Conditioning 5 g in 6 g secondary

[brelic]

I use a 7 or 8 g pail with a loose fitting lid for primary and a 6 g glass carboy for secondary. I've been doing this ever since I started brewing.

I wonder, though, is it a problem to have so much headspace in the secondary? Should I really use a 5 g carboy? I mean, my beers have turned out fine, a few have been stellar, so I wonder if it has any effect at all.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[GroosBrewz]

I use a 7 or 8 g pail with a loose fitting lid for primary and a 6 g glass carboy for secondary. I've been doing this ever since I started brewing.

I wonder, though, is it a problem to have so much headspace in the secondary? Should I really use a 5 g carboy? I mean, my beers have turned out fine, a few have been stellar, so I wonder if it has any effect at all.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I dont know the answer to this, but I have been thinking the same thing, since due to a game of musical fermenters, in a few days I will be forced to use my 6 gallon fermenter for a 5 (more like 4.5) gallon batch for the first time.. My gut tells me this is not a problem, but I am curious in a definitive answer to this myself.

 

[noblesquirrel]

When you transfer to secondary, the beer will degas enough to create a layer of CO2 on top of the beer. Or you could just not secondary the beer...

 

[brelic]

When you transfer to secondary, the beer will degas enough to create a layer of CO2 on top of the beer. Or you could just not secondary the beer...

Well, I tend to secondary my brews. I would be ok with keeping it in the primary if I fermented using a carboy or a pail with a tight lid, but so far, it's always been the loose fitting lid, and it's worked well for me. Now, the issue with the loose fitting lid is that oxygen can enter much more freely. Would it be too much to leave it in there for 3-4 weeks? I assume those that do have an airtight set up.

I haven't bothered switching to such a setup because my current method seems to be working. But I'm open to trying new techniques.

Actually, I just scored some pails with tight fitting lids and a hole in the center for a bung/airlock. Maybe I'll give it a shot. Anyone have experience with using those?

 

[Montanaandy]

I used to be worried about the head space that would often occur when transferring from a 6 gal BB to a 5 gal BB for secondary (I often use whole hops in both the primary and secondary and they tend to soak up quite a bit of wort). I never did encounter a problem and in fact some of the best beer that I have brewed IMHO came from this situatiion. With the last few batches I have made I decided to leave in primary for the entire duration rather than transfer to secondary because everyone raves about how good the beer is when it is done this way. I will say that the FG has normally hit 1.010 and the beer in the samples tastes pretty good with the exception of one batch. Montanaandy