Particulate in Beer

calbear07 · 01-21-2010, 02:33 AM

Hello everyone! I'm of course new to the whole brewing thing and I've got some questions I was hoping you all could help me with.

This is my first batch ever, it's a Brown Ale and it's been in Primary for 9 days. It was brewed from a partial mash recipe.

The airlock stopped bubbling about 4 days ago. I've taken hydrometer readings for the last 3 days and it's remained stable at 1.018. Unfortunately I forgot to take an OG reading.

I'm currently brewing in a 5 gallon bucket, which has a spigot about 3 inches from the bottom of the bucket, I've been using the spigot to take samples for the hydrometer, they usually come out with some amount of particulate matter, which makes me question the accuracy of the reading. So I'm not sure if 1.018 is right, but I do know that the beer is done doing its thing in primary, since the readings have leveled off.

Now, my question is, when I transfer to secondary, how much particulate should I expect to be in the beer? My instructions say to use the spigot on the bottom of the bucket to transfer into the secondary fermenter, and I know that since the spigot is 3 inches above the bottom of the bucket most of the particulate matter will rest to the bottom below the spigot opening. But I'm still getting a good amount of particulate. Is this normal? What about when I go to bottle from secondary? Will it also go into the bottles as well? The secondary fermenter is an identical plastic bucket.

Thanks for all your help guys! Can't wait to get good at this.

skyzo · 01-21-2010, 02:38 AM

Thats normal after being in the primary for only 9 days. I've had some batches have stuff swirling around in them for quite a long time. 1.018 seems a little high, give it another week or so before going to secondary. Might wanna try to rouse up the yeast some to try and get some gravity points to drop.

**Nurmey** · 01-21-2010, 03:05 AM

Welcome to HBT!

You have found out the reason that so many of us don't use buckets with spigots. Hard to use them without pulling the trub and yeast along with the sample.

There are a couple things that would help you. First thing is get an auto siphon or racking can so you can rack the liquid and leave the trub and yeast cake behind.

The second thing is one you should do whether you rack or use your spigot. That is to leave your beer where it is for a couple more weeks so the yeast cake will compact and make it much easier for you to leave it behind. Leaving it longer will also allow the yeast to finish its job of cleaning up the flavors of your beer and clearing it.

calbear07 · 01-21-2010, 05:44 AM

Thanks guys,

skyzo - how do I go about rousing up the yeast? so nervous to open it up, dont' want to risk contamination

nurmey - so do you recommend I skip secondary entirely?

**weirdboy** · 01-21-2010, 05:53 AM

For a brown ale, you probably can just leave it in the primary fermenter for another 2-3 weeks, then rack it to the bottling bucket directly (assuming you are bottling). No need for secondary.

CDbrews · 01-21-2010, 06:00 AM

A secondary is a personal choice, read around to find the debates on this and make your decision. to wake the yeast back up just give your bucket a bit of shake. And lastly if you are worried about the particles (trub) from throwing off your hydro reading a wine theif or turkey baster is an good way to get a sample and for the small amount of time that the fermenter is open while using these should not cause worry if you properly sanitize everything. Good luck and welcome to the forums, there is a wealth of knowledge here!!

dcp27 · 01-21-2010, 02:22 PM

It's possible you really are at your final. What was your recipe? And

Also, SG is based on the density of the liquid so particulates shouldn't effect it. To check this, awhile ago I took water and added pepper and basil to it in varying quantities to see if I got any change in my hydrometer reading and at most (which had a ton in it) it moved up 0.002.