kfgolfer

Recipes 

Hi all,
have a stupid question. My beer is in active fermention in a glass carboy. There is a lot of junk at the bottom, which i think is ok. and the usual foam head. but I am seeing chunks of stuff floating around the middle? Is this normal? will this stuff get into my bottles? Is there something special I should do while bottling not to get it into the bottle?

Torchiest

Recipes 

Yeah, no worries. The yeast are very active, moving all over the place, and carrying bits of debris with them. Once things calm down in there, most of that will settle out. Racking to secondary after a week and then letting it sit another two weeks will help to clear out a lot of the remaining debris. By the time it gets to the bottles and conditions a few more weeks, it'll be great.

__________________
WORLD DOMINATION BEER
Bottled:
#35 Gold Standard Ale
#42 The Answer
Kegged:
#44 Donner & Blitzkrieg 2011
Up Next:
#46 Genocider
#47 Evil Weevil Wheat
#48 Nuclear Summer Stout

kfgolfer

Recipes 

Is it really necessary to rack to secondary?? My LHBS says it's not really necessary. Just let it sit in primary for 2 weeks, then rack to bottling bucket..

any thoughts? I only have the one carboy anyway.

Torchiest

Recipes 

It's not necessary. In fact, I myself have never done it. My first three batches all went eleven days in single stage fermentation before bottling, and they all came out great.

The main thing is to give yourself at least a month between brewing and drinking, whether it's in primary, secondary, or bottles, with at least one week of that in bottles. And the beer just gets better with age. Mine are all much better than they were even a couple weeks ago.

__________________
WORLD DOMINATION BEER
Bottled:
#35 Gold Standard Ale
#42 The Answer
Kegged:
#44 Donner & Blitzkrieg 2011
Up Next:
#46 Genocider
#47 Evil Weevil Wheat
#48 Nuclear Summer Stout