siletzspey
Well-Known Member
For 2 seasons, I've put fresh pressed apple juice into 1 and 3 gallon carboys, and had no foam-out issues with just ~1 cup of airy headspace in the primary. While pressing apples with friends yesterday (50+ gallons), they had been told to leave ~1/3 of the bottle as headspace.
Other than leaving headspace to guard against foamy blow out, the only other occasional argument I see for headspace during primary is that the yeasts supposedly need O2 early on. Is this true?
I'm under the impression that CO2 quickly pushes the O2 out, so assuming the yeast needs O2 early on, it would seem leaving lots of headspace would be worthless, and some other approach should be used. True?
For secondary, I've been fine at ~2oz headspace.
--SiletzSpey
Other than leaving headspace to guard against foamy blow out, the only other occasional argument I see for headspace during primary is that the yeasts supposedly need O2 early on. Is this true?
I'm under the impression that CO2 quickly pushes the O2 out, so assuming the yeast needs O2 early on, it would seem leaving lots of headspace would be worthless, and some other approach should be used. True?
For secondary, I've been fine at ~2oz headspace.
--SiletzSpey