I have a pumpkinator clone in a secondary at the moment. It is in a 6.5 gallon carboy. There is roughly 5.5-6 gallons in the fermenter. How much head space is too much? fermentation is still slightly active. http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...oads/72D41883-26FF-459D-90D0-42F8527FE230.jpg
well, i am going out of town this weekend so i wont be able to mess with it. so at least another week. I am contemplating adding a little bit of more sugar to add to the abv and fermentation. is that recommended?
“…fermentation is still slightly active.” Presuming that the gas that is occupying the headspace of the 6.5 gallon carboy is CO2 then you should be fine. It is not a good idea to expose beer to air (oxygen). The net result will be oxidation. Cheers!
Generally you want little to no headspace in the fermenter when its in the secondary. Secondary is generally a conditioning phase where there is hardly any fermentation if any at all. That's why you don't want headspace, because fermentation won't be pushing out the oxygen. Headspace at that stage in brewing is a risk for oxidation.
