Should fermentation stop before going to secondary fermenter?

I brewed an Austin Brewing Bell's Oberon clone (a wheat beer) a week ago Saturday (10 days ago). Fermentation didn't start for 3 or 4 days (and shame on me for not stirring it up after a day or 2). Six days after fermentation started, it's still bubbling away at about 10 bubbles/minute.

The kit instructions say transfer to the secondary after 5-7 days. This will be my first time using a secondary fermenter. Should I wait until the bubbling stops or can I transfer it now and let fermentation continue in the secondary?

Don't secondary. You don't need to. Especially with a wheat beer. Wait for all observable yeast activity to stop, then take gravity reading a couple days apart. If equal, bottle.

If you do decide to secondary, which few of us do anymore for our regular beers, you really should wait til fermentation is complete, and even a little longer to get some benefit from the yeast's desire to clean up the byproducts of fermentation that lead to off flavors.

Here's some reading for you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/second-ferm-racking-128440/#post1438252

And the discussion here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/multiple-questions-about-secondary-fermentation-140978/#post1601829

But more importantly this discusses the fact that many folks including jamil and palmer have backed off from that yeast phobia and are embracing long primaries and prolonged yeast contact.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

And you'll find that more and more recipes these days do not advocate moving after 5-7 days (which if you arbitrarily move your beer without a hydrometer reading may only mean 1-2 days of actual fermentation, not LAG TIME which is pretty common. Counting airlock bubbles is idiotic to say the least.) Now more and more recipes even in BYO advocate a minimum of 2 weeks in primary, but nowadays are even says skip secondary leave in primary for 3-4 weeks then bottle.

Revvy said:

Counting airlock bubbles is idiotic to say the least.

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Wow, I didn't realize a newbie asking a legitimate question would be called an idiot. Please accept my apology for being inexperienced and feel free not to respond to any questions I may ask in the future.

lmacmil said:

Wow, I didn't realize a newbie asking a legitimate question would be called an idiot. Please accept my apology for being inexperienced and feel free not to respond to any questions I may ask in the future.

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I didn't call you an idiot, I called the 1-2-3 method, and counting bubbling airlocks idiotic. There is a difference (one is not defined by their action nor by what they eat)....I didn't mean to hurt your feelings....I've posted that exact answer (it's a cut and paste) probably 10,000 times before now and noone's ever felt that they were being called idiots until now.

I go to secondary when it's done. By done I mean no off flavors.

I have a similar question:

This is my second beer, I brewed a blue moon clone with quite a bit of wheat. Fermentation started about 24-48 hours in and was pretty extensive. I am now at 4 weeks, and I'm getting about 3-5 small bubbles and 1 big bubble within a minute. Has anyone had this happen before? Theres nothing growing or looking bad in the beer. When I look in the fermenter I can see tiny bubbles rising from the bottom to the top. The recipe called for 72 F temp and that what I was at. I read in Palmer's book, that it could be a wild yeast strain? My first gravity was 1.052 and yesterday it was 1.010. I tasted it and it didn't taste bad at all, in fact it was quite tasty. Should I secondary to slow down some fermentation? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Afd1992 said:

I have a similar question:

This is my second beer, I brewed a blue moon clone with quite a bit of wheat. Fermentation started about 24-48 hours in and was pretty extensive. I am now at 4 weeks, and I'm getting about 3-5 small bubbles and 1 big bubble within a minute. Has anyone had this happen before? Theres nothing growing or looking bad in the beer. When I look in the fermenter I can see tiny bubbles rising from the bottom to the top. The recipe called for 72 F temp and that what I was at. I read in Palmer's book, that it could be a wild yeast strain? My first gravity was 1.052 and yesterday it was 1.010. I tasted it and it didn't taste bad at all, in fact it was quite tasty. Should I secondary to slow down some fermentation? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

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The release through the air lock may just be the CO2 produced during the fermentation coming out of solution. Take another SG reading in three days, if it is the same, you are ready to bottle. There is no rush to bottle though. The CO2 coming out of the yeast/trub layer is resuspending sediment and yeast. Your beer will much clearer in the bottle if you leave it in the primary longer.

The beer will clear just as well in the primary as it would in a secondary vessel. Less work to and less chance of introducing an infection.

A fermentation from a wild yeast infection would not be stopped by a transfer to the secondary. The wild yeast would be transferred with the beer. The only way to stop a fermentation would be by heating to pasteurization temperatures to kill the yeast.

4 weeks of fermentation

OG 1.052 FG 1.010

The beer is done. Package it. Bottles or keg, your choice.

Thanks guys, helps a ton.

Gavin,
Would bottling now, even though it's still fermenting. Cause me to have bottle bombs?

Thanks again.

I'm not Gavin, but if you bottle a beer that has not completed fermentation, and add priming sugar, they will most likely blow.

It's done. Bottle it. If you want to be extra careful, check it again in three days.

It's no longer fermenting. Bottle away!

The instructions probably say to rack to secondary when you're within a few points of target FG. That's the best course of action.

As you've seen, it's easier to have a calm and reasonable discussion about politics or religion than "should I rack to secondary".

Enjoy your beer.

Afd1992 said:

Thanks guys, helps a ton.

Gavin,
Would bottling now, even though it's still fermenting. Cause me to have bottle bombs?

Thanks again.

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It's not still fermenting. 4 weeks after pitching yeast with this OG and FG are findings consistent with a completely fermented beer. Package it up and enjoy.


Bottling an incompletely fermented beer will result in gushers and/or bottle bombs. Again not applicable to your scenario.

I only rack to secondary If I'm adding something (espresso beans this week) otherwise I wouldn't risk the contamination when transferring, especially a wheat beer, or something to be cloudy by style.
Side note:
AMEN brother rhumbline! It's way out of hand this whole should I/shouldn't I rack to secondary bullsh*t. My opinion is (FWIW)... It has it's uses like dry hopping, adding fruit, coffee beans, or any other solid additive (not liquid extracts or cold brewed coffee etc. ) but otherwise it's an extra unnecessary step that just gives you another chance to screw up the beer. Or if you wayyyyy over pitched then you might want to rack to get it off the cake and give the yeast a chance to reproduce. Otherwise leave it be and enjoy the fruit of your labors when all is done and well in the world.