Sutpen

Recipes 

I've poked around the forums and a couple of books, and haven't seen any direct mention of shaking a secondary fermenter. I shook up the primary for 10 or 15 minutes after pitching the yeast, and I just racked to the secondary after about a week. I had kind of a weird fermentation, so I'm just wondering if a little more aeration might jumpstart the yeast. I tasted a little bit of the beer a couple days ago and it was pretty damn good, but this being my first batch, I couldn't draw too many conclusions about what I was tasting, beyond "I wish this were colder, and had bubbles in it." Thoughts?

PS
I didn't get any fermentation activity for the last 2 or 3 days of the time the beer spent in the primary. I don't have a hydrometer (I'm going to get one) so I was just going to stick the beer in the secondary for another week and then bottle condition the stuff for another 2-3. I could use a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on this course of action. Thanks, all.

c.n.budz

Recipes 

You do not want to aerate after fermentation starts. You'll only oxidize your beer, and that would be bad.

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Knucklehead Brewery, Est. 2007

Always do sober what you do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemingway

talleymonster

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I wouldn't reccomend it. Like CNBUDZ said, it would aerate your brew...no good.


But if it is in primary, that's diffrerent. There was a thread earlier today about shaking the primary.

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Sutpen

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Alright, I figured it wasn't a good idea. Thanks for confirming my fears, haha. I guess I shouldn't be complaining-- shaking the primary while it was full of wort was certainly the sweatiest part of the brewing process so far.

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

First off...you shouldn't rack to a secondary if the brew is not done. Make sure your gravity reading has dropped approx 75% from the OG...then it's ready to rack.

Second, a secondary is really a clarifying tank.

Like the others said...aerating after pitching yeast (could/may) = oxidation.

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HB Bill

Sutpen

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Yeah, I really wish I'd had a hydrometer for this batch. Even without one, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have gotten any more fermentation-- nary a bubble for 3 days or so. I had heard of people who got a little more action after racking, and that set me thinking "hmm...could I try to give the yeast a little kick in the pants here to ensure I got everything out of them, since I can't measure it?" The answer is clearly no, haha. I tasted a little bit, though, and it's quite good, so I'll probably bottle it this weekend.

malkore

Recipes 

the bubbles in secondary are usually trapped CO2 just coming out of solution...not actual fermentation.

with enough experience, you won't 'need' a hydrometer to know when its ready to rack. however, you wouldn't know the OG or FG...and thus no ABV would be known.
I consider it a necessity.

You can build a house without a tape measure...but why go through the hassle?
to make sure you calibrate your hydrometer with 60F tap water. (assuming that's what it was calibrated at by the factory)

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10