cmoon

Recipes 

I just transferred my second brew to the secondary fermenter and I was rather disappointed to see a gravity of .03 instead of .02. I sampled the embryonic beer and found I really enjoyed the taste, though of course, with a hint of sweetness. At this point, is there anything I can do to get a little fermentation going, or should I bother? I know there will be a little more fermentation during the carbonation process, and perhaps some during the secondary fermentation as well.

Is there anything I can do, and of course the bigger question, is it even worth doing?

Edcculus

Recipes 

How long was it going before you transferred it? 1.030 is a pretty high finishing gravity for most normal ales (big Russian Imperial Stouts excluded). Also what yeast did you use? You may be stuck if you didn't pitch enough yeast to begin with. If you transferred early, there are still some yeast in suspension which will ferment more if you leave it for at least 2 more weeks.

Despite most kit and older brewing literature advice, most homebrewers are foregoing a "secondary fermenter" in place of a 3 week primary. Unless you are dry hopping, adding fruit or lagering, there aren't really any huge benefits.

Finally, what is the recipe you used? If its all extract, sometimes you run into fermentability issues. Usually, those crop up when trying to get under 1.020 though.

cmoon

Recipes 

Making an extract clone of dogfish head's 90 minute IPA.

Starting gravity was 1.08, so it is still coming out as a 7% beer (roughly), but I'd love to see it drop more.

I am using thames valley as an alternative. Made a starter, than pitched another smackpack on top (probably overkill.) It set in the primary for two weeks, so I don't know how much more fermentation was going to happen there.

Thames valley can apparently manage about 10% ABV, so I wasn't assuming there'd be any problems. I'm not incredibly worried, since what I tasted in transfer still seemed like a great beer to my pallet (and it will only get better.) But yes, 1.03 seems too high.

I do plan to give this and the following batch (which is now in the primary) a lot more time. Still, I'm wondering if I transferred to the secondary too early.