Planning Problem

I don't plan well

I currently have a brew dry-hopping in my secondary at the moment. I need to do a tertiary on it to clarify, but the only vessel I have to rack it to is a 6.5 gallon carboy. I figure with the brew that the hops soaked up, I'm going to have about 4.5 gallons. That's a whole lotta headspace, and I doubt there's much left for the yeast to create enough CO2 to fill it.

So, my plan was to prep a little DME mixture and rack on top of it in the tertiary. I just want to create a little CO2... so how much is too much? I was thinking 1 cup water and 1 oz DME. Sound about right? Too much?

I wouldn't worry about the headspace. CO2 is still being produced. Adding the DME invites more risk than racking first to the 6.5, cleaning and sanitizing the orignal 5g and re-racking.

Texasgeorge, when you say that you don't plan well, I have to ask myself...

Is that you W?

his description under his username makes me think IT IS!!!!!

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SNAP!!!!!!


And you sirs, deserve this............enjoy!

LOL I would have to say that I am not W. He has much more important things to worry about other than a tertiary vessel.

And I just wanted to argue a point just for the sake of healthy discussion... what would be different from racking on top of DME in a larger carboy compared to doing it for a priming mixture? As someone mentioned, my tagline says I am lazy after all... racking twice would not be conducive to laziness

For one you'll be starting a new fermentation...and you'll have to clear all over again.

How about unbalancing your brew? Adding more DME and water will change your gravity and hop flavor.

I hope you've learned something.

I don't think you have to rack twice because the CO2 issue IMO not an issue. The wort will produce it soon enough. If you keg, well, you can purge and top it with CO2.

As for the extra DME.
Unless you have other reasons, why mess with the gravity/ flavor/ sweetness of what you already have? Why risk infection?

If it were me, I'd rack it to the larger container and forget about it.

I brought up reacking twice in case you needed the 6.5 for something else and you were really worried about the headspace.

homebrewer_99 said:

For one you'll be starting a new fermentation...and you'll have to clear all over again.

How about unbalancing your brew? Adding more DME and water will change your gravity and hop flavor.

I hope you've learned something.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm trying to figure out... I just want to fill headspace in a carboy with CO2. I know that bottle-carbonation is essentially the same process so why can't it be duplicated in a carboy? I'm not incredibly concerned with hop profile or gravity since the recipe is a makeshift one anyhow.

I was just curious how small of an amount I could add to get yeast to produce a little more CO2 for a week and a half or so, but still stay relatively clear. 1/4 oz? 1/8 oz? Will enough CO2 still be produced w/o adding anything? It doesn't need to be much... and was seeing if anyone else has had success/failure doing the same.


edit: Thanks olllllo, that's exactly what I was looking for. RDWHAHB it is!