Headspace - how to proceed?

[primerib]

Thanks to all again for all the advice and tips thus far!

Cider has been in primary for about two weeks. OG about 1.050, current SG about 1.001. Racked to secondary this evening, realized I’d made a rookie mistake, had about 5 gallons of cider, didn’t realize that my carboy is meant to hold about 6 gallons.

Anyway, I can see that I have too much headspace (photo attached). It’s late and a Sunday, the airlock is bubbling, I’m going to leave it be for tonight but considering tomorrow either topping it off with storebought juice or getting a couple smaller carboys, clearly juice is cheaper.

What would you guys do? I realize adding more juice means more active fermentation, possibly needing to re-rack it to let it clear - so it seems like it would extend the time until I get to drink it by at least a couple of weeks. Small peanuts in the scheme of things, I know, but I’m getting anxious to sample...

 

[Maylar]

If you intend to continue pursuing cider making in the future, then make the investment in additional carboys. Having a 3 gallon, a couple 1 gallon and a half gallon jug would let you rack to appropriate containers for secondary clearing and long term aging without worries of spoilage. If this is a one time cider experiment, then do the top-up. You'll be OK as is until the ferment finishes and stops out gassing CO2, so no need to act today.

 

[MarkKF]

Or think it out ahead of time. I start with 5.5 gal. in a bucket or 6 gal. carboy. Then rack into a 5 gal. carboy. I assume the loss of a half gal. of juice with lees at racking. For tomorrow I’d just top off this time.

 

[primerib]

Thanks for the help. Yes, I should have considered ahead of time that you lose a bit to sediment every time you rack, I guess I’m still learning some of the simple things.

I made a hasty decision and did top off the cider to the neck today, it was a fair amount, about 0.75 gallons on top of the 4.5 gallons or so in the carboy.

I’m sort of scratching my head and wishing I hadn’t done this now, I basically just restarted primary fermentation, right? If my thinking is correct, I will need to rack it again anyway to more appropriately sized vessels in order to have a proper secondary fermentation and achieve better clarity - or, this is wishful thinking - might the lees/sediment formed by this late addition of fermentable juice be relatively minuscule and I can just let it clear out in this same container?

 

[MarkKF]

It might not be that robust of a refermentation. You only added about 10% of the original sugar. In the future you can draw off some and freeze or refrigerate it to use for topping off later.

 

[primerib]

It might not be that robust of a refermentation. You only added about 10% of the original sugar. In the future you can draw off some and freeze or refrigerate it to use for topping off later.

Thanks for the insight. I suppose I’ll just sit on it for a while and see how much it clears up in the next few weeks, if I’m feeling extra patient perhaps I will rack again, this time to something more appropriately sized. Little bit of a learning curve with this cider, the process seems simple enough but every time I think I have it figured out, something new comes up!

Even if I don’t achieve total visual clarity, I certainly do want to clear out the yeasty taste as much as possible, as others have described, I had a taste of it and was pretty underwhelmed. It wasn’t by any means foul, but I could plainly tell that it wasn’t ready.