Massive headspace in secondary

I would just skip the dry hopping and bottle immediately.

 

It's funny to see this post after another brewer had similar concerns about racking quickly to secondary and worrying about bubbles from his airlock.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/no-activity-after-transfer-to-secondary.472185/


The salty veterans of this forum will tell you to slow down and to not worry about airlock activity. Go by your gravity readings. Always. You shouldn't have fermentation in your secondary unless you are adding more sugar to your beer. Maybe Fruit. Maybe if you're trying to add an additional strain of yeast. Hmm. Not that you can't do this with a secondary. You just shouldn't without a good reason.

I'd dry hop for 4 or 5 days and bottle your beer. It won't be as bad as you think.

 

+1 for dry hopping. Beer will be fine.

@inchrisin perhaps you mean malty veterans , not salty???lol

 

For all but the biggest of beers and/or lagers fermenting at low temps, 5 days is usually plenty of time for primary *if* you're pitching lots of healthy yeast. The whole '1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks in bottles' rule of thumb is really just that. It's a handy way for rookies to remember and it's conservative enough that even if you aren't taking hydrometer readings (which you *should*, no question) before racking, you'll likely still have finished beer w/ a pretty low risk of bottle bombs.

For lower gravity beers, primary may wind down in as little as 72 hrs - so a week can be overkill.

If you planned to dry hop, go for it.

This probably depends at least as much on how well you racked it (minimal splashing, etc) as it does with the air in the headspace. Also, there's at least some info out there suggesting that dry hopping for as little as 24 hours is effective and perhaps even preferable to longer contact times, so - if you're really concerned? Dry hop for a day or 2 and then bottle.

 

+1 on dry hopping for 1-2 days and bottling (after you are confident that final gravity has been achieved).

Regardless of the extra trub, I believe that you could have been better off skipping the secondary on an IPA (even with an OG of 1.076). The beer may have benefited from more contact time with the yeast during the dry hop. And there is always the inherent risk of infection and introduction of O2 when racking.

However, all considered, if everything else with the recipe and process was in good shape, I wouldn't sweat the extra headspace for an extra day or two.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

Every homebrewer gets to decide how much trub is permitted into the primary. I am of the opinion that having trub in the primary is no big deal.

For your consideration: http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/22/the-impact-of-kettle-trub-part-2-exbeeriment-results/

Cheers!

 

Keep in mind that you could have kept it in primary even with the trub, then dry hopped, and simply cold crashed to drop the hops/trub out of suspension.

 

1-gallon of headspace is perfectly fine. In fact, almost every 5-5.5 gallon batch I've ever done has been in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy or bucket. Never had oxidation/flavor issues. I should also add that there have been plenty of beers in secondary fermenters with that much headspace as well. Just do what the others say – dry hop 2-3 days before bottling, and don't tamper with it until then!

 

A 1 gallon headspace for a secondary is not a best practice. Ideally for a 5 gallon batch of beer you want a 5 gallon secondary vessel (e.g., carboy, corny keg,..) so there is no headspace. The presence of 1 gallon of air (which is 20% O2) is not a good idea.

Cheers!

P.S. Having a large headspace during primary is OK.

 

Works fine for me!

 

There's what 'works' and what's 'ideal'. Practice vs. theory. Your beer is good after secondary with a gallon of headspace, therefore it works. Would it be 'better than good' w/ no headspace & all else equal? Theory says yes. But is there a perceptible difference? The only way to know the answer is to split 10 gallons into 2 different carboys (one 6 gal and one 5 gal), then do a blind tasting when it's all done. Or, better... do a blind tasting soon after packaging, and another 3 or 6 months later.

Or skip all of that, and just keep doing what works.

 

Joe, that could be the key aspect here.

If a homebrewer consumes their beer quickly then the effects of increased oxidation may not be noticed.

Regardless of this timing aspect it is not a best practice to expose finished beer to any more air (oxygen) then is necessary.

Cheers!

 

Yes
And a little. Don't worry about it this time and try not to do it again.

I don't drink IPAs until they're about 7 or 8 weeks old. They're always packaged by the third week. They sit in the bottle or the keg until they round out a little.

 

Fair enough - I shouldn't lead the OP on with saying that 1-1.5 gal of headspace is 'best practice'. Less headspace is certainly ideal, just letting him know not to worry. It will 'work' but won't be the greatest beer ever made. In his case, an IPA would certainly suffer more than let's say a scotch ale would with a large amount of head space.

 

I don't think a diacetyl rest is common practice for a DIPA. Did you have diacetyl in your final product?