Evaporation is probably more likely since i cooled it to about 75 before pitching. It's got good activity so hopefully its fine. Onward to other foolish questions that attest to my youth in beer brewing...
I've seen various answers to this questions, so i will ask it personally. How long should i leave the beer in the primary? i figured at least a week after i see no activity, but i hear the longer, the better the end product. How long can the brew be left sitting on dead yeast before you risk potentially lowering the quality of the flavor? I have a secondary i can move it to if need be. I primary for 3 weeks usually, 4 weeks sometimes. People have beer that has sat in primary for 6 months that tastes fine. Autolysis of the yeast, (which gives bad flavors), is pretty much a non-issue for us, from what I've heard.
And on to oxidation...It seems that this is a worry after fermentation has occurred, but i think i could be gentle enough with transferring it to a secondary to avoid it. Is that the main reason some brewers don't transfer to secondary? I figured i would bottle condition for at least a month (or try to at least) before drinking, so would a secondary fermentation of a week or two even have an effect?You secondary to allow the beer to "mellow" without sitting on top of the flocced yeast, (which is mostly very ALIVE yeast....that's why we wash and reuse it!). Many people think that the yeast cake in primary actually HELPS, because there is more yeast to do the "cleanup reactions" that eat up the bad/green flavors...the main reason people don't secondary is to give the yeast in the yeast cake lots of time to clean up after itself...but yes, oxidation is another concern.
Thanks for all the assistance!
