Brewing small batches in a large fermenter?

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jvetter

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I'm debating the purchase of my second fermetor and would appreciate some input from the many experts on the forum.

I currently brew 10 gallon batches and use one conical fementer. I would like to buy another but I am unsure what size to get. I know someday (maybe soon) I will move to 20 gallon batches. This makes me think in the long run it will be more cost affective to buy a fermentor that can handle 20 gallon batches now.

The main question I have is if I buy a 27 gallon ferementer now and only do 10-12 gallon batches in it, will the extra space cause problems? Will the resulting beer in any way be inferior due to the amount of emtpy space?

The only downside I can think would be too much oxygen. But in the early stages of yeast growth oxygen would be good, and once CO2 began being generated, all the oxygen shoul be pushed out the air lock.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jaime
 
Your thought's seem reasonable to me.

I'm not sure if my thinking is sound but If you aerate the wort adequately then all the oxygen required should be in the wort so theoretically you can purge the conical of oxygen with CO2.

But you could do that after primary implementation has finished.
 
Yeah, I agree with orfy. I think the same way you do and try to make purchases that will be useful in the future endeavors as well. I think you'll be fine...and who knows, maybe if it doesn't work that will be a good excuse to go bigger sooner lol?!?
 

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