Secondary Fermentation

[mbtech]

Quick question: When tranferring to a secondary carboy, do I need to top off the second carboy with water to the 5 gallon mark? My beer in the secondary is at the level where the glass starts to curve and narrow, so about 6 inches down from the mouth. THanks

 

[double_e5]

It will be fine. You could top it off if you wanted to but you'll be lowering your alcohol content and watering the beer down.

 

[stale]

no. when transferring to secondary you will lose some but it is mainly a clearing vessel. You are trying to rack the new beer off the trub and sediment from the primary and clear it in the secondary vessel. Even then, when you rack from secondary to bottles or keg you will see that there is more sediment that has dropped out.