Headspace question

[erockrph]

I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of Dunkelweizen last night. OG=1.053, pitched 1 smackpack of Wyeast 3638 (Bavarian Wheat) that I had smacked and brought to room temp about 5 hours prior to pitching. (I am trying to pitch on the low side a bit to maximize the ester profile in the finished beer). Wort was 66F when I pitched and put it in my basement overnight to hold the ambient temp in the mid 60’s.

Here’s my dilemma. I am fermenting this 5 gallon batch in my 6 gallon carboy. I didn’t catch this blurb on the yeast description at the Wyeast site ( http://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=59 ) until this morning:

[quote]This is true top cropping yeast and requires fermenter headspace of 33%.
[/quote]

I used Fermcap, but will that be enough to let me get away with half as much headspace as I need? Or should I rack this to my 6.5gal fermenter ASAP to prevent a massive blowoff? Thanks in advance.

[morticaixavier]

@erockrph

I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of Dunkelweizen last night. OG=1.053, pitched 1 smackpack of Wyeast 3638 (Bavarian Wheat) that I had smacked and brought to room temp about 5 hours prior to pitching. (I am trying to pitch on the low side a bit to maximize the ester profile in the finished beer). Wort was 66F when I pitched and put it in my basement overnight to hold the ambient temp in the mid 60’s.

Here’s my dilemma. I am fermenting this 5 gallon batch in my 6 gallon carboy. I didn’t catch this blurb on the yeast description at the Wyeast site ( http://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=59 ) until this morning:

[quote]This is true top cropping yeast and requires fermenter headspace of 33%.

I used Fermcap, but will that be enough to let me get away with half as much headspace as I need? Or should I rack this to my 6.5gal fermenter ASAP to prevent a massive blowoff? Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

I am not sure how much help the extra .5 gallon is going to be. I would set up a blowoff rig if you can. If you do decide to transfer I don’t actually think, at this point, before fermentation has taken off, that there would be any problem with just pouring it into the new carboy.