Too much head space?

[Jacktar]

I'm brewing a batch of strawberry wine and just transferred from the bucket to carboy on day six. I wanted to get it In the carboy while it was still pretty active because I'm concerned about my volume of must. I ended up with 4 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy. There's been quite a bit of airlock activity so that headspace should be full of CO2. Still, I intend to keep it there for 6 weeks like this. Am I risking oxidation or am I ok because I transferred it while it was actively fermenting?


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[bernardsmith]

IMO you are asking for trouble with 2 gallons of headroom. I think you want to transfer this wine into a 3 gallon and a single gallon carboy. That is what I would do.

 

[Jacktar]

You're probably right. I'll be able to make due with a 3 gallon carboy bc there's a lot of lees with strawberry wine. How much longer can I wait until I rack it to a smaller carboy? Or should I do it immediately?


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[pumpkinman2012]

The longer you wait, the better the chances of it spoiling, while fermentation is actively producing CO2, it will protect the wine, but 2 gallons is an excessive amount of head space.