short fill in secondary. OK if covered with CO2??

[robertjm]

Hi all,

Hate asking this as I should know the answer already, but will anyways.

Today I racked a stout I've brewed into a 3 gallon carboy. Unfortunately, it's a short fill by about half a gallon. So I took the tube off my CO2 tank and flushed the head space for about 10 seconds, and then put the cork/airlock on it.

Should that be enough to eliminate the worry for oxidation? I't's probably going to be kegged soon, but I want to leave it in the secondary for a little while because i can't believe it's already completed after only three days.

Thanks!

Robert

[Bugeater]

Covering with CO2 like that will work just fine. The part I would be concerned about is racking it that soon. Even though the gravity has dropped to where you want it, the yeast is still working to metabolize esters it produced during fermentation. The quicker the fermentation, the more of those unwanted esters there may be. You would have to leave it on the yeast for 6-8 weeks before you should even begin to think about the possibility of picking up off flavors from the yeast. I don't bother to use a secondary on most of my beers. I let them sit in primary for 2-4 weeks depending on what the OG was and then keg directly from primary.

Wayne

[robertjm]

Thanks!! I racked it because it was showing pretty much no activity. Frankly, the gravity is kind of poor too. If I calculate it correctly, it's about 2.1%. Not very stoutly for a stout, eh?

[straight cash homey]

+wayne

[straight cash homey]

ahh 2.1, either it wasnt done or you didnt pitch enough and it died early, what did you pitch

[straight cash homey]

taste it, if it tastes like syrup then it might actually be 2.1, if it tastes ok then hopefully your math is bad and it actually finished ok, but you should have left it on there for at least a week just to clean it up like wayneater said

[siwelwerd]

the yeast is still working to metabolize esters it produced during fermentation. The quicker the fermentation, the more of those unwanted esters there may be.

Do you really mean esters? My understanding was that the byproducts the yeast would process were acetaldehyde, diacetyl, etc., not esters.

[robertjm]

Well, I used Beersmith to run the calculations, including adjusting for temperature when taking gravity readings, so I'm sure the math is sound.

For 3 gallon batch:
3.5 lbs Light DME
6 oz. Chocolate Malt
6 oz. Rye Malt
4 oz. Crystal 77L

The software estimated 1.058, but the hydrometer said 1.043. Additionally, it included 8oz. of Lactose

It tastes OK to me. Definitely not cloyingly sweet. As for yeast, I used a tube of Yeast Labs Irish Ale WLP004, and made a one liter starter with it before pitching into the wort, which had been cooled to 68F using a Therminater.