Bulk Aging question

[darkshardx]

Hey there! I recently brewed up 2 gallons of RIS (1.10 OG) and it's coming up on a month in primary. The recipe I followed suggests racking off of the yeast cake and bulk aging for 3-6 months. My question is, for bulk aging, what can I do about headspace? The smallest containers I have are my 3 gallon better bottles and a 2 gallon Mr Beer keg. It looks like I have around half of a gallon that I will lose when racking, so with 1.5 gallons of beer, these containers are much too big and will allow too much headspace. Can I somehow purge the 3 gallon bottles with C02? Should I buy some marbles? What works?

 

[RM-MN]

Bottles work for bulk aging. Bottle the beer and set the bottles where the temperature is in the upper 60's to upper 70's for 6 months to 2 years.

 

[AMessenger]

I've made a number of barleywines that have aged for 4-6 months with ~1 gal of headspace in a glass carboy. I have never detected any stale or offputting flavors as a result of this storage method.

Topping up with CO2 wouldn't be a bad call for some extra insurance.

 

[mr_stout]

Bottle it so you can start carbonating and then drinking. If it taste great just keep on drinking it. No need to wait extra time hoping the flavor will improve after aging. How much would the flavor improve after aging a while? 2% better? 5% better tasting?

 

[C-Rider]

I aged in bottles and Am Imperial Stout for a year. It was 10% ABV. Big difference the year made. The alcohol "bit" was greatly reduced.

 

[darkshardx]

So it's looking like I shouldn't worry TOO much about it sitting with headspace? I plan to add some oak cubes for a period of time, so maybe I'll bullk age until I'm happy with that and then bottle and age it in that for the remainder of the 3-6 months. What exactly does bulk aging add that bottle aging doesn't?