Smaller Batch Than Planned

[Dazzling]

G'day all, I got my first AG under way late last week and it is currently in primary fermentation. Unfortunately it didn't all go according to plan and due to a few newbie cock-ups I now have a 15L batch instead of 23L as I was hoping for. So what I would like advice on is should I rack to a secondary fermenter as I only have 15L of wort and the secondary fermenter is about a 25L capacity, that leaves a lot of head space which from my understanding should e kept to a minimum for secondary fermentation. What is the liklihood of getting an infection? and keep in mind i am not set up for kegging..........yet

Cheerio

Dazzling

 

[Kai]

The extra headspace won't increase the risk of an infection, but some think it may increase your chance of the beer oxidising, especially for long term conditioning. You can flush the air in there a little by adding a little extra malt extract into the secondary, or racking while there's still a few gravity points left on the brew, so the yeast produces more CO2 for a protective layer of sorts.

My bigger concern when missing target volume would be how it affects my bitterness level.

 

[Dazzling]

Cheers Kai, bitterness shouldn't be problem, I had approx 30L at the start of the boil, trouble was draining to a fermenter that had it's tap open and not realising for 5min....unforgiveable really

Dazzling