Separate bucket for sanitizer?

You need a 10 gallon brew kettle. With extract, you want to do full boils, if possible. Eventually you will go all grain.

My all grain boil is 8.5 gallons for a 5.5-6gal batch.

A 5 gallon kettle is too small.

 

Don't forget to clean every thing first, you can't sanitize a dirty surface.

 

You have more kegs than I have plastic. You win easily.

 

Good for you, you are legal.

We dropped off NHC entries yesterday at the LHBS, for a club member to mule down to Zanesville. I stopped and looked at some kegs that were on sale (loose handles or racetrack lids), my wife just said "Jeff, step away from the kegs". An employee chuckled, and I said "If you only knew".

 

Yes 5gal is too small. Unless you never intend to do all grain AND you will be forever happy diluting your beer after you brewed it.

 

I have been full-boiling 5- (and sometimes 6-) gallon all-grain batches for 1 decade and have never owned a 10 gallon kettle. Typically, I split my boil between two kettles (one 5-gallon and one 7-gallon capacity), with one kettle on each of my range's power burners. As they boil down, I combine the contents into the 7-gallon kettle and continue boiling until I hit my target. I'm saying this just so people recognize there are other options.

 

Whether it be a bucket, carboy, or keg...eventually you will feel the need for a dedicated sanitizer container that can be dispensed into the other 2 options : ) ...probably.

 

Ruger, rather than buying a second glass carboy, consider investing that money into getting a bigger kettle. A secondary carboy isn't something you need for most styles of beer, but a bigger kettle is always useful (especially if you're planning on getting a propane burner).

 

I should have clarified I wasn't talking "off flavor" in a sense of diacetyl, DMS, bacterial infection (though I've experienced a couple bad batches early on).. Basically I only brew IPAs and I want to taste as little of the yeast as possible. I seem to have found a way to achieve this by getting the beer off the yeast once the final gravity is reached (usually a week).

The primary/secondary thing is a debate for another day. When I brew, it's either a week or 2 weeks (if a bigger beer) in primary and then 2-4 weeks in secondary. You do your way, I do mine. I was just pointing out that I have found it advantageous to secondary... it helps make a better beer in my experience. The only time I won't secondary is if I am too lazy...

 

If that was some sneaky way to accuse me of being lazy, I accept!
IPAs, with their heavy dryhopping, could be another exception for some, although I've taken to dryhopping at the end of primary. Additionally, the most common yeast for IPAs is not a great flocculator. You might try finings to get the yeast to drop faster.

If you haven't read the Hops book by Stan Heironymus, there is an interesting section where he points to some recent research that suggests dryhop contact with active yeast develops certain desirable flavors. On the other hand, when yeast flocculate, hop resins can stick to the cell walls and get pulled out of the beer. The solution might be two dry hops, one near the end of primary, and one after the yeast drop (which you can encourage with finings).
Two dry hops -- now call me lazy!

 

I'm not sure if you're still talking about a secondary carboy here, but if so, you want a 5 (not 6.5) gallon carboy for 5 gallon batches. 6.5 gallon carboys are great for primary fermentation of 5 gallon batches, but for secondary, you should minimize the headspace. An exception would be if you are racking onto fruit or adding some other fermentables in the secondary, in which case some headspace is good.

 

Just buy a big plastic 30 gal bucket. They're super cheap, and you can find them at any target. I use them for bottle cleaning/sanitizing

http://m.partycity.com/products/red+tub+30gal

 

With the 5 gallon kettle you will either have to add top off water to get to 5 gallons in the fermenter or do smaller batches. I would go with the smaller batches. Plan on boiling off around a gallon per hour and you need some extra space because of boilovers. You want to have plenty of extra space in the kettle so you don't have to constantly watch for boilovers. That will turn something fun into a pain in the ass. Getting the larger kettle now will save you money and make brewing easier. A low end stainless steel 10 gallon is around $70. You can get alluminum for way cheaper just read up on preparing the kettle before using it if you go with aluminum. This is asuming you have a heat source that can get 6-7 gallons of wort to a boil in the first place.