Apfelwein Headspace

[BlackJackBrews]

Checked in on my Apfelwein last night. It's been in primary in an ale pale for about 4 months, and now has a pretty large amount of head space.

Am I going to have any oxidation issues? It smells the slightest bit musty, but mainly just overwhelmingly alcoholic.

Haven't tasted it yet, and this is my first time with apfelwein, so I'm not sure what to expect. If I am going to have oxidation issues I was considering just going ahead and bottling it and letting it sit for another 3 months or so.

Advice?

 

[oms1981]

as long as your vessel is sealed tightly with an airlock there shouldn't be much O2 in there. it should have been displaced by venting gas during fermentation. The last time I made apfelwein i had quite a bit of head space and it tasted fine. I let it sit in fermentor for about 4 months or so and then bottled it. At that time it was still pretty harsh so I let it just sit in bottles for a few more months.

If you are really worried about it, you can just bottle it like you said. But I think it should be fine in a fermentor. I've left things in secondary for over 6 months before with no adverse results.