zbuc871

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Old I'm five days in to fermentation and is only producing a bubble twice a minute maybe less. I am making amber ale with lme. I used a good yeast from a local brew shop aswell. I have kept the temperature in the suggested range. Any advice?

ArcaneXor

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The yeast is likely done with active fermentation and is now flocculating and settling out. Leave the beer along for another 1-2 weeks while this process goes on.

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The Fiesty(sic) Goat Brewery est. 2007 & Clusterfuggle Experimental Ales est. 2009
Planned: Fat Man Brown Porter (Pro-Am #2), WLP 351 Hefeweizen, WLP 860 Munich Helles
Primary: Centennial Falcon IPA (Pro-Am #1), sLambic I
Secondary: Flanders Red
Kegged:Himmel un Ääd Kölsch #8, Farmhouse Session Saison Pilot Batch, Chocolate Milk Stout, Pale Ale, Chili Smoked Porter, Berliner Weisse w/ Brett #3

JLem

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Sounds like you're perfectly on schedule. Leave it alone for at least another week and then check the gravity. Check it again a few days later and if the gravity is stable and is relatively low enough given the expected FG, you can move on to bottling/kegging. Or continue to leave it alone for another few weeks until you have time to bottle/keg. No need to rush to that step.

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Brewing blog at Brew by Brew

william_shakes_beer

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Sounds like typical fermentation to me.

Step away from the ledge. The yeast know what to do. They have been doing it for thousands of years. They wil probably be doing it after man is extinct.

unionrdr

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

zbuc871

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Should I transfer it into my secondary fermenter now? And thanks for all the replies!

JLem

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There is still some debate over this, but a lot of folks, myself included, skip the secondary. There just really isn't any need for it most of the time. Just leave it in primary for a few weeks, make sure the gravity is stable and relatively close to the expected FG, and then bottle/keg.

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Brewing blog at Brew by Brew

paparker21

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I believe the answer is, "If you're going to use a secondary, now is the time to do it"

Lots of arguments for and against secondaries. Personally, I use a secondary for a couple reasons --

I use a carboy which allows me to visually inspect the beer-- which becomes helpful when i put that carboy in the fridge for cold conditioning after i get a stable final gravity. After FG stabilizes, it goes into the fridge for about a week and towards the end of that, i give 'er a look to make sure that it's cleared pretty well. If it has, i'll siphon it into the keg (fridge door open, siphon -- no disturbance at this stage!) if not, it can stay in or can have isinglass added if i feel it's necessary.

Second, it gets the beer out of my primary- the primary can then be cleaned and another brew can happen if i want.

Third, i personally feel better if my beer doesnt sit on the trub while it ages. The way i see it, I want my beers flavors to mix and mingle- and if thats the case, why would i invite flavors I don't want in the beer? Out with the trub.

And last, sort of a tag-a-long to the third point, I don't want to dry hop on anything other than my beer- why would i allow my precious hop oils to mix and mingle in the trub which will be discarded?

zbuc871

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Thanks for all the replies they where all very helpful. It sounds like I have a decision to make whether to use a secondary.. I'm leaning towards yes due to the fact that I have another recipe I want to start on. Thanks!

Brak23

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Just as a rule of thumb. Once you finish your boil and pitch your yeast, the next three days will have very active fermentation with lots of bubbles, noise, and activity. Then it significantly drops off. Its completely normal.

I use a secondary, because I just personally have a hard time leaving beer in the muddled primary with all the leftover hop pieces and yeast cake. I guess I'm OCD that way.