Went to secondary to early, should I rack again and wait?

As I discovered (was pointed out to me) as you can read from this thread I went to the secondary way to early.

So now its about finished after being in the secondary for one week, I have alot of sediment in the bottom (at least more than should be in a secondary). I was thinking about moving it to another carboy and letting it settle out a little more before I bottle.

Waste of time?
To much oxygen contact? (racking to the third carboy)

Or just move on and chalk it up to a lesson learned.

just leave it for another 2 weeks. Racking too early isnt going to hurt anything, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Last night I racked to secondary after 8 days. (and no didn't take a hydrometer reading - guess I should have).

It's a blackberry ale so the brew was racked into the secondary on top of blackberry puree. Well, this morning I realized it obviously wasn't done fermenting because there was krausen in the secondary and the airlock had blown off. My question is mainly will there be extensive oxygen damage from the airlock being off (if I had to guess maybe 8 hours) or will it be ok? I cleaned and sanitized the airlock and put it back on after discovering this.

Thanks!

ElGuapo said:

Last night I racked to secondary after 8 days. (and no didn't take a hydrometer reading - guess I should have).

It's a blackberry ale so the brew was racked into the secondary on top of blackberry puree. Well, this morning I realized it obviously wasn't done fermenting because there was krausen in the secondary and the airlock had blown off. My question is mainly will there be extensive oxygen damage from the airlock being off (if I had to guess maybe 8 hours) or will it be ok? I cleaned and sanitized the airlock and put it back on after discovering this.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

When you rack onto fruit there is a whole new infusion of sugar from the fruit to ferment. Regardless of how much sugar is left to ferment in the primary carboy you will get a whole new ferment once you add the additional sugar.

There is no danger of oxidation from having the airlock blow off. It is CO2 in the carboy blowing the airlock off = no oxygen in the carboy space.

The only danger could be from airborne contamination but I would not fret too much over that small possibility. Some places ferment in big ol' open fermenters.

dontman said:

When you rack onto fruit there is a whole new infusion of sugar from the fruit to ferment. Regardless of how much sugar is left to ferment in the primary carboy you will get a whole new ferment once you add the additional sugar.

There is no danger of oxidation from having the airlock blow off. It is CO2 in the carboy blowing the airlock off = no oxygen in the carboy space.

The only danger could be from airborne contamination but I would not fret too much over that small possibility. Some places ferment in big ol' open fermenters.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! And yep it's fermenting full speed ahead again.

CrazyBrew said:

Last night I racked to secondary after 8 days. (and no didn't take a hydrometer reading - guess I should have).

It's a blackberry ale so the brew was racked into the secondary on top of blackberry puree. Well, this morning I realized it obviously wasn't done fermenting because there was krausen in the secondary and the airlock had blown off. My question is mainly will there be extensive oxygen damage from the airlock being off (if I had to guess maybe 8 hours) or will it be ok? I cleaned and sanitized the airlock and put it back on after discovering this.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Plus CO2 produced during fermentation is heavier than air. So as long as you didn't have a fan blowing over the opening to the vessel then the CO2 will block any air from oxidizing your beer. No worries

Every time that you rack the beer, there is a chance of contamination and you will get more oxygen in there. Good brewers like Ed Wort don't do secondaries at all. I have converted to that idea and the beer is getting better. When the ferment is done, I like to put the fermenter in a really cool spot, on a high table that won't even get jiggled until kegging. It gets really clear. I usually don't even open it for a gravity test. You can tell when the ferment is done (in carboys) by close examination of the top edge of the brew for any tiny bubbles. (along with flocculation of course). The bubbles consolidate into a few larger ones when it is done.