Secondary Fermentation w/Carboy

[happypanties]

So in order to keep the old lady happy with my new found hobby, I've decided to brew a cranberry-ale for her. I've had it fermenting in primary bucket for a few weeks, and getting ready to rack to secondary on top of the cranberries.

I have close to 5 Gallons in the primary bucket now. My carboy is only 5 gallons, so I want to avoid overfilling it. How much head space should I leave in the carboy? Guess I can just bottle the rest...

Oh and I just realized my n00b mistake of saying "secondary fermentation", guess you can't edit the title!

HappyPanties

 

[spenghali]

my guess is that you probably wont have enough cranberries in the secondary to overfill it. remember, you will be leaving some of that volume behind in the primary.

 

[RM-MN]

In this case I think you are using the term "secondary fermentation" correctly since by racking onto fruit the yeast will start again to eat up any sugar in the fruit. My blueberry ale that I put into a 5 gallon carboy did not have enough space and it bubbled out of the airlock and made a mess. The ferment was slow enough that it didn't blow the airlock out though.

 

[happypanties]

From your experience then, how how much head space should I leave?

 

[ASantiago]

Regardless of the head space, use a blow off tube. Even if you leave what you think is plenty of space, you may still have a fairly active secondary fermentation. Be on the safe side.

 

[happypanties]

Oh yes, I have a blow off tube ready to use. Just thought I would still need an appropriate amount of space?

 

[xjmox14x]

For secondaries, head space is considered an enemy. The less the better as there will be little to no fermentation (however yours will ferment a little more with the new sugars from the cranberries) and therefore no CO2 to push out the oxygen. Therefore, you'd normally want very little oxygen (headspace) in the carboy to begin with.

 

[ASantiago]

Oh yes, I have a blow off tube ready to use. Just thought I would still need an appropriate amount of space?

It's probably going to produce foam so, if I had to guess (which I am ), I'd say leave about 4-5 inches from the *bottom of the neck*.

Others may think differently.