HELP! First time brewer emergency (I think)

Hi all,

So i made my first batch of beer about 10 days ago. I was under the impression I was in posession of a 5 gallon carboy for secondary fermentation, but after racking to secondary, it appears I must have a 6 gallon carboy. My beer is now sitting in the kitchen in the carboy with about a gallon of headspace above it. What should I do? Any immediate help would be greatly appreciated!

let it age and enjoy . Should be enough off gassing of CO2 to protect the beer

Not much you can do at this point. Relax. It will probably turn out good. I've done this a few times. But next time if your planning on a secondary try to keep as little headspace as possible. 1 gallon won't hurt anything.

Nothing.

Too much head space is not a problem.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a craft brew.

Best advice out there: RDWHAHB!
Headspace is fine, as long as you're not aging to long. Two weeks in your secondary is more than safe.

It will be fine!

Thank you so much for the quick responses. I was positive I had a 5 gallon carboy. I just ordered the kit from Austin Home Brew a couple weeks ago. I guess when the beer is ready to be bottled I'll double check the volume. Perhaps I didn't measure the brew properly going into the primary (the bucket is un-marked) and that is the problem. Anyway, hope all turns out well, I've really enjoyed it up to this point.

Speaking of which...one more question. If I did in fact not add enough water to my wort before primary fermentation, And I ended up with 4 gallons of brew instead of the 5 that the recipe was made for how will that end up? (I forgot to take a hydrometer reading after the boil...I have a lot of things to learn obviously)

You will have a more concentrated beer. I would just check the primary fill it to about where the beer was with a gallon of water at a time. Then you will know how much you made

BuckNut said:

Speaking of which...one more question. If I did in fact not add enough water to my wort before primary fermentation, And I ended up with 4 gallons of brew instead of the 5 that the recipe was made for how will that end up? (I forgot to take a hydrometer reading after the boil...I have a lot of things to learn obviously)

Click to expand...

It will likely be sweeter than it was supposed to be as the sugars aren't as diluted.

mojotele said:

It will likely be sweeter than it was supposed to be as the sugars aren't as diluted.

Click to expand...

Well actually...it will have a higher alcohol content once the yeasties do their job.

Thanks again, I figured the alcohol content might be a little higher. After I posted the question I went back and skimmed the little bit of liquid that was left on top of the yeast cake and tasted it. It actually tasted like i would imagine it should at this point (again, first time so no point of reference) I guess we'll see if a few weeks.