too much air in my secondary?

[gurgle]

Hi all,

I'm using a secondary (5 gallon carboy) for the first time, and I just transferred to it from my primary. I also used a 5 gallon carboy as a primary for the first time (before I was using a 6.5 gallon bucket), so of course I used a blow-off tube. As I was led to expect, I lost a bit of liquid (not too much, but more than I'd like I suppose) to the blow-off bucket, and that coupled with the fact that I left a little beer sitting on top of my yeast cake (didn't want to start sucking garbage into my secondary) means that I've got a fair little amount of airspace on the top of my secondary. The top of the liquid is about where the carboy starts rounding off, maybe 6 or 7 inches below the top of the lid. It had been in the primary for a little over four days so I figure it still has a bit of fermenting to do (although it started up very quickly and had already slowed down considerably by this morning). I think I'll be okay but I'm new to homebrewing so of course everything scares the pants off of me. Am I taking the risk of spoiling my beer by having this much air on top of it in the secondary? I plan to bottle in about 10 days.

One other thing... any trick to cleaning all the crap off the inside top of my primary carboy? I can't think of any cleaning utensil I own that can reach. Right now its sitting in the bathtub filled with water (and a bit of bleach).

Thanks in advance for your advice, and I apologize for rhyming those last two sentences. It was completely unintentional

[BeerBelly]

I used a 5 gallon carboy with a blow off tube, once. I only use 6 gallon carboy for primary now. And 5 gallon for secondaries. Too much loss.

"Am I taking the risk of spoiling my beer by having this much air on top of it in the secondary?"

No, it will start to ferment again after racking, this will produce CO2 and it will form a protective blanket over your beer.

"any trick to cleaning all the crap off the inside top of my primary carboy?"

I use a cordless drill and a metal rod with a rag on it. I attached the rag using cable ties.


Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew....

[fretlessman71]

Welcome gurgle! There's another member here - name of "beaver" - who lives in Fort Fun as well. We're planning on moving to No. CO in the next 2-3 months, so maybe we'll meet up at a brewpub when I get there.

Where are you getting your brewing equipment? Beaver told me that he couldn't find a homebrew shop in town, yet I remember The Brew-It Co. being there for a very long time....

[sallad]

i use a 6.5 gallon glass primary, and i make my batches about 5.25 gallons. that leaves you with plenty of head space so you don't have to worry much about blow off (although, i did just lose a bunch of my 1090 OG old ale to blow off, but thats a much bigger beer). then, when you transfer and leave a little behind you still have a full 5 gallons.

also, i got a carboy brush from my local homebrew shop - its just sort of a wire with long, medium soft bristles on the end. you can bend it to reach the sloping insides or whatever. it works great for getting old yeast and hops off the carboy!

[Tweek]

I also use a carboy brush, though I have been toying with the idea of hooking it up to my cordless drill. Usually when I am done with a carboy if I am not going to scrub it right away I will at least rinse it really good giving it soem good shakes in between to get all the trub out, and then I let it soak in some plc. then when I do get around to scrubbing ti there is not much left to scrub.

[mmmBeer...]

Welcome! I use a carboy brush too. I put about a 30* bend about 1” before the bristles start to get the gunk caked around the top of the carboy.

[Fast_Eddy]

In general I use a PBW soak for 30-60 minutes and it's completely clean. Just rinse it well.

[Magnew]

Carboy brush then an overnight bleach water soak. Also, a friend made me a great carboy rinser. It's a piece of 1/2 inch pvc with a 90 degree bend mounted to a board so that it sticks straight up about a 16". Cap the end and drill a few small holes in the pipe. At the other end attach a garden hose with a hose clamp that you can hook up to a faucet. Put your carboy upside down over that pipe and turn it on. Works beautifully!

[Moondoggy]

I soak my carboy in TSP and the gunk totally disolves.

[gurgle]

thanks for all the input, everyone.

about the 6 and 6.5 gallon carboys for primary fermentation, I was under the impression that there was an advantage to letting some of the crap blow out of your primary, never to fall back in as it would in a larger container. Is this false? I don't mind losing a small amount of beer. Is there a trick to minimizing the amount of liquid lost to the blow-off tube while still getting letting some of the junk out?


fretlessman71,

Brew-It Co. is no more. I've only lived here 3 and a half years, and only started brewing this January. There are no homebrew supply places in Fort Collins. There are some good ones in Colorado, however - What's Brewing? in Boulder and The Brew Hut in Aurora. I bought my first kit at The Brew Hut (Aurora is a good two hours away, but I was there for work), and since have been ordering equipment and ingredients online. I wish there was a local homebrew supplier in Fort Collins I could support, and there is talk of someone trying to start another one up, but for now the only local places are too out of the way for me.

There's a brewpub here called Coopersmith's. I've only had their English bitter style beer, and it was quite good. We've also got New Belguim Brewing (I'm not big on their popular beers like Fat Tire and Sunshine, but they have some less popular ones that are pretty good) and Odell's, who are pretty good as well.

I must confess that when I go out drinking, its usually for $5 pitchers of Pabst at the bar where the rocknroll crowd hangs out. I'd rather save my $3.50 a drink for Sam Smith at the liquor store. But I'd love to hit the brewpubs and brewery tours when you come up. The only other homebrewer I know is a guy at work who's a good 25-30 years older than me.

