Still bubbling after 20 days...

Hello, I am making some beer and I racked it to the secondary after 18 days. It has been in the secondary for 3 full days now and I just looked at it and it is bubbling about once every 15 seconds... is that normal??

the temp has been between 60-70 while in the primary and secondary, it was innactive before I racked it to the secondary... is something wrong? The O.G. was 1.083 could it just be taking a long time to ferment?

Thanks buddies!

Short answer, yes. If it was a little cooler while it was in the primary it might have still had a ways to go. By transferring, you may have roused the yeast and got them working a little more. The bubbling could also just be from some of the disolved CO2 coming out of solution. I'd still let it sit several weeks in the secondary, especially for a beer of that gravity.

humm... so maybe it got too cold and stopped the yeast a bit? im using some white labs yeast...

ok i just looked on the white labs website, im using the german ale yeast and it says it does not do well below 62f, which it was at... so i'll keep it above that.

is there any advantage to keeping it as low as possible (to allow slower fermentation?) or should I let it stay around 75 or something>

thanks a lot!

68-72 is usually the perfect zone for most ale yeasts. Some other strains are a little picky and need different temps. Some produce all kinds of funky flavors at higher temps. Cold can shut down the yeast and make it floccuate, or clump together, and settle to the bottom, leaving the beer under fermented.

Any honey in the recipe? Honey takes forever to ferment out.
I have a belgian wit that was in secondary for 3 or 4 weeks and in the keg for at least 3.5 and it still wasn't ready. Three weeks later the pressure kicked up to 23PSI. Turns out I probably didn't need the priming sugar.
Of course hydrometer readings might have helped.

I haven't been taking hydrometer readings because im scared I will contaminate the beer :-o

should I be doing that until the specific gravity stops going down then bottle it?

You were 18 days in primary, and now 3 or 4 in secondary. You won't have much fermentation going on any more. I would not bother with any more hydrometer readings at this point. Just wait a couple or three weeks and bottle.

thats what I thought but it is bubbling once every 15 seconds

If you are careful you won't hurt anything taking a hydrometer reading, plus you will get a taste. I would do that at this point since you would be better served to find out how it is progressing.

I just went out there and smelled the bubbles and I thought I could smell bananas... :-(((( I thought that was from fast fermentation but the temperature has been between 60 and 70 this whole time, so how could it be going too fast?? im so disappointed...