What size secondary fermenter do you use?

[weissbiergirl]

I just racked to my secondary fermenter which seems to be a 6 gal carboy. Will the extra gallon head space cause a big problem? With the 5 gal carboy, it never fills all that close to the neck anyway, but still I was curious as to whether this is now too much head space?

 

[Waterboy42]

No problem at all to use a 6 gallon for secondary. I only use six gallon carboys for primary and secondary.

 

[Grizzlybrew]

I would say it's a lot of headspace and might potentially increase your chances of oxidation, but it would depend on some other factors. If you keg, I would have a set-up where you could purge the oxygen out of the secondary before filling or very gently bubble some CO2 through the wort just under the surface after filling.

Or, you could just forget the secondary all together...

 

[pjj2ba]

You'll be fine. When you transfer there is probably enough dissolved CO2 that will escape as the beer is jostled around to give you your C02 blanket. If you do keg, as mentioned, just purge with a bit of CO2

 

[weissbiergirl]

Great, thanks a lot for your replies!