Dry hopping

I am going to rack into secondary to dry hop. I have a 5 gallon bucket as my primary and going to rack into a 6 gallon. My question is will the extra space at top of secondary bucket affect results of brew?

jay0719 said:

I am going to rack into secondary to dry hop. I have a 5 gallon bucket as my primary and going to rack into a 6 gallon. My question is will the extra space at top of secondary bucket affect results of brew?

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You should primary in the 6 or 6.5 and secondary in the 5. (I'm not even going to address the whole primary/secondary debate)

Too much headspace in secondary can lead to oxidation.

Since you are backwards in vessels IMO you dry hop directly in the primary and you can search the debate yourself and figure out what's best for your set up and process

A bucket has a very wide headspace, and I wouldn't use it for a secondary. If I was using a secondary, I'd use an appropriate sized carboy.

What I prefer is just dryhopping right in the primary fermenter about 5-7 days before packaging. It reduces any oxidation risks as well as avoids a transfer. If you don't want to dryhop in the primary fermenter, then I'd strongly suggest to use a carboy for the secondary.

duboman said:

You should primary in the 6 or 6.5 and secondary in the 5. (I'm not even going to address the whole primary/secondary debate)

Too much headspace in secondary can lead to oxidation.

Since you are backwards in vessels IMO you dry hop directly in the primary and you can search the debate yourself and figure out what's best for your set up and process

Click to expand...

Ok great thanks!