Headspace in Secondary

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
whitesoup12

whitesoup12

Active Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
25
Reaction score
7
Previously I have done my secondary fermentation's in a 6 gallon Better Bottle. I'm wanting to move into a glass carboy for lagering, but am unsure whether to go with a 5 or 6 gallon carboy. I've read that during the secondary you want minimal headspace, but then you also run the risk of foam in the airlock. I'd rather not run a blow off tube if space is going to be an issue with a 5 gallon, especially if I can just use an airlock with a 6 gallon carboy. What are the disadvantages of having that extra headspace with the 6 gallon?
 
Oxygenation. If you've got a CO2 system, you could pump that in to the carboy on top of the beer and displace the O2 (CO2 is heavier, the O2 goes out, the CO2 stays in).
 
Okay, I see. So what methods or systems would you recommend for getting the CO2 in and O2 out?
 
Is Nitrogen heavier than air? I should know but.. I'm cloudy. If it is, a cheap way to do it might be to get one of the canisters of nitrogen that is used for purging partial bottles of wine. Another thought I've had but haven't pursued is to get a ton of marbles.. sanitize them and use them to adjust headspace... A real positive with marbles, if it makes sense, is that the gunk will settle in the spaces and make racking cleaner????
 
ThreeGnomes said:
Is Nitrogen heavier than air? I should know but.. I'm cloudy. If it is, a cheap way to do it might be to get one of the canisters of nitrogen that is used for purging partial bottles of wine. Another thought I've had but haven't pursued is to get a ton of marbles.. sanitize them and use them to adjust headspace... A real positive with marbles, if it makes sense, is that the gunk will settle in the spaces and make racking cleaner????
Click to expand...

Most of the atmosphere is already made up of nitrogen, so it would not be as effective as CO2 to purge O2 out of the carboy.
 

Similar threads

M
Keg ferment hefe?
Replies
9
Views
763
Moosebeard
M
Kornssj
Makeshift blow off tube inquiry
Replies
5
Views
539
OakIslandBrewery
OakIslandBrewery
garraston
For Sale 6 gallon carboys for trade
Replies
0
Views
172
garraston
garraston
Gabriel Sayegh
How do folks calculate ABV after a step feed with volume change?
Replies
12
Views
490
MaxStout
MaxStout
S
Trying to figure out why my beers haze during fermentation and don't clear during crash
Replies
16
Views
711
sleev-les
S
Yakima 300

Latest posts

Back
Top