Last night I searched secondary fermentation. Basically I didnt know when to do it or what styles you needed to do it on. Well i didnt know it was such a controversial topic. Basically, I'm gonna stick with the majority and skip it all together. But this got me thinking on the whole topic of oxidation in general in how i do my process. Keep in mind ive only brewed 5 batches so im fairly new and learning as i go. I'm the only one that drinks beer in my house. So brewing 5 gallon batches isnt for me. I decided my plan is to brew 3 gallon batches. My last two batches i just put the wort in my 6.5 gallon carboy, pitched my yeast, let it ferment, once it was done i just let it sit with one batch a couple extra days. I currently have a batch that is sitting in the primary that i am bottling this weekend which will have set 1 week after my FG has been reached. My question is should i not use a 6.5 gallon carboy and try to buy a smaller fermenter? Is all that headspace once fermentation is done too much and allowing air in to the fermenter and oxidizing the beer? in the thread i was reading brewers were talking about even with the airlock, air can still get in. Or is this fine and i just have to be extremely careful when i transfer to my bottling bucket to avoid splashing and limiting the time its exposed? Secondly if it is extremely recommended i get a smaller fermenter any suggestions what i should go with?
Small Batch Fermenters
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As long as you don't open the fermenter while it's actively fermenting and after fermentation has completed, the headspace will be mostly filled with CO2. There's a tremendous amount of CO2 generated when fermenting, it has driven off pretty much all air that was in there originally. Even if the headspace is as large as the beer space.
For example some homebrewers purge 5.5 gallon kegs with fermentation CO2 produced by a 5.5 gallon batch. Some purge even 2 kegs that way, at the same time, connected in succession (out port of #1 connected to the in port of #2).
So, to answer your question, those 6.5 gallon carboy fermenters are just fine to use for 3 gallon batches as long as you leave the stopper and airlock in.
Now for fermenting only 1/2 a gallon in that same fermenter, I'd have to get "the calculator" out.
You can get food grade 2gal buckets from online homebrew shops and also at the big box home stores. They work great for 1 to 1.5gal batches.
You can also get 5gal food grade buckets at the big box stores too if you want to reduce head space but still have room for an energetic fermentation.
You can also get 5gal food grade buckets at the big box stores too if you want to reduce head space but still have room for an energetic fermentation.
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I brew 2.5G batches and really like my 3G Better Bottle fermenters. I find there is plenty of headspace without the need for a blowoff tube. For my 1 -1.25G batches I love my Little Big Mouth Bubblers, perfect size and easy to clean.
I fall into that same volume range. I still regularly fermenter 3-4G batches inside of a 6.5G big mouth bubbler with no issues, except I would strongly advise against dry hopping. I did a couple times with disastrous results. I did buy a 3G fermonster because its the perfect size and allowed me to brew IPAs without fear of the giant headspace while dry hopping. But otherwise I still ferment my non-dry hopped brews inside of the bigger 6.5G fermenter.
