Questions about racking to secondary

Hey HBT,

I brewed a Hugh gravity IPA, 1.074. Today is day 8 in the primary, I just took a gravity reading, and the beer is at 1.020, I was hoping to get down to 1.013-2. I am still getting some action in my airlock, about 12 bubbles per minute, however I do know that this isn't the most accurate way of measurement.

My question is should i be concerned with having the beer on they yeast cake for much longer? Will I start to get any off flavors?

And,

Should I rack to the secondary, and dry hop hoping that the he remaining yeast in suspension will drop a couple points. I have noticed the last couple times that I have dry hopped the yeast wake up a bit and drop the gravity a few points.

Thanks and any input helps
:beer:

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Couple more items FYI,
I used London Dry wyeast 1318, 6 gallon batch, 16lb pale 2 row, 1 lb crystal 15, mashed at 151 for 90 minutes and boiled for 90 min. Used Centennial, Columbus and Amarillo hops in the boil. Plan on dry hopping with Centennial and Citra.

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My beers stay in primary for around 21 days or at least until fermentation is complete and everything has floc'ed out and the surface is clear. If you rush it and dry hop on a primary that is not finished, the continued fermentation will carry off the hop compounds from your dry hopping resulting in a loss of aroma. I would not bother it for at least another week.

I agree with nuggethead. Your beer will be fine in the primary for at least 30+ days without experiencing any off flavors. 1.074 isn't necessarily a super high og. I personally would wait 14-21 days before adding any dry hops. Then let sit for the recommended time before transferring. I haven't ever dry hopped but I think its roughly around 7 days.

Also its very rare I do transfer to secondary. Only doing so when the beer would need to sit for an extended amount of time for conditioning. As IPAs typically lose their aroma over time, I consider them to be unnecessary for secondary as long as your og is below 1.080 or so.

There are many reasons you would transfer to secondary, but to answer your question directly its absolutely safe to leave your beer on the primary yeast cake. (and IMO absolutely beneficiary for around at least 14 days, but probably better around 21 or so)

You could easily do the entire fermentation cycle with no secondary if you were to choose to do so.

I always wait at least 2 weeks before I dry hop. I do check the gravity when I do, but only to get an idea of where it is at. I dry hop directly in the primary as well, and will check for a FG reading 4 days after adding the dry hops. If the gravity is the same then I will cold crash, if it has dropped, I will wait 3 more days and check again. Until I get 2 consecutive readings that are the same, I don't rack over to a keg.