Head space in carboy

[rovert173]

Hey all, I'm new to brewing and have started with fermenting some cider. My first gallon came out ok and I am about to start 14 more. During primary and secondary fermentation, how full do you want the carboy to be?
I'm under the impression that too much air space leads to vinegar. I plan on letting it sit in secondary for a few months and want to make sure I end up with a drinkable result.

 

[Yooper]

Hey all, I'm new to brewing and have started with fermenting some cider. My first gallon came out ok and I am about to start 14 more. During primary and secondary fermentation, how full do you want the carboy to be?
I'm under the impression that too much air space leads to vinegar. I plan on letting it sit in secondary for a few months and want to make sure I end up with a drinkable result.

For primary, you can do that in a bucket or a large carboy with no issues. But once the fermentation slows, it should be in a carboy with no headspace- it should be filled to the narrowest part of the carboy, just below the bung.

 

[ArcLight]

I'm under the impression that too much air space leads to vinegar. I plan on letting it sit in secondary for a few months and want to make sure I end up with a drinkable result.

If Acetobacter is present, then yes.
But Oxygen will also make your beer/wine/cider not taste as good over the long run, adding off flavors like card board.

Headspace is the enemy.

You could try filling the head space with CO2 if you keg.

 

[Frognostic]

I had an issue with airspace in a one gallon jug of cider just the other day so I defrosted some of the sloes in the freezer and put them into the demijohn until the levels were just below the bung.

When I made my first batch of blackberry / bramble wine I had a similar issue, so filled it with raisins until the level was around the neck of the jug.

Unfortunately, 3 out of 4 of my 2013 mead batches have headspace issues and I haven't done anything to remedy it, mainly because I don't want to water it down or add more honey, starting another fermentation or making it too sweet, and probably having to wait even longer before it becomes drinkable. So, I'm taking my chances there and hoping that the effects of oxygenation will not be too severe.

 

[MarkKF]

Add sterilized glass marbles

 

[Maylar]

Add sterilized glass marbles

Good luck finding them. A quart's worth of marbles will cost a small fortune. Believe me, I've looked.

 

[Wolfbayte]

Good luck finding them. A quart's worth of marbles will cost a small fortune. Believe me, I've looked.

Dollar Tree has those flattish glass bead things that look like squashed marbles. They appear smooth. Like what people fill vases with. They are a buck a bag and a bag is just over a cup or so, so you might be looking at $4 plus tax if you want to go that route.

 

[siletzspey]

For reference...

Here are some of my Fall 2014 primaries, where 2 of 3 apple yeasts foamed up just enough to barely hit the airlocks, and none of the raspberry, plum or blackberry yeasts came close to the airlocks.

Here are some of the secondaries, where 1 or 2 airlocks suffered minor blowouts early, but otherwise the minimal head space pictured seemed good.

Some fruit flies got into the house last year, so I took some wet paper-towel chunks and molded them around the airlock lids. That stopped the fruit flies crawling in thru the lid holes.

--SiletzSpey

 

[Jim311]

Errr... I've got 3 gallons of cider fermenting in a 5 gallon bucket currently undergoing primary. Judging by this thread I'm guessing I should rack it to a smaller container to reduce head space. But someone mentioned you could purge with CO2 if you keg... but isn't all of the "air" space inside my bucket with airlock going to be filled with offgassed CO2 from primary fermentation anyway?