I racked to a secondary to dry hop. Is this too much head space?

Hey folks. I posted 10 days ago because I had a fermentor that was going crazy and blew the lid right off! The fermentor stopped bubbling about 4 days ago. Starting gravity was about 1.08. I checked the gravity and it was at 1.02. Now I have racked to a secondary because I am dry hopping this recipie and I wanted to free up the primary for another batch.

The only problem is that I lost quite a bit of beer into the blow off during the fermentation. I started with a healthy batch that was a little over 5.5 gallons to account for any that would be lost during fermentation and the trub. Well now I would say that I am somewhere under 5 total gallons. Probably at around 4.75 or maybe a little more. Here is a pic of my secondary before I put it away in a nice cool dark spot. Is that too much head space?

can you repost that pic of your fermenter? looks like you got the coding wrong... you wrapped the

There is no picture.............

But, for the 5-7 days I am assuming you plan on dry hopping the beer should be fine as long as it is in a 5 gallon carboy. IF you have it in a 6-6.5 gallon carboy then that would be quite a bit of head space. If you can purge with CO2 it would be beneficial to prevent oxidation.

If the latter size is true I would not go longer than 7 days.

Sorry for the mess up with the pic. It is fixed now. The carboy is the standard 5 gallon type. Let me know what you all think. I don't really have the ability to purge with CO2 as I do not have a readily available supply.

that is certainly too much headspace for extended aging, but for a short dry-hop you should be OK. keep the carboy in a cool place, like a basement, if you can.

also, don't store the carboy where it is exposed to sunlight. throw a shirt or towel over that thing. hopefully you just pulled it out for the pic and covered it up or put it back in the dark a few moments later.

sweetcell said:

that is certainly too much headspace for extended aging, but for a short dry-hop you should be OK. keep the carboy in a cool place, like a basement, if you can.

also, don't store the carboy where it is exposed to sunlight. throw a shirt or towel over that thing. hopefully you just pulled it out for the pic and covered it up or put it back in the dark a few moments later.

Click to expand...

+1 on both points.

It is in a dark place and the temperature will be in the upper 60s. Is a week or 10 days too long?

CJSIXER said:

It is in a dark place and the temperature will be in the upper 60s. Is a week or 10 days too long?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't go any more than 10 days, and 7 days should be plenty. Personally I keep my dry hopping to 4 or 5 days.

Ehhh, I dry hopped with that much headspace before. I did it for 12 days. Turned out fine.actually it turned out great! I wouldn't worry about it. Obviously don't dry hop for a long time, grassy beer is not ideal....well sometimes......

Thanks for the replies. I will just go ahead and bottle it a week from now. Hopefully everything ends up tasting good.