split batch in 6.5 gallong carboy..?

[idiosyncronaut]

I have a 5 gallon recipe that is currently fermenting in a 6.5 gallon bucket. It's about 10 days into the process and I think fermentation has about stopped. I'm going go rack to secondary (6.5 gallon carboy's) for dry-hopping and so I can re-use the bucket in my next batch..

My recipe is something that resembles a Zombie Dust clone, pure Citra. So I was thinking I would experiment with dry-hopping my first batch, as I've seen some zombie dust clones dry-hopping with citra.

I want to really understand what dry-hopping does to the character of my beer though, so my plan is to split the 1st batch into two separate 6.5 gallon glass carboy's. One dry-hopped, the other the control batch.

So I'd have about 2.5 gallons each in 6.5 gallon carboys. Is there anything to note when you have a lot of extra space (oxygen?) in the secondary like that? My idea is to dry hop for about a week or two. I'm probably going to bottle when the split batches both reach 3 weeks fermenting.

Sounds like a good plan?

 

[duboman]

First of all-DO NOT RACK YOUR BEER TO A SECONDARY WITHOUT CHECKING THE GRAVITY TO BE SURE FERMENTATION HAS COMPLETED-TAKE A GRAVITY READING ( if you get the same reading twice over a 3 day span you are good to go)

Now, racking only 2.5 gallons into a 6.5 gallon carboy is not a good idea. There is too much head space present and oxidation becomes a very large risk, IMO it is not advisable. If you can find a smaller container like 3 gallon that would be okay.

Dry hopping is a great way to impart both hop flavors and aromas into the beer, I like to use a lot of hops (2-3oz) for a period of 5-7 days, many people like to go 7-14 days, anything more than that and you can develop grassy, piss flavors. The best way to go about it is to figure out what day you want to bottle and then work back to start dry hopping. You want to bottle as soon as you can so the aromas and flavors are as fresh as possible before packaging.

Sorry about the first line, if you do not verify fermentation is complete before racking you will not be happy with your results and then will be posting about why your secondary is still fermenting