Hot answers tagged carboy
32
The term "secondary fermentation" is misleading since the purpose isn't to continue fermentation. A secondary stage can be used for any combination of things:
Clarification: racking to secondary gets the beer off the yeast cake and allows more particulates to fall out of suspension. This is often the only reason I use a secondary stage; I like clear beer.
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You'll need a 6 or 6.5 gallon carboy to provide enough head space during primary fermentation of a 5-gallon batch. If you go smaller, it will be very messy.
Five-gallon carboys are good if you plan on racking to secondary to let the beer condition. During secondary, there will be little to no foam on top ("krausen") so the head space isn't needed. In fact, ...
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Do not carry a full carboy only by the neck. All of that weight is concentrated in the small area of that carrier, exerting a lot more force than the neck was designed for. It may not happen often, but the risk isn't worth the reward, in my opinion, especially when there are much better options to moving full carboys.
Some folks like to use milk crates.
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I use a that scrubby cleaner thing with some cleanser and maybe half a gallon of water to get all the particulates loosened up and get the surface clean. Then I rinse it with water, and put in maybe a quarter gallon or less of sanitizing solution, just enough to make sure I touch every surface with it. The carboy doesn't need to be immersed in it, it just ...
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I use the better bottle PET carboys for my lagers, and have noticed no oxidization. The amount of oxygen introduced through the carboy itself is negligible compared to the amount introduced through the stopper or when racking to the bottling bucket or transferring to keg.
The Better Bottle page discussing permeability aims to show that plastic is fine for ...
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TAKE THE STOPPER OUT! THIS IS A SERIOUS ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN!
Unlike glass bottles, glass carboys are not designed to hold pressure.
4 tsp in 1 gallon will produce about about 2.4 volumes of CO2. The pressure created will be significant - at a minimum 22 PSI, but likely more than that, since fermentation proceeds quicker than the CO2 will dissolve, ...
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This is specific to Iodophor, but the manufacturer states that you do not have to fill a carboy up to sanitize with it. As long as you slosh enough around to get all the surfaces wet, then the sanitizer will work. Star San would work the same way, just make sure the foam touches all parts of the carboy. No need to waste sanitizer and water by making more ...
7
I use the handle as a steadying tool and something solid to hold on to when it's slick from water and cleaner. I support the weight of the carboy from the bottom with my other hand while holding onto the handle.
I really wouldn't recommend carrying a carboy simply by a handle on the neck unless it's totally empty, and maybe not even then.
Yes, it is ...
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Buckets are cheaper, lighter, and easier to deal with in general. They're not advisable for long term storage though, as they allow some light and oxidation to occur. Carboy's allow no oxidation, but they're more difficult to deal with.
If you get a carboy cleaner wand, this is an attachment to a garden hose or water tap that creates a powerful stream of ...
5
A long standing mantra of brewing was to ferment in the plastic bucket for 7 days. Then the beer would be siphoned out of the bucket and into the carboy. In the carboy it would sit for 14 days. This step was used 1) to help with beer clarity as more stuff would settle out here post the primary ferment (done in the pail) 2) to get the beer of the sludge of ...
5
I was told that it helps the clarity of the beer, since the sludge from the primary will be left over in the first fermenter. I use a glass carboy for secondary fermentation.
I also know of many people who bottle right after primary, as you do. If it's working for you, then it's no big deal. Try doing a secondary for a batch and see if you notice a ...
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The biggest downside to the carboy I've found is in checking the specific gravity to tell if the initial fermentation is done.
The hydrometer simply falls too far to read well. We had to attach some dental floss to it so we could retrieve the thing! This was especially true during our last brew which had a VERY active fermentation with lots of stuff ...
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Choosing between buckets, glass carboys, etc is always a matter of personal choice.
The ease of use on buckets is high, but the durability is poor and they are much harder to keep sanitary over multiple uses. Any tiny scratch will make the bucket hold microbes you can't see or kill with a simple acid rinse, and now your fermentation vessel is a ticking time ...
4
I agree with Jeff L, that secondary is useful for particular things.
To your question, I only ever do a 'secondary' when adding fruit or extended aging. My beers clear just fine after two weeks in the fermenting vessel. I've never experienced off flavors from that two weeks on the yeast, and I always dry hop in the primary.
For me I can't find any reason ...
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Once fermentation is mostly complete, keeping the fermentor at the ideal temperature (68, in this case) is less important. The yeast tend to give off fusels and other off flavors at high temperatures mainly during the early stages of fermentation, so raising the temperature won't matter as much. Since fermentation is mostly complete, lowering the temperature ...
