RonPaul

Recipes 

I transferred a porter from primary to secondary 5 days ago and I'm not seeing any action whatsoever from the beer or airlock. Is this normal? I did not take any hydrometer readings, unfortunately.

BainbridgeBrewer

Recipes 

Sounds normal, most if not all of the actual fermentation should take place in the primary. Most of my secondary conditioning shows no signs in the airlock unless I've dryhopped.

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ayoungrad

Recipes 

Just to clarify... primary fermentation IS fermentation. Secondary fermentation is a misnomer of sorts. It is better (IMHO) termed conditioning. If the beer is racked to secondary (and this is a choice as you will see if you search this site), it should be done after fermentation has been completed and a stable FG has been reached. At that point, yeast is not producing more CO2. Any bubbling that you see during "secondary" should only be from dissolved CO2 escaping through the airlock.

RonPaul

Recipes 

Thanks... That makes me feel a little more at ease. I hadn't realized that was the case until now.

RM-MN

Recipes 

You'll see that many do not secondary at all any more. We've discovered that there is merit in leaving the beer on the full yeast cake until it has cleared and then just bottle or keg. The full yeast cake seems to work better at consuming some of the compounds that are produced during the fast part of the ferment and leaves better tasting beer. Try it on your next batch.

fxdude

Recipes 

ayoungrad summed it up about airlock activity

I also agree with RM-NM about not racking to secondary (lots of discussion on here about it).

I just kegged a porter after three weeks in the primary and it tastes great. Much easier not having to switch to a secondary

RonPaul

Recipes 

Sounds good... Next time I will only transfer to the secondary if I have another beer that I need to ferment and I don't have another carboy available.