Im moving to a secondary

I have been reading all morning and I know the general census is not to secondary even though there are a lot of people who still do. I want to try and learn for myself. I have sanitized everything, my question is does the carboy need to be completly dry before I move to a secondary?

No. Mine is still wet with sanitizer (no rinse type). It is nice though to be able to purge the carboy with CO2.

Secondary is a personal choice. The more time in contact with the yeast cake, the more it impacts the flavor. Some folks like this, others do not.

Not for me. I use star san and it is effective when wet and not so much when dry, as I understand it.

You can always rack to secondary but generally if you don't have a real reason to then most do not.

nope, my carboys/buckets are always wet when I transfer as I fill them with starsan before filling with sweet sweet wort.

With Star-san, you need to leave them wet. Rack right on top of the Starsan Foam that is left in the carboy/bucket after you dump out the Star-san. Star-san is amazing stuff.

If you use Idophor, It will need to be dry before you use the carpoy/bucket.

Gary

sefrayser said:

I have been reading all morning and I know the general census is not to secondary even though there are a lot of people who still do. I want to try and learn for myself. I have sanitized everything, my question is does the carboy need to be completly dry before I move to a secondary?

Click to expand...

Starsan or no-rinse sanitizers should be wet. Just dump it out and rack. A reasonable amount of foam is actually a good thing.

The reason most are against secondaries is because it's an unnecessary risk of oxidation, and it's been proven (unscientifically), leaving beer on the yeast cake for a month or two does not impart any off flavors at the homebrew level.. Rather, it may actually help pull fermentation off flavors out if the beer quicker.

If you want the experience, that's great, but it's probably best to practice on a beer you don't plan on aging. For cellared beer, secondaries are a great way to batch age for an extended period, but they need to be purged with co2 first. A keg is usually a great way to secondary. Cheers

Well it went well and I took a FG. My beginning was 1.045 and the latter was 1.011. Thats right on target with directions. Now granted thats now and not at bottling. I don't know what my true FG will be. What does the gravity normally do? Will it drop a little more? Right now the wort is 4.46%, what can I expect? I tried a little that I pulled and it taste pretty good.

It's most likely done. You could possibly lose another point or two after racking to secondary, especially if you increase the temp. Was this an extract batch? If so, that's pretty low and it's probably finished.

Yes an extract batch. It has been in the primary for 6 days. It was bubbling once every 1.5-2 minutes. I only ended up with 4 gallons of product. When I made the wort and cooled it, I checked the OG it got to the target at 4 gallons. Thats where I stopped.

sefrayser said:

Yes an extract batch. It has been in the primary for 6 days. It was bubbling once every 1.5-2 minutes. I only ended up with 4 gallons of product. When I made the wort and cooled it, I checked the OG it got to the target at 4 gallons. Thats where I stopped.

Click to expand...

Leave it in primary for another week. No need to rush it and no need to move to secondary just yet. It sounds like you want to do it just to do it, which is fine, but I'd let the yeast do its thing for at least 10-14 days and I wouldn't touch the beer for the first 10 days.

sefrayser said:

Yes an extract batch. It has been in the primary for 6 days. It was bubbling once every 1.5-2 minutes. I only ended up with 4 gallons of product. When I made the wort and cooled it, I checked the OG it got to the target at 4 gallons. Thats where I stopped.

Click to expand...

Yeah that's pretty low for extract, especially within 6 days. It's probably finished, but you're definitely going to wanna keep it on the yeast cake for longer than 6 days! Go at least 14 days in the primary before racking so the yeast can settle out and clean up after themselves.

ps. I've never even had extract finish below 1.014 before, which is part of the reason people switch to AG. What's the ambient temperature where you fermented?.. And, do you know what the fermentation temp was?

It sat in the primary at 70 degrees. I steeped at 160 for 20 minutes. According to the directions it is right on target. Its a Brewers Best English Brown Ale kit.

GASoline71 said:

If you use Idophor, It will need to be dry before you use the carpoy/bucket.

Gary

Click to expand...

Not so sure about this -

I've never had an issue one about racking into any containers that have been soaked in Idophor. In all the literature I've found concerning Idophor as a no-rinse solution there's been nothing to suggest that it should not be done. It's used extensively in the dairy industry with no effect on the product.

Some folks like the foam, any time I'm filling a container though I like not dealing with it. Personal preference of course.

sefrayser said:

It sat in the primary at 70 degrees. I steeped at 160 for 20 minutes. According to the directions it is right on target. Its a Brewers Best English Brown Ale kit.

Click to expand...

Ok, that's why it finished fast and low. Next time, if you can, aim for around 60* ambient temp for most ales other than Belgians. This will produce a much cleaner beer that you'll be proud of. Fermentation temps will be 5-10* warmer than ambient, and most yeast strains throw off unwanted esters and belgiany characteristics at 70* or above.

Aim for the low end of temp range on the yeast packet... and it's fermentation temp, not ambient! (This is something that's confusing to all new brewers since it's not really explained by the yeast manufacturers or kit instructions)

Should I let it set another week or 2 before bottling? The temp was between 68-70 sitting in my closet.

sefrayser said:

Should I let it set another week or 2 before bottling?

Click to expand...

For a brown ale, the longer the better IMO. I usually don't primary less then 3 weeks anymore.

You could get away with 2 weeks since it's low gravity, but since it fermented warm, 3 or even 4 weeks would be better.

thats what I was thinking.