To much room in secondary?

apparatus · Jul 8, 2006

I transfered a spiced wheat in to secondary today. I encountered a problem and lost about 1/2 gal of beer in process. I now have about 4 1/2 gallons in a 6 1/2 gallon secondary.

Is this too much head room for oxygen?
Should I just go ahead and bottle now being it has already reached final gravity reading?
What would be the negative effect if left in the secondary with this much empty space?

david_42 · Jul 8, 2006

The wheat should outgas enough to fill the head space with CO2, toss in 1/4 cup of corn sugar if you want to play it extra safe. On the other hand, cloudiness in wheats isn't a problem, so bottling now is a real choice.

Beer Snob · Jul 8, 2006

You were going to have 1 1/2 gal of extra deadspace to begin with. 1/2 more wont make or break you. What you probably should be asking is whether or not you should be using a 6 1/2 carboy as a secondary... usually a secondary is 5...

utahusker · Jul 8, 2006

I'll trade you two 5's for your 6's.

Rookie · Jul 9, 2006

david_42 said:
The wheat should outgas enough to fill the head space with CO2, toss in 1/4 cup of corn sugar if you want to play it extra safe. On the other hand, cloudiness in wheats isn't a problem, so bottling now is a real choice.

I agree with the suspended CO2 filling up the head space and it not being a problem to have some head space. But just to be extra sure I use one of those small CO2 injecters to give a squirt of CO2. But I'm not anal about it if I forget.

apparatus · Jul 9, 2006

Thanks for all the responses. I decided I am going to just go ahead and bottle.
Appreciate all of the help I get here.

To much room in secondary?

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To much room in secondary?

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