Questions about Head Space & About Letting Wort Sit

Two questions that I am hoping the forum can help me with as I organize my next batch of beer.

1. I have seen some on this board say that they boil their wort, then let it sit for a long-ish period of time (maybe 24 hours?) before racking it to their primary and dumping in the yeast. I would love to do this in order to reduce the amount of trub but how do I know the best span of time to wait?

2. I have an old 10 gallon ceramic crockery that I got for doing some open fermentation (see below for example.) I was thinking of using this to store my 2.5 gallons of cider in secondary ferment covered with aluminum foil. What is the problem with too much head space? Is it chance of infection/contamination? Exposure to oxygen?

1) Not sure, I'll let someoen else answer this. To me its sounds like you want to get an infection ..lol.. I know boiling it will santize it but, every minute it sits it has greater chance of getting an infection..

2) You can technically use damn near anything to ferment in it just higher risks.. Your crock pot head space is not the issue really because no matter what your brew is making c02 so its constinatley pushing the oxygen away. but a like seal that(aluminum foil) is dangerous because the pressure inside might be the same as outside(because foil might lift ina few spots) so bacteria can and will enter... I would recommend trying a wide roll of suran wrap and some sort of make shift elastic(maybe a headband// waist liner form jogging pants) around the entire outside..and make sure the elastic is fairly tight, so it doesn't pop off.

Personally i wouldn't trust just foil on a container like that...it could pop off during a heavy fermentation or even worse break the foil.

I've never heard of people saving their wort before the primary. I was under the impression that the sooner you can cool it and get those yeast eating, the better.

Head space is only an issue for extended periods of aging. 2.5 gallons of cider in a 10 gallon crock will have A LOT of head space but I imagine if it's not sitting there for months, it will be fine. It's an issue of oxygen more than infection.

Don't do #1 just to avoid the trub. A little bit of trub in your fermentor is good for the yeast actually.

OK, I can see trub being good for yeast ... so what can I do to cut down on trub?

Currently I dump wort directly from the boil pot into the primary ferment carboy using the open/shut valve at the base of the boil pot. Maybe I should be siphoning the wort instead to reduce trub?

If you want to let the trub settle out you can ust let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour. A lot of it should settle out in that time period and then you can rack into your fermenter and pitch yeast. I'd worry about infections getting in there over night.

I don't know anything about open fermenting, but 7.5 gallons of head space sounds like a lot. If you can purge the oxygen out with CO2 that may help keep oxygn out. I've always been tol head space is less of an issue for primary, and more of an issue for secondary.

i would be VERY hesitant about using the red wing crock. can't see those things withstanding much pressure.

Really? I have used it to hold 5 gallons of Beer Brite for a week or two. No leaks detected so far.

It isn't a red wing crockery, just something similar. Composition of the clay and how it was fired, I imagine, would make a difference on durability. This has a salt glaze to it which makes it fairly durable (knock on clay.)

Trub will settle out and if it is left for a long enough period (3-4wks) then it will compact to a yeast cake. the longer it sits, the better the cake. even 5-6wks would make it a better cake and it shouldn't hurt your beer. i would pitch as soon as the temp is down to target. no waiting for trub to settle then rack, it will settle on its own

Agreed on the comments about pitching quickly after your temp comes down. I also think a 30 minute rest to let the trub settle out would be fine. That all said, I'm not sure why you are concerned with the trub in the first place.

On headspace... It depends. If you are going to primary in something with a ton of headspace, I don't see it as a problem at all. As you initially ferment, you're going to throw off a significant amount of CO2 and CO2 is heavier than oxygen, or rather "air", so it'll purge your fermenter and drive out, through pressure, any "air" you may not want in your fermenter.

For the secondary... Thats a diffetent story. Given that you wont be throwing off nearly as much CO2, you want as little headspace as possible. A huge amount of headspace in the secondary will increase the chances of oxidation (cardboard taste) in your beer.

I believe what you are reading is about No Chill Brewing. It's a relatively new (a year or so) method around here but done for some time by the Aussies. You use special containers (cubes) to drain your boiling wort into. THey need to be plastic so you can then squeeze all the air in the headspace out and cap tightly. some people have kept them months before pitching with no problems. I just started doing it because I hate chillers and the whole process. I've got 2 batches fermenting that were pitched the day after brewing or one that was pitched 2-3 days after. This also allowed me to mkae a real wort starter.