Newbies To All Grain

[ruserious]

Ross,
it is the norm for me also to wait until Primary Ferm has done it's thing.
am just a little apprehensive about all that headspace...

thanks for the advice, i'll wait until 1020.

or look about for an 18lt carboy.
should've kept the Old Man's Olinda

:beer:
ruserious

 

[tangent]

don't stress mate
it's not rocket science
as long as it's bubbling it's keeping itself covered with CO2
i tend to rack once the vigerous 1st ferment is over, day 4 -5 depending on temps etc.
then you'll still have a good amount of fermentation in 2ndary and CO2 to keep everything safe and sound.

 

[Darren]

RU,
I would let it ferment out to expected final gravity (roughly original gravity divided by four). Transfer to secondary for a couple of days then bottle (I am assuming bottling). The main reason for secondary is to get it off the yeast and also to minimise the amount of yeast going into bottles.

cheers
Darren

 

[NRB]

RUS, I would also add that if you plan on moving 15L to secondary that your secondary vessel have little-to-no headspace, particularly if done after fermentation. Transferring 15L to a 30L vessel means you'll have 15L of air which could potentially oxidise the beer.

If you don't have a small secondary vessel, I wouls suggest a 'primary' of 2 weeks and no secondary - bulk prime in a large vessel, but don't store fermented wort in one (unless you can purge with CO2 first of course).

 

[Ross]

As a matter of interest - what difference does the amount of head space make. Surely if there's a carpet of CO2 over the brew, it shouldn't make a blind bit of difference? Or am I missing something here?....

I regulary keep cubes with only 5l of brew in; for a month or more on occaisions - never had an oxidisation problem....