Half full demijohn, will it cause issues in secondary fermentation?

[ringmany]

Hi everyone,

I've been making some Plum wine. I've reached the secondary fermentation stage, so I've moved my wines into two, 1 gallon demijohns. There's less liquid than I thought there would be, so I wasn't able to fill the demijohn all the way.

Here's a photo showing them both:

So both are around 3/5 full. I've been reading up online about whether the demijohn not being full is going to cause issues, such as oxidisation etc.

It's a plum wine with Nottingham Danstar yeast, currently brewing at 18 degrees. If I move all of the liquid into one demijohn, then the remaining one only has 1/4 full, so I felt it was best to try and make them as equally filled as possible. I can hear one of them still bubbling ever so slightly.

I don't want to simply fill 1 one of them, because then I'll waste quite a bit, and I can't fill it with much else because it will dilute it.

Do you believe this is going to cause issues for me? It needs to remain like this for at least 2 weeks, then 3 weeks in another demijohn once racked. Any suggestions how to improve this setup, as I'm getting mixed signals as to whether this is going to cause oxidation.

Thanks.

 

[Vinotinto]

Personally I think you are ok. If they are bubbling slightly then you have enough CO2 above to push the fluid in the lock. Additionally, I have just bottled 20 l of kit Pinot Grigio . Long story but I never got around to bottling sooner and we had actually drawn a few litres off and drank after chilling. The rest had sat with no fermentation whatsoever in a 25l wide neck fv ( not sure why they are called this as they actually hold a lot more ) and it was / is fine.

 

[chewie]

There will be residual Co 2 in the wine that will release over time and form a thin blanket on top of the wine, I wouldn't be worried either.

 

[Cwrw666]

Fill one full and put the remainder in a suitable sized bottle.

 

[Vinotinto]

Fill one full and put the remainder in a suitable sized bottle.

An option yes but unnecessary some would 'argue'.

 

[GerritT]

Should be cool :thumb: Just don't splash around when racking.

 

[ringmany]

Thanks for the replies everyone,

I decided to buy a smaller demijohn and transfer the wine contents across to be safe. There's a lot less headspace now:

I wanted it to be a little closer to the top, but sadly there wasn't enough. I didn't want to dilute with water or add plum juice from the store in case something was contaminated.

It's been in my room at 18 degrees for another 24 hours, sadly I haven't seen / heard any bubbling from either of them. Hopefully it isn't stuck in the secondary fermentation. I took a gravity reading at the start and after I transferred:

Starting: 1.074
Transfer to demijohn: 1.020

I'm using the Nottingham Danstar ale yeast to speed up the process, so it won't be as high ABV as regular wine, but it will brew faster.

I'll give it some more time and hopefully the secondary fermentation kicks in. Do you think that head space is enough, or does it need to be filled in more? Cheers.