Beer Forum

Does the amount of head space you have in a beer you are souring matter? it seems like a lof of brewers have pictures of their carboys filled up to the neck with a pellicle on top of it. My lambic that I brew up and X-fered out of the primary has a fair amount of head space. I ended up with about 4.65 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy.


On a side note: Jamil suggests to use a Oak Peg as a seal/airlock stating it gives the sour beer the exact amount of oxygen that it would received if it were aged in oak barrels. Anyone ever tried this? I temporarily put a cork as my seal till i could come up with a oak peg. This is after primary fermentation with a 1056 yeast. I did not cram it down the neck of the carboy but ever so lightly tapped it in. I just pulled it out an it had a pretty big noise coming out when i did. All of the sudden my lambic is carbonated and bubbles start rising to the surface. If you look at the indent on the cork you can see that I had pushed it down only 1/8 of a inch which is hardly nothing. I would think that a oak peg is more dense then cork is and that sooner or later the carboy would explode from pressure. I am glad I checked up on my lambic so it did not explode all over my closet. Is there something I am missing when it comes to this oak peg thing?

There is a thread around where jz says he prefers to do it in a carboy with a orange carboy cap and airlock. My flanders has been in the carboy for 2 weeks now with the carboy cap and airlock.

I already fermented my beer down using 1056, I used the normal airlock method. i only switched when I added the bugs.