BPenny
Well-Known Member
Hey, first post here so go easy on me. I have been brewing mostly wild fermented and mixed culture beers for about 6 years. I am aware of all of the standard answers about headspace and oxidation as well as the fact that these matters aren’t always so clear when it comes to mixed culture beer. I recently racked about 4 gallons of 6% abv pale farmhouse-style beer (approx. 7 IBU, brewed 2 months ago, fermented with my own house culture) onto 12 pounds of mostly red wine grapes in a 6-6.5 gallon carboy. This left a gallon or more of headspace (see picture). This seemed like a good idea since I generally don’t leave enough room for re fermentation, which results in several days of fruit/beer bubbling out of the airlock. Unfortunately, it’s been around 2 days since I racked it and it is just now starting to re ferment so I am worried about oxidation that may have happened over the last couple days. Generally, my house culture seems pretty good at scavenging oxygen, but I don’t usually do a secondary fermentation unless I am adding fruit and I have never left this much headroom during secondary. Does anyone here have any thoughts or experience that could help me decide whether I should try to remedy the situation or just let it ride for a few months and see how it tastes at bottling?