Lager Headspace

[MrMethane]

Hey all, I'm currently making my first lager and after 10 days of lagering I racked from my primary bucket to my carboy. The batch initially came up a bit short and now I have a lot of headspace at the top. Should I be concerned about oxidation seeing as how its going to sit for another 2 months?

When I make wine if there is too much headspace I add marbles to the carboy to bring the volume up to about an inch from the top. But I'm thinking this lager should still ferment a tiny bit more and give me a slight layer of C02 over the top of the beer. I'd like to avoid using the marble trick because dropping marbles into a glass carboy is always a nerve racking experience.

[noby]

Originally posted by MrMethane
But I'm thinking this lager should still ferment a tiny bit more and give me a slight layer of C02 over the top of the beer.

That would be my thinking too.

[Heycock]

Yeah, if its still fermenting at all it should create a blanket of CO2. But at the same time, in lagering, potential for oxidation is a little larger because of the long lager period. If you have kegging equipment you can use the CO2 tank to put a CO2 blanket over the beer. They also sell small CO2 guns at some homebrew stores. They're normally used in those small 5L german kegs but are useful for your problem. All this would be a benefit in wine making too, I would imagine.