I am going to brew a regular five gallon batch and want to try different additives during the fermentation, such as vanilla and spices. I have access to 3 fermenters and was going to divide the batch into 3 parts, one without additives, one with vanilla, and one with spices. Is it OK to have that much extra room in the top of a standard 5 gallon fermenter? Also, vanilla and things are usually added to the secondary, so do I need a secondary or just put extra ingredients into the primary? This is going to be MY first all grain batch as well.
Half Full Fermenter
- Thread starter FireHawk
- Start date
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I'd like to suggest that you do your first AG as is and not use additions. There can be a bit of a learning curve you may run into. That doesn't mean you need to wait for that to be drinkable before starting another batch. It can act as a 'control' batch.
I recently did similar.. I made a vanilla porter base, then after primary I split it up into a bunch of growlers, and gave each a different additive, or different strength of each additive.
If your fermenter has too much headspace, it helps to purge it w/ co2, if you have the ability..
If your fermenter has too much headspace, it helps to purge it w/ co2, if you have the ability..
For a few days, yes but longer will create issues with too much headspace.
Also, since this is your first AG batch I too would recommend you get your process down first as there are lots of variables that come in to play. If you start playing around without first getting your set up and process dialed in you simply make things harder to diagnose and solve later on.
