re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

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Thank you. If you were dry hopping with pellets, did you just throw them straight in and then rack or do you use a bag? Also, assuming you use a carboy to secondary, is head space a concern for you? I can't remember at the moment but I think my carboy might be more than 5 gallons (which is the amount I brewed).

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I throw the pellets in and rack directly on top. Headspace has never been an issue. I've primaried in 5 and 6 gallon fermenters and dry hopped in a 6.5 gallon fermenter. No issues. Now if i was working in a bucket, i'd be a bit more concerned. But i don't trust buckets to keep oxygen out.

Recently i brewed 5.5 gallons of a saison and split the batch between 2 - 3 gallon fermenters. One was racked on blood oranges, the other on oak. One of the small fermenters is a better bottle (which are awesome. I'd use nothing but those if i didn't already have 4 glass carboys). Well the better bottle had what appeared to be about 1/2 to 1 gallon of headspace and it turned out fine. This was the batch where my racking cane malfunctioned and was sucking up air. The beer never oxidized and came out fine.