Fermentation Question

Hello All-
Well, after 15 years of winemaking with successful results, I decided to try may first go at home brewing.

I am starting with an extract Oktoberfest brew.

I apologize in advance if these questions are stupid.

My questions pertain specifically to the fermentation process. I placed the wort in a galss carboy for primary fermentation. I beleive I made a mistake when I placed an airlock over the opening instead of a "blow" tube. Anyway, I ended up siphoning some of the wort (1 qt.) out of the carboy to further prohibit the blow off that was occuring through my airlock.

Is secondary fermentation necessary and should I add sterilized water to the solution to bring the level to within an inchof the airlock in the second glass carboy? As it stands now, primary ferm. is about over and the wort level is about 3 inches below the airlock. When I siphon and transfer to the secondary vessel, I assume the level will be about 4 inches below. I don't want all that air to come in contact with the wort durign secondary fermentation.

Any suggestions????

Thanks-

In beer, it's ok if you have some headspace in there. There isn't any reason to have to top up if you're only going to be using the clearing tank for a couple of weeks. You have some co2 off gassing and it protects the beer by displacing the oxygen that got in during racking.

There isn't any "secondary" fermentation in beer in the carboy, really. After the primary is done, the beer should be done. It's then moved to a clearing tank to clear and age a little bit. Some people skip this step and just leave it in the primary for a couple of weeks. I usually use a 7.5 gallon bucket for primary and 5 gallon carboy for the clearing tank, and I use the 1-2-3 method: 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in the clearing tank, and then 3 weeks in bottles. This works for most ales. For lagers and bigger beers, this changes accordingly.

I agree with all that YooperChick said. 1-2-3 method works great!

Thanks for the info...sounds good.

Has anyone tried the brewer's best oktoberfest kit? I was wondering what the end product looks like...assuming I follow the 1-2-3 strategy.

Does the beer end up clear or slightly clouded? Should I add finings after secondary or filter to help the beer clear further?

Thanks