Hello, everyone. This is my first time brewing my own beer, and I'm using a Brewer's Best Oktoberfest kit. I've already passed the brewing and primary fermentation stage. When I siphoned my brew over to the secondary fermenter (a 5-gallon glass carboy), I think I probably lost about a half gallon of beer because I messed up and moved the fermenting bucket around too much during the transfer and got the sediment stirred up. The beer at the bottom got really cloudy and I didn't want to transfer a bunch of yeast sediment over to the secondary fermenter. My estimation is I only have about 4 1/2 gallons or slightly less in my carboy.
First question for future reference...if you get the sediment stirred up at the bottom, is it ok to keep transferring the cloudy beer over to the secondary fermenter? Thinking about it later, I thought it might not have been such a bad thing since whatever sediment I transferred over would have just settled back down to the bottom. I'm no expert, though. Also, I've heard that the reason you would want to use a 5-gallon carboy for secondary fermentation is to limit the amount of air that comes in contact with the beer during that time. Will the beer be in significant danger of oxidation considering there are only about 4 1/2 gallons in the carboy?
Finally, the kit came with 5 ounces of priming sugar, but I guess that assumes that I'd have 5 gallons of beer in the end. Since I only have about 4 1/2 gallons of beer now, should I reduce the amount of priming sugar I use to prevent overcarbonation or will it be ok to use it all? If I do need to adjust the amount, how much should I use? Would it be accurate to say it's 5 ounces of sugar for 5 gallons of beer, so only use 4 1/2 ounces for 4 1/2 gallons?
I'd appreciate any help and advice you can give me. I've really enjoyed brewing so far and plan to keep it up!
First question for future reference...if you get the sediment stirred up at the bottom, is it ok to keep transferring the cloudy beer over to the secondary fermenter? Thinking about it later, I thought it might not have been such a bad thing since whatever sediment I transferred over would have just settled back down to the bottom. I'm no expert, though. Also, I've heard that the reason you would want to use a 5-gallon carboy for secondary fermentation is to limit the amount of air that comes in contact with the beer during that time. Will the beer be in significant danger of oxidation considering there are only about 4 1/2 gallons in the carboy?
Finally, the kit came with 5 ounces of priming sugar, but I guess that assumes that I'd have 5 gallons of beer in the end. Since I only have about 4 1/2 gallons of beer now, should I reduce the amount of priming sugar I use to prevent overcarbonation or will it be ok to use it all? If I do need to adjust the amount, how much should I use? Would it be accurate to say it's 5 ounces of sugar for 5 gallons of beer, so only use 4 1/2 ounces for 4 1/2 gallons?
I'd appreciate any help and advice you can give me. I've really enjoyed brewing so far and plan to keep it up!
