Too much head space in Secondary?

I racked a 5 gallon batch to a 5 gallon carboy. I had more than 5 gallons in fermenter so I thought it would end up just right. WRONG! I think I have way too much headspace in the carboy. Don't know if I should let it go or just go ahead and bottle it? I wanted to let it go for month in secondary. It is ready as far as gravity goes. I bought the dang thing so I figured I would use it! I was just going to free up one of my fermenters so I could keep brewing. Just curious what you all think.

I'd say it would depend. How long was it in primary? What type of beer is it? I don't see any reason to rush it into bottle, but if the gravity is stable, you probably won't hurt it by doing so either.

It's times like this that even a small CO2 bottle would be a worthwhile addition to your brewery.

You could toss a bit of fermentable in it, still a lock on top, and hope the yeasties generate enough CO2 to fill that space...

Cheers!

Don't worry about it. I have had carboys half filled on the secondary many times in the past. No problem.

I asked the same question a while back and the consensus was that the yeast is still active enough that the space will still fill with co2 thus there is no problem. I don't plan on having any 5 gallon carboys other than the one I already own. I will but 6 gallon better bottles and use them as primaries and secondaries if I age a long time or dry hop.