Justed Racked my first brew and appear to be low 1/2-1 gallon in 5 gallon carboy.

I racked my brew to my secondary fermenter this evening (10 days in the primary) and it appears I have about 4-4.5 gallons of brew in my secondary 5 gallon carboy. I'm unsure as to whether this poses too high of a risk of oxidizing my brew resulting in a cardboard taste that I've read about. I was pondering whether to bottle sooner than later, Monday being the soonest available time.

I'm thinking I may not have added enough liquid after the initial boil but I do also remember leaving behind more liquid than I anticipated due to all the waste in the boil. I was pouring the boil through a funnel into the primary fermenter carboy and am now also wondering if I should have siphoned that instead. Thanks for reading, I feel like a worried father waiting for my wife to give birth.

I have the same question. I transferred to secondary after 12 days in primary. I knew I'd lose some volume. The level is just below where the glass carboy curves up to the spout. I immediately airlocked it and plan on letting it sit for 1 wk. till I keg it. I think I'll be okay, but know better next batch to add a tad more than 5 gallons.

You're fine. Your beer shuld offgas a little during transfer and you'll have a layer of Co2 on top.

I'd be more concerned about your timing. Recent general consensus has it that secondaries aren't neccessary. What type of brew (recipe), what was the OG and what SG were you at?

Not that you can't be done in ten days, but it seems a tad rushed.

+2 to JetSmooth.

Since my third batch I've been using long primaries with no secondaries. I do occasionally ravk to AGE a brew on something that works best off the yeast. But I only do that once I'm 100% sure the brew is otherwise done.

Without knowing at least the brew type, OG and SG at racking (recipe would help) we cannot say if the brew was really ready to be racked. 10 days, IMO/IME is at least 18 days too soon.

Oh, and you can expect to lose more volume when you rack again. Which is another reason to not rack unless you must.

Golddiggie said:

Oh, and you can expect to lose more volume when you rack again. Which is another reason to not rack unless you must.

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Yeah. That's a good point. Every time you monkey with. . . I mean "transfer". . . your beer, you're going to lose a little. There are things you can do like fashion dip tubes to drain nearly everything out of a vessel or overcopmensate your volume at the start of your recipe.

Don't worry about it, you'll get your system figured in a few brews and you should be able to hit your volume pretty consistently.

Congrats on the first brew! It'll turn out fine!

I've been back and forth on the secondary debate. there is so much talk on this issue from various websites that it was driving me crazy! Do it, don't do it... etc.. Was going to let her sit in primary for 3 wks, then keg, but I needed to free up my primary for my next batch so a guy at my local brewery supply joint (Adventures in Homebrewing) suggested I do a secondary and didn't seem concerned that it's only been in primary for 12 days. The beer looked, smelled, and tasted pretty darn good (it's a red) so I'm happy thus far... we'll see how it is after the kegging/carbonation.

Next batch (Two Hearted IPA clone) I will let sit in primary for 4 wks, then go straight to keg.

Get more primaries. I have four SS ones. I also have four SS vessels that can be either for primary or aging. Having enough to let a batch progress as IT needs is priceless. I've not had to delay a brew day, yet because I don't have a free fermenter/primary.

And 5 gallon glass carbouys are more than that, probably closer to 5.5 gallons if you fill them to the very top. If you are just eyeballing it, I'm sure you are close to the 5 gallons than you think. I have one glass carbout that is "supposed" to be 5 gallons, and I'm sure I can get over 6 gallons into it.