Too Much Space In My Secondary Carboy

[Microphobik]

Hi,

I've currently got a troublesome milk stout in my primary that has been there for 18 days. I got a bit of stuck fermentation, added more yeast, stirred, and raised temp and that seemed to get it going again for another week, but then it stopped and when I checked the gravity, it hadn't come down all that much.

The current gravity is 1.038. If I adjust for the lactose that leaves me with a 1.03 final OG.

I'm concerned that this is just stuck and if I rack to a bottling bucket (even in a few weeks time) I will agitate the yeast, get it going again, and have bottle bombs on my hands.

I don't normally rack my beers to a secondary but considering my concern this seems prudent to me. My concern is that there is quite a lot of trub in this beer. A good 3 - 4 inches or more in my 5 gallon carboy. If I rack to another 5 gallon carboy (the smallest I have) it will have quite a lot of head space. If I'm wrong and this doesn't cause the ferment to pick up then it seems to me I'll be exposing my beer to a lot of oxygen. But I'd also rather not water the beer down any.

What are my options here? Will that much head space in the secondary cause problems and increase risk of infection or off flavors?

 

[worksnorth]

Hi,

I've currently got a troublesome milk stout in my primary that has been there for 18 days. I got a bit of stuck fermentation, added more yeast, stirred, and raised temp and that seemed to get it going again for another week, but then it stopped and when I checked the gravity, it hadn't come down all that much.

The current gravity is 1.038. If I adjust for the lactose that leaves me with a 1.03 final OG.

I'm concerned that this is just stuck and if I rack to a bottling bucket (even in a few weeks time) I will agitate the yeast, get it going again, and have bottle bombs on my hands.

I don't normally rack my beers to a secondary but considering my concern this seems prudent to me. My concern is that there is quite a lot of trub in this beer. A good 3 - 4 inches or more in my 5 gallon carboy. If I rack to another 5 gallon carboy (the smallest I have) it will have quite a lot of head space. If I'm wrong and this doesn't cause the ferment to pick up then it seems to me I'll be exposing my beer to a lot of oxygen. But I'd also rather not water the beer down any.

What are my options here? Will that much head space in the secondary cause problems and increase risk of infection or off flavors?

Yes interesting dilemma, interesting because the exact same thing very recently happened to me with a Latte Stout. I however was able to keg mine, no worries
I'm thinking that if you rack to a secondary the activity should rouse enough activity that the extra head space will be voided of O2.
You don't have access to CO2 by chance do you? You could rack and then lay a hose at the top of the carboy and ease CO2 in and displace the O2 out like that, I've done it a couple times when I had these concerns.
Good luck

 

[Microphobik]

You don't have access to CO2 by chance do you? You could rack and then lay a hose at the top of the carboy and ease CO2 in and displace the O2 out like that, I've done it a couple times when I had these concerns.
Good luck

Thanks for the feedback. I don't unfortunately but good suggestion. It just dawned on me that perhaps adding just a little dextrose to it should kick-start at least some fermentation and push out that O2, shouldn't it?

Anyone else ever secondary with a lot of head space?

 

[Stauffbier]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't unfortunately but good suggestion. It just dawned on me that perhaps adding just a little dextrose to it should kick-start at least some fermentation and push out that O2, shouldn't it??

This is exactly what I was going to recommend!

Also, try to pick up a good amount of yeast from the cake when you rack.

 

[Microphobik]

This is exactly what I was going to recommend!

Also, try to pick up a good amount of yeast from the cake when you rack.

Great, thanks. So just to be clear (cause I really don't want to screw this up), no one thinks there will be a problem if there is 4 inches of empty space below the curve at the top of the carboy so long as some fermenting gets going and fills that space up with some C02? Sorry, being redundant here a bit, but just wanted to make sure. In my mind all that empty space looks quite frightening

 

[Stauffbier]

As long as there is fermentation to create more co2 I don't see a problem. Just be sure that you don't remove the bung until you're ready to package it.

 

[Microphobik]

Great, thank you.

 

[Microphobik]

Just thought I'd conclude this for anyone who finds this post randomly and has a similar question.

Well, I racked to the secondary and got about 16 liters out of 19 in there so a decent amount of head space. And after reading some other threads I passed on adding additional sugar and decided to just watch for bubbles. Wish I had added sugar though.

I saw a few bubbles but I now think they were just a bit of trapped gas escaping as apposed to fermentation because my gravity never dropped. And it turns out that I did have too much space. I had to leave town for 3 weeks the day after I racked to the secondary so it was in there longer than I would have normally left it, but it started to get a very mild lacto infection by the look of it. It was very mild and I bottled right away. The carbing in the bottle seemed to stop it from developing and I have had no bottle bombs a month later. Fortunately there is no noticeable off taste. Probably hidden because it is a stout. But it's a pretty decent tasting beer in the end. B