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A bit of a newbie question but I'm curious what the opinion is on headspace in a secondary? The secondary in question was probably done it's fermentation when it was racked from it's primary and is just for additional clarification... will it likely lead to oxygenation that would cause an off taste?

Hard to say, i would think that the motion of racking the beer would release enough co2 to purge the space, and over time co2 would be released from the beer to keep it under pressure. But it was always a concern for me, so i stopped doing secondaries early on unless absolutely necessary.

mr x wrote:Hard to say, i would think that the motion of racking the beer would release enough co2 to purge the space, and over time co2 would be released from the beer to keep it under pressure. But it was always a concern for me, so i stopped doing secondaries early on unless absolutely necessary.

Yep, me too. When I secondary, I shoot some CO2 in to fill the headspace. Secondary to me usually means just dumping the trub/yeast from the conical
and adding CO2 to replace the volume.

My secondaries are never filled to the top, but I've never had any real problems. Even if it is done fermenting, the racking will release some carbon dioxide, and so will carrying the carboy back to wherever I'm keeping it. You don't even need enough to fill the head space, because it's heavier than air and so will sit on top as a blanket.

I'm not sure the blanket thing is true. I used to believe that, but over time, the gas in the headspace will become a homogenous state - from the gas laws I've read. If the beer continues to gas off, it should purge the space out though. And I used a bottled co2 purge as well.

Oh. Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a co2 tank to do that. I usually warm it up for the first few days in the secondary though, to make sure it finishes, but that'd push more co2 out of suspension as well.

mr x wrote:Hard to say, i would think that the motion of racking the beer would release enough co2 to purge the space, and over time co2 would be released from the beer to keep it under pressure. But it was always a concern for me, so i stopped doing secondaries early on unless absolutely necessary.

Ditto.

If/when I secondary I "try" to add CO2 to the fermenter first, it should sit on the bottom and help protect your siphoned beer from air.

Sandy

mr x wrote:I'm not sure the blanket thing is true. I used to believe that, but over time, the gas in the headspace will become a homogenous state - from the gas laws I've read. If the beer continues to gas off, it should purge the space out though. And I used a bottled co2 purge as well.

I agree.