Can you put less than 5g in 5g secondary?

[rcsarver]

I know size doesn't matter so much for primary.

I have a 5 gallon carboy for secondary. would it be a problem to put 3.5 gallons of beer in it? If it were you, how low would you go, 2 gallons, 1 gallon...?

 

[aiptasia]

The problem with doing that is the extra headspace. If you don't plan on adding any more fermentables to the beer when racking to a secondary, the beer won't produce enough CO2 (in most cases) to produce a protective blanket (CO2 is heavier than air) and you'll run into danger of oxidizing your beer. If you have some CO2 equipment or a keg to rack it to, you'd be able to purge the air from the container by injecting it with some CO2 and you'd be all set. Otherwise, try for as little headspace as possible when racking to a secondary.

Unless you ARE adding something fermentable to it, in which the yeast will produce more CO2 and forget everthing I just said.

 

[rcsarver]

Thanks. I think the recipe has secondary in mind mainly for conditioning. Would you recommend holding back some DME from the recipe, maybe a pound and add when I rack to secondary?

 

[SagamoreAle]

You can purchase a 3 gal carboy and solve all your worries.

Regardless of the amount of headspace, once fermentation is completed the carboy will breath thru the airlock as the temperature in the room changes. The less headspace, the less surface area exposed to oxygen, leading to less oxidation. The breathing effect is one of the reasons why you want to age beer at a constant temperature.

When I have a lot of headspace, I add some metabisulfite to the water in the airlock. This ensures there is enough sulfite in the headspace to scavenge any oxygen that gets in there. (Don't add metabisulfite to the beer.)

 

[wilserbrewer]

IMO skip the secondary unless you have a specific reason, which there aren't many, just leave it in the primary.

 

[Demus]

Thanks. I think the recipe has secondary in mind mainly for conditioning. Would you recommend holding back some DME from the recipe, maybe a pound and add when I rack to secondary?

NO!!! Secondary isn't very important and you could do way more damage to your brew trying to add DME to it mid stream like that. If you don't have a proper sized vessel just skip the secondary step entirely. Nothing happens in a secondary that won't take place in your primary many brewers (myself included) have abandoned racking to secondary entirely without any ill effects. ...

 

[rcsarver]

I have a 6.5 gallon bucket and a 5 gallon carboy.
It's a barleywine, says to age several months.

Which would be better, 3.5 gallon batch in the Carboy, no secondary, or buy two 1 gallon fermenters for secondary and do a 2 gallon batch?

 

[Demus]

Again, I'd just skip the secondary. Age in the bottles or keg. No difference, except of course the time and effort you save!!

 

[Wig]

I'd agree there isn't much need for secondary for most beers. However for long aging (like your barley wine) it is ok. There is probably a thread on here regarding bulk aging vs bottle aging. I like bulk aging personally.

If you bottle, rack to secondary while there is still 5ish gravity points to go before fermentation is complete. After you rack, the final few points will ferment out giving you the CO2 blanket you want to protect the beer.

If you keg, you can bulk age in the keg. Or if you don't have the space or keg available, rig somethig to shoot some CO2 into the carboy.

 

[pjj2ba]

IMO skip the secondary unless you have a specific reason, which there aren't many, just leave it in the primary.

One pretty good specific reason one might choose to use a secondary is they prefer the flavors which that methods results in as opposed to the flavors that result from doing a primary only beer. If that is a persons's reason, then it is a pretty darn good one.

That being said, 3.5 in a 5 in pretty low, unless as aiptasia says, you have a way to purge the carboy with CO2.

The only reason one would want to add more DME to a secondary would be to increase the alcohol content, and then this probably should be done in the primary. Fruit and similar is though commonly added to the secondary.

I wouldn't try to top off the volume - unless you are doing it within a day or so of starting the batch to begin with. It is not unusual for commercial breweries to fill a fermentor half way and pitch it, and then brew again the next day to fill the fermentor up all the way. It is also a technique that can be used if you don't have quite enough yeast. Let the yeast multiply for a day or two, and then add the rest of the wort

 

[Demus]

One pretty good specific reason one might choose to use a secondary is they prefer the flavors which that methods results in as opposed to the flavors that result from doing a primary only beer. If that is a persons's reason, then it is a pretty darn good one.

I agree this would be a pretty good reason, I simply haven't observed any discernible flavor difference in "secondary-ed" beer. In fact, I haven't even seen a big difference in clarity. Those reasons, along with time spent sanitizing, transferring, and another opportunity for infection are very good reasons for primary only...

 

[Varmintman]

One thing that has not been addressed is infection. It sure seems that quite often you see a infection in a secondary that is not full or has a lot of headspace.

I secondary about all my beers and I feel it can be done safely but part of the safety other than sanitation for me is keeping it full up to the neck of the secondary.

 

[pjj2ba]

I agree this would be a pretty good reason, I simply haven't observed any discernible flavor difference in "secondary-ed" beer. In fact, I haven't even seen a big difference in clarity. Those reasons, along with time spent sanitizing, transferring, and another opportunity for infection are very good reasons for primary only...

This is all very true. The differences vary with beer styles. For many it is not worth it for the reasons you mention. Then there are folks who are willing to spend the extra effort, and there are others who just like to "play" with their beer, even it they aren't that concerned with differences in the final product. This last one is something many people forget about.

We hear the mantra RDWHAHB (relax, don't worry, have a homebrew) but there are some folks who just can relax and let it ride and just have to fuss/play with their beer. Nothing wrong with that. People have different levels of how "active" they want to be in their hobbies