German Brewing

Hi All,

I'm thinking about jumping to a conical from a 5 gallon keg as a primary fermenter. To have the option to do 10 gallon batches in the future, I'm considering a 14 gallon conical, but I will be doing exclusively 5 gallon batches for a while. Since the yeast will be active the entire time that it's being used, is there any reason to be concerned about the extra headspace in a primary fermenter from a LODO perspective? I'll transfer to a keg at 1 Plato above FG.

Thanks for any insight you have!

-Steven

As long as you're racking to lager before fermentation is over you will be fine. It's completely legit to even do a totally open fermentation in a LoDO context as long as the beer is racked to a closed lagering vessel at the right time. Kunze even included a whole chapter on open lager fermentation in his textbook.

Thanks for the response. That's what I thought.

Of course, I was overlooking the fact that a 14 gallon fermenter with 10+ gallons of wort or beer in it will be too heavy to move. I'll be sticking with smaller vessels after all.

-Steven