Is it worth investing in a 5 gallon Carboy ?

[Marrsy86]

Hi guys,

As it's payday I'm looking to expand my brewing kit over the weekend.

I have been looking at 5 gallon carboys both Glass and PET and i'm wondering what sort of advantage they have over 5 1 Gallon DJs ?

The carboy would be great for making large batches of my favorite brews but from what I can tell could I not just rack my brew out of a 5 gallon FV when I do large batches Into 5 1 gallon DJs ? Then while I drink that brew the 5 DJs could be used to experiment with 5 new different brews.

Would you say its just 6 and two 3's or am i missing something ?Any advice is welcomed :)

Many thanks for any help.

Marrsy

 

[evanvine]

I use the 30 litre fermenters with the 4" screw on top.
Being plastic, they bounce!
You mentioned experimenting, I thought, good idea!
But was then hard pushed to think what you could experiment with, apart from yeast and dry hopping.
Unless of course you are going to brew individual gallons.
I think they are about £12 from Wilko's.
I have 2 of the glass type, which I havent used for years!
Glass is also heavy.

:

 

[Moley]

A pint of water's a pound and a quarter - one of those little aphorisms you learn as a child and which stays with you for life.

So a gallon weighs 10 lbs, 5 gallons + a glass carboy and you've got half a hundredweight to lug about and lift from floor to worktop for racking.

As Jim says, plastic bounces, IMHO glass carboys are an accident waiting to happen.

If 86 is your year of birth you will probably prefer that in metric. A litre weighs a kilo, I just weighed an empty plastic 30 litre fermenter at 1.4 kg so that would be 31.4 kgs filled to capacity. Even though they've got strong handles, that's still quite a lump to move about smoothly without disturbing sediment and to raise for racking.

If you were thinking about 5 gallon PETs, ideally you should buy two of them. Rack from a 5 gallon to 5 DJs (look around for half gallon DJs as you will probably end up with 4.5 gallons) and you will get 5 wines with subtle differences. You've also got 5x the hassle when it comes to clearing and subsequent rackings or filtration.

Look around for those 15 litre water bottles, I acquired two more yesterday by a stroke of good fortune.

 

[Rparkera]

I bought one of each (5 galls) for beer fermenting. The glass one looks best - but like moley says - slippery when wet! and heavy too. Nice to look at though - great to be able to watch the yeast and the krausen - quite an education in fact. An attractive piece of kit but plastic buckets are better

 

[Dave Ne]

Whatever plastic FVs you use----use the minimum amount of water in the air lock as when these vessels are lifted/touched there is a transfer of air/gas both ways through the water, if the water level is high there is a risk of infection into the brew, cheers Dave NE

 

[evanvine]

I acquired two more yesterday by a stroke of good fortune.

Another serendipitous "skip" find Ade? :mrgreen:

 

[Moley]

No, Plumb Centre didn't have what I needed and redirected me to another hardware store / plumbers' merchants which I never even knew existed. They still didn't have the tap part that I needed, but I made a few other minor purchases, and while having a look around I happened to notice three empty water bottles lying in a bath. While paying for my plumbing bits I asked what they did with their empty bottles. It turns out that they do save them for someone, but I was welcome to take one or two. I took two.

 

[Marrsy86]

Thanks for the help guys, by experiments i meant start 5 different 1 gallon batches as im wanting to try chocolate mead, coconut mead, ginger mead and a few other things so figured I should try 1 gallon batches to see if it works and I like it.

I think I will look around for some PET ones and keep an eye out for the 30 litre fermenters and 15 litre water bottles.

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[Moley]

Whatever plastic FVs you use----use the minimum amount of water in the air lock as when these vessels are lifted/touched there is a transfer of air/gas both ways through the water, if the water level is high there is a risk of infection into the brew.

Or don't use water in the airlock, use a sulphite solution or cheap vodka just in case of suck-back.

He's quite right, they do flex, so remove the trap before moving the FV.

 

[Marrsy86]

Yea I worked out not to have the airlock in this weekend with some homemade DJ's I set up :)

Cheers

Marrsy

 

[evanvine]

I was welcome to take one or two. I took two.

Well done! :thumb: