2 secondary questions

Ok I 'm pretty sure I know the answers but want to make sure.
1. I'm racking over to 6.5 gallon carboy,(box said 5 when i bought) so I will have quite a bit of headspace, should i fill with water?

2. how long will yeast stay in suspension in secondary? after say 2 months will it have enough to still carbonate with the sugar?

I'm thinking the answers are yes and yes but just checking

You shouldn't top off with water unless you're really worried about not having enough beer...just remember it will lower alcohol content and probably make it feel lighter and less flavorful, depending on how much you'd be adding.

I left a russian imperial stout in secondary for 3 months and it carbed up nicely, although it took a very little bit longer than normal. 2 months is no problem.

The reason for using a 6.5 gallon carboy is so that there is room for the kraeusen to build without shooting into your airlock (although it doea still happen occasionally). You don't need to top it up. That being said if you are not doing full wort boils or if you boiled off more than you intended due to evaporation you may want to add some water to get back to your target quantity. Also, there are times where I may get better than expected efficiency and I have added a bit of water to lower the gravity, but this is fairly rare.

As for the yeast question you should be fine. Is there some reason why you are leaving it in secondary for so long? That's quite a while but as long as you have been sano you shouldn't have any problems.

Cheers

I don't have to worry about krausen I'm going to secondary and worried about the O2 in all the extra room, don't want it to ruin.

As far as the 2 months not sure if I'll have one in that long just wondering. After the new year going to buy a few more carboys, working with one right now , but was thinking if I did let one sit longer while drinking on the others if it would be ok. I'm thinking about a tripel next, a little while longer like a month in secondary wouldn't hurt right?

so what is a good amount of time for primary and secondary.

I generally do 3 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks in the bottle

philhead1 said:

I was thinking if I did let one sit longer while drinking on the others if it would be ok. I'm thinking about a tripel next, a little while longer like a month in secondary wouldn't hurt right?

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Not only would it not hurt, I think it would actually be beneficial. I've got a 10% Dark Belgian in secondary right now, and I plan on leaving it there for about six months, to give the alcohol flavors time to soften and meld in with the malt flavors. Big beers can benefit from some extended aging, so if you wanted to leave your tripel for a few months I'm sure it'd be all the better for it.

A possible exception is with beers that are very hoppy, as hoppiness tends to fade with age. So with something both strong and hoppy (like an Imperial IPA) I have no idea what the best thing to do would be. But if you want to let your beer sit, you'll be fine.

I never add water to my beer. t will always be fine, just a little less beer thats all.

There is enough co2 in the beer that O2 is not a problem. The CO2 is heavier than air, so as the CO2 comes out of the beer it pushes the lighter air out the air lock first.

Winemakers do seem more paranoid about headspace than beer brewers. I suspect it is important in a de-gassed wine, in bottles, for l-o-o-o-o-n-g time storage. But for me, a batch of wine doesn't seem to get aged any longer than a batch of beer would. But I've only done fruit wines, which I think play by white wine rules rather than red?

ok thanks guys, its in the carboy now and slightly active again so I know the CO2 will take over. thanks again.