secondary

[brewwitch]

Hi

We have brewed three beers (none have been tried yet!).
for one reason or another we have found that when we rack to secondary
(a 5 gal carboy) there happens to be a lot less than 5 gallons.
For example, a sour cherry ale only had about 3.5 gallons because the fruit soaked up a bit.

so when in a 5 gal secondary fermenter there is quite a bit of head space.. this is undesirable I understand. How can one predict the volume and are there smaller carboys?

[markaberrant]

I've got 1, 3, 5 and 6.5 gallon carboys.

You don't want too much headspace in secondary, but some is ok. I usually try to keep them no lower than the start of the slope on the neck.

But it also depends on how long you plan to secondary. If you are planning to leave your beer in there for a month or more, I'd be concerned about that much headspace.

Or you can be like me, and mostly skip secondaries and not have to worry about such things. If you see my sig, I've got a sour beer in secondary, for which a bit of O2 is a good thing. I've also got a melomel in secondary which I just racked off the fruit, so I'm letting it settle out, plus I plan on it being a still mead, so I want all of the yeast and other crap to drop out as well.

[Mad Scientist]

Part of the way that I plan ahead is to brew my recipes for 5.25 gallons, that way the trub loss does not affect my volume, and I end up with five gallons at bottling/kegging time....this is easiest when you are formulating your own recipes.

If you are using kits, allow the beer plenty of time to settle. If you have to move it to rack the beer, move it well in advance, so you rack as much liquid as possible, not liquid and sediment.

IMO, nheadspace is OK, as long as CO3 covers it...

Finally, make sure you are starting with the correct volume.

[brewwitch]

Thanks guys!

[corkybstewart]

as long as CO3 covers it
You cover your beer with carbonate?:D Your water is hard over there but not that bad
Seriously I brew 11 gallon batches so that I'll have 2 full cornies when the beer is ready. As MS said, plan ahead and once you really get tuned into your setup you'll have a good feel for how much beer you lose at each step. I also minimize the loss by leaving my beer longer in primary and skipping secondary completely unless I'm souring a beer.

[Mad Scientist]

I saw the typo after I sent it, and wondered who might catch it.

[Mill Rat]

When you transfer your beer to the secondary, you will rouse the yeast, getting them to kick out a little extra burst of CO2, plus the turbulence of transferring will get some of the CO2 already dissolved in the beer to come out of solution. Both effects will give you a rush of CO2 from the beer that will tend to push the other gases out of the carboy. This is even more effective because CO2 is heavier than air, and it will be coming from the bottom of the airspace, so it will tend to preferentially push air out first.

Above all, RDWAHAHB. The impact of oxidation from the secondary airspace is minor, and you will likely hardly notice it in your first brews because you'll be drinking them so fast! You'll still be making good beer, and by the time you get your pipeline full and the brews have a chance to age a bit, you'll have ironed out some of these initial problems.