[Sunriver]

Another option if a carboy brush wont work is to place a cup of rice in the carboy with some water and shake the heck out of it. I did this once with cat litter. Now I will only use rice.

And no the cat litter was not used.

[Lamprey]

Gurgle - i'm fairly new to brewing too...and new to realbeer.com. just think that all the while you are thinking about what is going on, you are learning. and that's what i find fun with brewing...I am always learning!

My latest learning adventure was with my current batch...no. 6!...a hefeweizen. i use 5 gallon glass carboys for primary and secondary - that hefe yeast (i used wyeast 3068) went nuts...i lost about 3/4 gallon of beer at which time, while i was pouring it down the drain, i decided to use a larger primary carboy for my future batches...if I had just waited 2 more weeks for this post! But now I'll have some homebrew to enjoy while making the next one...I'll supplement the lost volume with my favorite micro.

Happy brewing.:)

[fretlessman71]

Welcome lamprey as well! Good to have you aboard. The more the merrier!

Gurgle - New Belgium's strength lies in their lesser-known brews, no doubt about it. Odell's 90 Shilling is by far the best CO beer I've ever had, however... wish they had a restaurant as well!

Can't drink swill at all... just don't enjoy it anymore. However, to each his own. You'll hear lots of us put down BMC and the like every chance we get, but remember that if it makes you happy, who cares what we think? Drink your carbonated chilled uri-OOOOPS... sorry about that... :D

Heard a rumor that The Brew-It Co. was going to reopen as an online store, but I guess that hasn't happened yet (or did happen and has since failed).

You and Beaver ought to exchange info and get together... he's been itching to start brewing himself! And as soon as we move back home, we'll let you know.

[Beaver]

Hola gurgle! I hadn't read this thread before...all these big homebrewing terms scare me off. I really gotta start homebrewing soon so I know what you all are talking about!

Coopersmith's rocks! The cask punjabi is terrific, the Not Brown is yummy, and they have some great rotating brews as well.

NBB has some great beers. I've really gotten sick of Fat Tire, but still love 1554 and their true Belgian beers are very good.

Odell's 90 is one of my faves as well. They have some other good ones as well.

There is a new brewery in town, Fort Collins Brewery - they specialize in lagers. Check out this thread (http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2490) for more info.

Potts / Bighorn brewing has a couple decent beers (I like their porter).

Another Colorado brewery that's been growing on me a lot is Avery (http://www.averybrewing.com) . They make a lot of interesting beers. I'm enjoying their Ten right now.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Feel free to resume your homebrew discussion. :)

[Beaver]

Hey Fret - Have you been to Odell's since they expanded their tasting area? They've got a pretty nice layout now...comparable to NBB before they expanded their tasting area.

[gurgle]

Fret,

being poor definately makes it easier to drink swill :)

I never drink Bud, Coor, Miller, or the like because I consider them to be piss beer in the same category as Pabst, Schlitz, Low Life, Beast, etc... except that they're priced considerably higher. The "quality" of Bud may be marginally better than the "quality" of PBR, but I can get a 12 of PBR for $5.99. In a bar, the price difference gets even more ridiculous. Last time I went to the liquor store I bought a 12 of PBR and 2 bottles of Sam Smith. Maybe I just enjoy extremes.

Beaver,

I just started homebrewing not even two months ago. It can be a bit intimidating, but I read up on it and followed the instructions and my first batch tasted better than just about anything I could buy at a liquor store. And this was after I'd made a few mistakes, and not conditioned for two weeks like you're supposed to. And it was still great. Even if you barely know what you're doing and have no experience at all, you can make great tasting homebrew. Let me know if you need any help getting everything set up. And if you ever plan on stopping into the Surfside 7, let me know. I practically live there.

[fretlessman71]

Heeheehee... once you realize you can make Sam Smith quality for PBR prices at home, you'll be "cured".... ;)

Does Surfside 7 still have pizze by the slice? Someone told me they use the same recipe as Pizza Casbah (the best pie west of the Mississippi IMHO)...

[gurgle]

Yep, they still do slices, and they are still affiliated with Pizza Casbah (we call the owner "Johnny Casbah", although his real name is John Trujillo). Their slices are excellent, but not quite as good as ordering a fresh pizza, since the slices get refrigerated and then put back in the oven. But I'm still a big fan... I may be biased as I'm in a band with two of the cooks. Plus my roommate bartends there.

I'm just about with you on Casbah pizza, except I think the best place in town is Cozzolla's. Its a bit more expensive there, though.

As for the beer... my goal is to brew with enough frequency to not have to buy any from the liquor store (unless there's a certain type I'm craving). I'll probably end up getting a 6 gallon carboy for the primary, and then I'll have two 5 gallon carboys for conditioning. Plus I'll still have the 6.5 bucket if I want to have two primaries going at once. Have any of you had problems with the ATF? :)

[Beaver]

My goal is to brew a batch sometime this year. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions when I start. :D

So where is Surfside 7? I haven't heard of it before.

[gurgle]

Beaver,

Surfside 7 is in Old Town. On College, between Mountain and Laporte, on the east side of the street. Closer to Laporte than Mountain. Next building north from the Vault. Across the street from ABCD's, The Starlight, and Al's Newsstand. The only building on that side of the street with a little roof sticking out the front of it. Its pretty small; some people would consider it a dive but I don't... its one of the few bars in town with no neon beer signs on the wall (instead they rotate artwork monthly), plus they have the best jukebox in town.