4
You can use a wine or beer thief and a test jar to grab a sample from your carboy.
I use the following one and it works great: http://www.amazon.com/Fermtech-Wine-Beer-Thief/dp/B00186ADYS This one is nice because the hydrometer fits right inside it so you don't need a test jar.
I never put the sample back in, just scared of contamination. Does anybody ...
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I came across this just today: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/carboy-vs-thumb-334851/
I've seen more than one story like this.
I will never carry a full carboy by a handle on the neck; milk crates or straps.
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If you have the time (ie, don't otherwise need/want to use the bucket), you can easily leave it until it's finished fermenting; a carboy is not strictly necessary.
The biggest differences between bucket and (glass) carboy is oxygen permeability for long-term storage and the ability to clean, especially with "bugs": souring yeast/bacteria cultures. If ...
3
I use iodine from the chemist for sanitation (it is not called Iodaphor, but it's essentially the same thing). I don't fill up the carboy, but just add a few drops to a couple of litres of water and swill it around for a bit.
The iodine is about 2% solution, and following Papazian's recommendation that equates to about a teaspoon in 19 litres (5 gal), or ...
3
You want less head space on your secondary to reduce the amount of oxygen that comes in contact with your beer.
Once the initial fermentation is done in your bucket there is a nice thick layer of CO2 that sits in the 1.5 gallons of head space in your 6.5 gallon bucket. But, once you move it to your secondary the fermentation process is already done, so your ...
3
Put the chips in the carboy until you have the amount of wood-flavor you want and then rack the beer over to a keg or bottle it. You'll pull all the flavor you want out of chips pretty quickly (2-4 weeks, probably) because of their large surface area and thin-ness. Once you've done that, there's not much reason to leave the beer on the chips, so get it into ...
3
You can actually use 5 gallon glass carboy with a 1-inch blowoff tube for a primary fermenter in a setup called the "Blow-off Method". The wort basically fills up the carboy, and then the krausen blows off. You need to make sure you have a big blow-off tube since you can get a large volume of blowoff (a 5/16" racking tube will quickly plug). A 1-inch tube ...
3
PBW, hot water and if neccessary, a carboy brush. They are made with wire similar to a coat hanger so you bend it in the middle of the bristles at a 90 degree angle and reach the bend that you talking about. I would throw in the hot water and PBW and wait twenty minutes, the crud will most likely just flake off. You can always rub it with the brush to be ...
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A secondary isn't required for regular strength beers, but for high gravity beers like your tripel, the conditioning time is much longer, and so a secondary is beneficial. Also, high gravity beers use about twice as much yeast as with the regular beer, so leaving on the yeast for a long time will give some yeast bite.
If you can get hold of a carboy before ...
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I just started using ported Better Bottles myself, and have been really pleased with the results.
I did have a problem at first with getting the tubing to fit tight enough in the valve to siphon off the beer, but the Better Bottle web site has very clear instructions on the correct tube sizes to use, and that fixed my problem.
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The down side to glass carboys is that they break and cut you. I've heard of some pretty heinous injuries caused by dropped carboys. Plastic buckets have never hurt anyone.
OK. Maybe I am a bit paranoid about it. But I'm always drinking beer while making beer. I suspect I'm not the only one. The idea of drunks carrying around large, heavy, glass ...
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Welcome to the hobby. Reading How To Brew is a good way to get started. The carboy will be used during the fermentation phase, starting at step 9 of the "Brewing your first beer with malt extract" section of the book:
http://howtobrew.com/section1/chapter9.html
Basically, after you've boiled the ingredients and cooled down the wort, you'll pour or siphon ...
2
Never tried it but I suppose you could point a small fan into the opening of the car boy. I have a ton laying around because I work on media center enclosures and computers for a living. I've seen very small fans (like 4 inches) at my local big box / office supply stores if you don't have anything lying around.
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The problem as I see it here isn't so much getting the chips out of the carboy, but how to separate the chips from the beer without too much effort. Because if the chips were in an empty carboy you could just tip it upside down and shake them out with a few good rinses of water.
I'd invest in a small CO2 system and then plan to rack the beer under closed ...
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The problem with using anything that etches is that you're removing material from the unit. This can in turn affect the structural integrity in the long run. This is somewhat counter to why people prefer glass fermenters; they will resist scratching better than plastic. Etching is essentially controlled scratching.
A few years ago I took a bumper sticker ...
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