waltersobchak

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I am brewing my first beer and it is an all grain beer, which might have been a little ambitious but I knew that's what I wanted to do so I didn't want to waste time. It's a hefeweizen and it was bubbling vigorously for 2 days then pretty much came to a halt. It has been about 1 bubble every 5-10 minutes for the last 2 days and that seems way too slow to me. It is within the temperature range recommended for the yeast. I was planning on transferring it to a secondary fermenter in a couple of days anyway.

Should I add more yeast to it when I transfer it?
Also, what is a good way to transfer the most amount of wort without getting any trub or hops while also retaining most of the yeast?

Mountainbeers

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Sounds pretty normal to me. Just relax and let it do its thing. Don't add more yeast.

The best way to transfer would be just a good ole fashioned siphon.

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irunxcjm

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I wouldn't worry about a secondary on a hefe. It's supposed to be cloudy anyways. Leave it in the primary for a couple of weeks and bottle. As far as your fermentation goes, it sounds very normal to me. It will go like crazy for a couple of days (I've even seen it last as short as 1 day) then it will be done. Sometimes, you won't have bubbling at all. This can be for many reasons, one of which can be the airlock isn't sitting in the hole correctly. Don't worry about bubbling, it's not a good sign of fermentation. The only way to know is using your hydrometer.

waltersobchak

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Thanks. I won't worry about the bubbling. As for transferring it to a secondary, it was pretty much because I got a lot of trub in the primary and I heard that can mess with the flavors if you leave it in there too long. Is that something I should even worry about?

It also has some whole hops in there and that made siphoning difficult when I put it in there in the first place, any tricks so that hops won't plug up my siphon?

bjzelectric

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I wouldnt worry too much about the trub in your primary either. It always happens to me and Ive never had issues. No need to secondary but it wouldnt hurt to let it sit in the primary for at least a week or 10 days. I let EVERY batch sit 2 weeks minimum. I use an auto siphon which is very convenient. It eliminates the headaches of racking and has a nipple @ the bottom to keep it out of the trub.

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uechikid

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Rack it. It sounds fine to me.

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malkore

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"too long" in the primary an 'getting off flavors from the trub' will take many weeks to happen.

I too vote for 3 weeks in primary, then bottle.

if you did secondary, I'd only do it a couple of days to let larger particulate matter settle out, then bottle it. i usually get some yeast sucked up when racking from primary so I almost always secondary to get it back out of solution.

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waltersobchak

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Thanks for all the input, I think I'm good to go!

annasdadhockey

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Hey, congrats on your first brew( all grain too). Being that its a hefe, as long as the gravity stays constant for 3 days or so, I'd say bottle it. secondary is more to clear the beer, which you don't really want with a hefe. bottle up and enjoy in 3 weeks or so.

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