Brewed up a pumpkin ale Saturday and noticed alot of trub atleast 1.5 gallons in my primary. It’s probably from the 90 oz of pumpkin puree I used. When I transfer it to my 5 gallon secondary in about a week I expect to have more head space than usual. My question is should I add pre-boiled water to make up for the extra space to prevent oxidation or just let it go and hopefully the yeast can push out the oxygen.
What is the reasoning behind transferring to a secondary?
Because of all the trub, I’ll guess that you are not going to try to reuse the yeast. So there is little reason to transfer it. Just let it sit in the primary for the length of time you were going to leave it in the secondary. Another 2-3 weeks will not hurt the beer. I’ve gone over a year on a medium gravity beer with out issues.
If you must transfer it, just leave it alone. Adding water will dilute the beer down.
Thanks Nighthawk for the reply. Only reason I was going to transfer to secondary was because I was under the impression that the excessive trub would maybe lead to some off flavors, but I’m still new to homebrewing and have alot to learn. Wasn’t planning on reusing yeast because I used us-05 dry yeast. Going to wait until I get my first yeast starter going then harvest that yeast. Thanks again for the great advice !
