Is 5 gallon carboy secondary too big for 4 gallon of beer?

Ran into a problem with my brewing today where my auto-siphon broke and I was not able to strain a much of the hops out as the beer was transfered from my brewkettle into my 5 gallon bucket. The bucket only has 4 gallons of beer fermenting and I should have a new auto-siphon being shipped next week. I would like to try to clarify this beer by transfering it to a 5 gallon glass carboy as a secondary. This will leave about 1 gallon of head space and I want to know if that is too much room to have in the secondary. The beer will be in the primary for about 10 days and then go into the secondary for about 20 days.

Any thoughts and thanks fpr your time to read this.

It's fine. I've secondaried many a five gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon carboy.

+1. It's fine.

If the volume of beer is closer to 50% of the volume of the container... that starts to be a problem.

My first question would be, "why are you using a secondary?" If you are going to dry-hop or add fruit, then that is a good idea. Otherwise, it is an unnecessary step. You would be better off leaving your beer in primary for a month, then kegging or bottling.
With regards to your original question though, using the 5-gal carboy with 4 gal of beer will be fine.

If you are worried and have access to CO2, you could purge the carboy before transferring, but 1 gallon of head space should be fine.

bull8042 said:

My first question would be, "why are you using a secondary?"

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He is doing a primary in the carboy he normally uses for a secondary.

msa8967 said:

..... The beer will be in the primary for about 10 days and then go into the secondary for about 20 days.
.......

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Baldy_Beer_Brewery said:

He is doing a primary in the carboy he normally uses for a secondary.

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Really? Sounds to me like he is transferring to secondary.....

You're right I didn't notice the last line. But at this point he is going from kettle to carboy.

Baldy_Beer_Brewery said:

You're right I didn't notice the last line. But at this point he is going from kettle to carboy.

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Which is why I included this as my last line...

bull8042 said:

......
With regards to your original question though, using the 5-gal carboy with 4 gal of beer will be fine.

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So there! Neener neener boo boo!

The beer is currently in a plastic bucket. I normally do not use a secondary for most brews that take a month to ferment but thought about transfering to a secondary this time to try to improve the clarity of the beer. I was not able to screen/filter out much of the hops from the primary due to my auto-siphon being broken and thus there is a lot of hop pieces suspended in the primary buckets. I usually use hop bags but didn't have access to these for this brew.

Sorry that I didn't make this clear in my original post. I am just wanting to improve the clarity of the beer since it is a blond ale. Perhaps the hop pieces will be on the trub after fermentation or maybe there is something else besides/instead of racking to a secondary I can do to improve the clarity.

Love to hear any thoughts on how to achieve this.

Mick

Cold crash and gelatin. Search the forums for specific advice.

Good luck!!

Thanks for the advice. I have spent about an hour reading various methods of using cold crashing and gelatin and it seems that there are two different opinions on how to proceed.

1. Cold crash for 24-48 hours and then add the prepared gelatin slurry.

2. Add the gelatin slurry to a secondary and then cold crash for 24-48 hours.

Anyone want to suggest which of these might be better?

I don't know, but if I had to guess I'd try #1. The cold crash will settle a lot out already, and then the gelatin can "grab" some stuff that's still floating.

I've never done that (I don't care much about clarity), so this is just hypothesizing. Good luck!

I have had lactobacillus infections before when I transferred to a secondary that had a gallon of head space. It looks like a spidery web on the surface that is has a powdery texture and can be skimmed from the surface. If caught early, it doesn't ruin the beer but it does impart some funk flavor that I prefer not to have. Some styles use lacto on purpose.

I also make sauerkraut and pickles at my place, so that may be why I get this. There could be a lot of lacto bacteria in the air in my house.

If you do transfer to a container with a lot of air space, be on the lookout for this because at the first sign of infection you need to siphon it into a container with almost no head space in order to prevent it from spreading. I try to brew a little over 5 gallons so that if I do transfer I can fill the secondary carboy almost all the way (the way you do it with wine).

It is easier and safer to just let it sit in primary for 3-4 weeks but the beer will clear faster if you use a secondary.

You might think about other sources of those infections. I secondary everything and early on some have had as much as 1.5 gallons headspace. Never had an infection and we sure do a ton of gardening and processing. I don't use the beer equipment for that, though.

I used to secondary to a bucket with no issues, except the extra work involved.

jethro55 said:

You might think about other sources of those infections. I secondary everything and early on some have had as much as 1.5 gallons headspace. Never had an infection and we sure do a ton of gardening and processing. I don't use the beer equipment for that, though.

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I never don't share any equipment with my beer and pickle/sauerkraut making.
There is probably just lacto bacteria in the air my environment. Not much can be done about this, so I just make all my beer batches around 5.5 gallons, then if I want to do a secondary I simply fill the carboy all the way to the neck and I don't have to worry about it. There is not enough oxygen in the small amount of headspace in the neck to support an infection.

It's better to use a method that eliminates the possibility of an infection than to have to "think about other sources" possibly to no avail. That way I leave nothing to chance. I make wine too and this is the way it is always done, you never leave headspace in wine; you always have to top it off, with some saved wine or from commercial wine.