# a different question about head room and beer



## BernardSmith (May 8, 2014)

In for a penny , in for a pound. So , after making the braggot - it's now aging but I plan to taste it Sunday - I went back to my LHBS and picked up a can of Mouton's Strong Ale (I think that is what it is called). It makes 12 pints - Not sure what I was thinking because 12 pts is 1.5 gallons and while I have a 2 gallon bucket (or a 3 gallon carboy) I don't have any container that holds 1.5 gallons. My question: 12 pints. Not likely to remain untouched many weeks. How concerned should I be about oxidation to allow the beer to ferment and then age (without removing this from the primary) in a container with significant headroom if the total time between pitching the yeast and bottling is about two or three weeks. What would you do? Buy a second can so that I ferment 3 gallons or relax and not worry about oxidation if the total volume is 12 pints and they will be consumed a couple of weeks after bottling?
Thoughts?


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## aryoung1980 (May 14, 2014)

If you're leaving in primary, you have nothing to worry about. That layer of CO2 will protect the beer from oxidizing.


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## BernardSmith (May 20, 2014)

After I posted my question I checked again the Muton instructions and it seems that the beer was to be only in the primary two weeks and bottling was to be done without any priming because the ale would still be fermenting so I think aryoung that your point is well taken. In any event - 12 pints of beer does not suggest that it will stand around long enough to become perceptibly stale or oxidized (although they do recommend bottle aging for 1 month before opening).


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## aryoung1980 (May 20, 2014)

The bottle aging is for the yeast to consume your priming sugar and carbonate the beer. You should condition warm; 70F. Once primed, give it 2-3 days in the refrigerator to fully absorb the CO2. 

A popular timeline for brewers is 3-3. 3 weeks primary fermentation, 3 weeks conditioning. 

A lot of kits say to primary around 2 weeks, secondary a week, bottle for a week or two. Kit instructions are generally outdated. Secondary is no longer recommended for many beer styles. The concern in years past was that your yeast quality was poor. You wanted to get your beer off of the trub quickly before Autolysis. This is no longer a concern because of the higher quality yeast. 


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