Aging in carboy - too much headspace?

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Cugel

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Hey there,

Just stuck what should have been a dubbel, but at 9.5% abv it's a Belgian strong dark ale I guess with a hot alcohol bite (waay too much candi sugar) in a 5 gallon carboy and plan on keeping it there for 3-4 months. I wonder if I have too much headspace for long term aging?

I brewed 5 1/8 gallons, and after racking from primary the beer comes to within 5 inches or so of the airlock, with too much headspace for my liking. I would have been happy with an inch or two.

I tried to introduce some CO2 from my keg system, by supplying CO2 directly into the top of the carboy for about 30 seconds. Dunno whether that worked as I had to reinstall my airlock which took a few seconds.

Should I be comfortable with the situation as is? Do I need to bottle ASAP? Just drink it all ASAP? :)

Slainte
 
You should be just fine. The beer will likely produce some more CO2 as well creating a fine blanket over your beer. If you are really that worried, you could top up with some store bought dubbel.
 
You should be just fine. The beer will likely produce some more CO2 as well creating a fine blanket over your beer. If you are really that worried, you could top up with some store bought dubbel.

That's a really good point - I do it with wine, why not with beer. I have a few Corsendonk browns left that I am thoroughly unimpressed with. They'll do the trick!
 
Over the weekend I was racking mead with a new meader (?) who highly distressed about the possibility of oxygenation during the rack.

To eliminate the problem and soothe his concerns, we poured some water in the bottom of a plastic jug, threw in $1 worth of dry ice chips from the local grocery store and stoppered/blowoffed the jug. The blowoff tube became a CO2 pump, blowing fog at an impressive rate. We pumped his 6.5gal carboy full of CO2 then racked. He was happy/soothed and we moved forward.

It was cheap ($1) and felt Mad Scientist, which is always a plus.
 
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