Secondary fermentor size and headspace question

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54BelAir

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I am brewing a porter that I plan on adding oak and bourbon to in secondary. I would like to split the 5 gallon batch in two and secondary the halves a little differently.

The smallest vessel I have are 5g carboys. Will 2.5 gallons in a 5 g carboy have too much headspace and run a risk of oxidation?

I plan on aging the beer for at least 6 months.
 
I think that you might risk oxidation with that much head space. However, if you can somehow purge the O2 out, then you have nothing to worry about. Do you have a way to purge out the oxygen (i.e. a CO2 tank and the hookups to force carb).


PS: I could be wrong
 
I keg, so I have a full co2 setup. I suppose I could drop a hose in and fill the fermentor up with co2 which would push the oxygen out. Correct?

I guess I could just buy a couple of 3g better bottles and eliminate the worry.
 
The only problem with the better bottle plan is that I am running out of places put my "beer stuff" as the wife refers to it.
 
Hmm, in that case you could build a stand to stack your fermenters. Maybe that will work? I don't know what sort of room you have to work with, etc.
 

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