Moving Carboys during fermentation

What is the risk of oxidation if you move your fermenting primary from room to room during fermentation?

I put a saison into my fermenter last night because I wanted to start it low and walk the temp up. Problem is I have a fermenting US 05 porter in there fermenter as well so in order to let the temp rise I really should just take it out and put it in the house.

a lot of us move our fermenters all around the house and environs to get the temperature we want, when we want it. as far as i know, it is not a big deal.

Almost zero risk. Any jarring during fermentation (I'm not talking about sloshing around, just little bumps from carrying it) will release CO2 from solution and even further reduce the risk or oxidation.

When active fermentation begins the headspace becomes filled with CO2 which is heavier than air and as it fills it pushes air out through the airlock or leaks in your lid. As long as you have a decent seal and it's fermenting you would have no problem moving the beer around.


- ISM NRP

The only problem you might encounter would be to drop the carboy and BOOM, no more beer.

I accidentally put my yeast to sleep by letting them get too cold. First time mistake with my mini fridge ferm chamber. This was 24 hours after I pitched. There was at least 12 hours of vigorous fermentation then nothing in the morning. I warmed them back up and nothing took off. Once it got to 65F I said screw it and shook the hell out of the bucket. Almost immediately the blow off tube took off like a rocket and has not stopped for 2 days.

Point is I am not even worried a little bit about oxidization. ALL of that gas is CO2 creating a barrier from any O2. If your airlock has not been compromised there is no reason to believe there is any O2 that will come close to your wort.

Thanks, this is what I figured but wanted to make sure before damaging my first partial mash... don't want the time I spent roasting, peeling, and mashing 10 lbs of sweet potatoes to be wasted!

jekeane said:

Thanks, this is what I figured but wanted to make sure before damaging my first partial mash... don't want the time I spent roasting, peeling, and mashing 10 lbs of sweet potatoes to be wasted!

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Roasting was likely a good choice. I boiled mine for an "inspired by" recipe before adding to mash and it turned out to be not terribly different than adding corn or rice. High fermentability and not a great deal of anything. Not that the beer is bad by any stretch of the imagination, just not worth the effort that went into it.

And back to topic: I have moved fermenters around and never had problems. You may stir up some yeast so if you're planning to move fermenter right before bottling I'd classify it as a bad choice, but not necessarily damaging.