Secondary Fermentation with lots of space in the carboy

[epikuryan]

Hello,
At the 7th day of my primary fermentation, I moved my porter beer to secondary. The SG was 1.014 and the taste was good.
Than I realized that I did sth wrong after doing some reading about the effect of oxygen for secondary. During transfer I was carefull not to aerate the beer much. But the beer I transferred to carboy only filled the half of 15 liter carboy which means there is 50% beer and 50% air in the carboy.
Now I am worried about oxidation. Should I be worried head space which is 50% air?

Is there anything I can do like bottling earlier in order to keep less contact with air?

Thanks

 

[Yooper]

Yes, I'd be concerned about the oxidation potential. I'd bottle that beer ASAP to avoid it.

 

[Renegade Brewer]

Why are you transferring your beer in the first place? There is no reason to move your beer into a “secondary fermenter.”

As for any transfers, you should purge each vessel with C02 prior to transferring and do your best to conduct a closed transfer.

 

[epikuryan]

Why are you transferring your beer in the first place? There is no reason to move your beer into a “secondary fermenter.”

As for any transfers, you should purge each vessel with C02 prior to transferring and do your best to conduct a closed transfer.

I admit it was a bad idea. Any idea to "save" the situation?

 

[Renegade Brewer]

Get it into bottles as quickly as possible and you should be okay. In the future ditch your secondary fermenter and keep your beer in your fermenter until it’s time to bottle.

 

[RM-MN]

If you cannot bottle very soon, adding a fermentable sugar will restart the yeast and they will excrete CO2 that can push the oxygen out and fill the carboy top with CO2. I'd probably use about 4 or 5 ounces of sugar that has been dissolved in hot water for sanitation. You will then be doing a true secondary fermentation and it may be a few days before that sugar is all consumed so you can bottle.

 

[epikuryan]

If you cannot bottle very soon, adding a fermentable sugar will restart the yeast and they will excrete CO2 that can push the oxygen out and fill the carboy top with CO2. I'd probably use about 4 or 5 ounces of sugar that has been dissolved in hot water for sanitation. You will then be doing a true secondary fermentation and it may be a few days before that sugar is all consumed so you can bottle.

I liked the suggestion. This good idea made me think of another solution which is employed by aquarium owners who need CO2 for their plants.
The idea is simple, you put sugar, water and yeast in a small bottle. And CO2 output of the bottle is forwarded to carboy via a hose.
Now I have 3 options to "save" the beer. Tonight I will implement one of the below but I am not sure if I am already late since it has been 3 days already since I transferred to the secondary with lots of head space;
1)Bottle the beer immediately
2)Put sugar in the fermenter carboy to create a CO2 layer on the beer and wait for a few days before fermentation of the additional sugar completes
3)Forwarding the CO2 which is created by a small bottle containing sugar and yeast to the carboy and create a CO2 blanket on the beer.

Cheers

 

[epikuryan]

I liked the suggestion. This good idea made me think of another solution which is employed by aquarium owners who need CO2 for their plants.
The idea is simple, you put sugar, water and yeast in a small bottle. And CO2 output of the bottle is forwarded to carboy via a hose.
Now I have 3 options to "save" the beer. Tonight I will implement one of the below but I am not sure if I am already late since it has been 3 days already since I transferred to the secondary with lots of head space;
1)Bottle the beer immediately
2)Put sugar in the fermenter carboy to create a CO2 layer on the beer and wait for a few days before fermentation of the additional sugar completes
3)Forwarding the CO2 which is created by a small bottle containing sugar and yeast to the carboy and create a CO2 blanket on the beer.

Cheers

I googled and found one more option to produce CO2. Mixing baking soda and lemon acid also produces CO2. I think this may give faster result and less risk of contamination.

 

[RM-MN]

With a 3 day head start, if you have a bacterial infection you may not be able to stop it by adding CO2. You probably are fine anyway but you now know the danger to leaving a large headspace in secondary.

 

[epikuryan]

With a 3 day head start, if you have a bacterial infection you may not be able to stop it by adding CO2. You probably are fine anyway but you now know the danger to leaving a large headspace in secondary.

Correct. The main concern here is the oxidation that may be caused by the oxygen in air which has volume of 8 liters. CO2 addition is planned to create a CO2 blanket on the beer layer.

 

[RM-MN]

Correct. The main concern here is the oxidation that may be caused by the oxygen in air which has volume of 8 liters. CO2 addition is planned to create a CO2 blanket on the beer layer.

Your beer would have absorbed a lot of oxygen already by the 3 day exposure. I'm not sure at this point that the CO2 will help a lot. However, I'm told that oxidation of beer takes a bit of time to be noticeable so bottle soon and drink it up before oxidation takes its toll.