option makes more sense to me.
The other two aren’t ready to come off yet. Cream ale just got brewed last night. And the oktoberfest, which I was planning to rack, isn’t as low as I would like. It was at 1.021. Not exactly sure where it should finish. But the sample was still really sweet.
I see 4 options:
- Do you have a LHBS? If so, go buy another primary. Buckets are cheap and easy.
Or maybe you have another homebrewer in the area you could borrow one from. - Rack the Octoberfest to the secondary, but DO try to get some yeast racked along with the beer to allow for some possible continued fermentation.
- Cut your Amber Ale down to a 4 gallon batch and use the 5 gallon carboy for primary.
- Brew a 5 gallon batch of Amber Ale and use the 5 gallon carboy but prepare for and expect a lot of blow off.
Choose what suits you best.
do a higher gravity 4 gal batch and dilute it later
I guess you could, but I would never suggest that. Adding water after fermentation is complete? That makes me sad. Just cut it down to a 4 gallon batch. I’d rather have less good beer than more watered down beer, aka Coors Light.
That’s what I’d do if he’s brewing a kit, it would be a pain in the ass to to weigh out LME to get it scaled to 4 gallons.
I you had 2 secondary carboys you could split the 5 gallon batch.
That’s what I’d do if he’s brewing a kit, it would be a pain in the ass to to weigh out LME to get it scaled to 4 gallons.
I you had 2 secondary carboys you could split the 5 gallon batch.[/quote]
I’m thinking of using some 1/2 growlers. Probably three of them. I should have enough air locks. Just wondering if I have enough stoppers and they fit.
Do you have a bottling bucket? They’re usually 6.5 gallons. Just be sure to get the spigot cleaned and sanitized well and use some aluminum foil for a lid.
Ended up stopping the sparge early to have less starting wort. Worked out fine, but ended up with about 4 to 4.25 gals of 1.050 amber. Ten points higher than the recipe had. Sorry I will be having a little stronger than expected amber. Hope it maintains the characteristics.
