Is it time to siphon into the carboy?

Well i pitched my yeast on sat night, and this morning the head of foam is gone all i see is tiny bubbles everywhere poping on the surface. Does this mean its time to transfer into the carboy?
thanks

If you don't take a gravity reading, then just let it go for a week. It will be better off that way. I assume you have it in a glass carboy right now? If not, don't keep popping the lid on the bucket to check on it. It just lets unpleasant things into the mix. Trust the brew, it's been doing it's thing longer than MOST of us have been around.

well right now its in a pail with a plastic sheat and elastic seal so i can look inside without opening it, and the guide my homebrew shop gave me says that once the head of foam is gone (2-5days) thats when it should be siphoned into the glass carboy.
So Im thinking i should siphon it off into the secondary???

Letting it go a week is the general rule. It will allow a little more debris to settle out, making your secondary clearer from the start. Many folks follow the 1-2-3 rule, being 1 week in the primary, 2 in the secondary, 3 in bottles. If you are anxious and want an excuse to get busy doing something, it won't hurt to rack now, assuming that you are sure that it is post-krausen, but patience is a valuable, if not scarce, commodity in homebrewing

If you are still seeing tiny bubbles then I would certainly let it sit for a week. It will not hurt anything and let's the yeast finish up their work.

oh ok cus i thouht your supposed to transfer it after the heads gone but theirs some fermentation still hapening that why iv got the air lock for the carboy?

CanadaBrews said:

oh ok cus i thouht your supposed to transfer it after the heads gone but theirs some fermentation still hapening that why iv got the air lock for the carboy?

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I'm assuming that you're asking if that's why you got an airlock? Yeah, it lets CO2 out without letting air or any other impurities in. When you bottle-carbonate, you're simply making sure that the CO2 cannot escape, so it's absorbed into the beer which produces carbonation.

As for when to rack, the general rule of thumb is "1-2-3", as in, 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottle. However, this is not a hard-n-fast rule. I've had brews a couple weeks after fermentation, and they were fine, just a little green and too much sediment in the bottle.

On the other hand, higher-gravity and/or specialty brews may require longer than that. Barleywine can sit in secondary for several months, as can some stouts and porters. Barleywine can also age in bottle for 5 years or more.

But for beginners' purposes, follow the 1-2-3 rule when in doubt.

Keep in mind that I've got my first batch in the secondary right now, but I racked on the 8th day. On day seven, I was getting about 1 bubble through the airlock every 30 seconds. It slowed to every 45-60 seconds the 8th day and my wife was out all day so I decided it was a good time.

Of course, it sounds like you don't have an airlock on your primary so it would be difficult to guess how much activity you have right now. Either way, I'd wait until the weekend before racking. No reason to rush.

Bobby
Light American Ale in the secondary.

Please note that airlock activity is a very poor measure of fermentation process. You're better off using the 1-2-3 rule of thumb than trying to time bubble activity.


The only real reason for a vast majority of brews to be moved from a primary to a secondary is to improve clarity. Leaving it a bit longer in Primary gives more time for thigns to particulate out of the brew so that there's that much less particulate in the secondary.

Which is to say-- there is nothing wrong with leaving beer in the primary for 3 weeks and then bottling. It'll have more particulate in it but if you're not worried about the clarity of your beer (ie- you don't think the aesthetics are important enough to justify the time and trouble of transfering to secondary) then jsut skip transfering to secondary. However, DO let the beer age for at least 3 weeks (or MORE) before bottling. The aging will certainly improve the quality of your end result.

ohhhhhhhh alright now i get it! thanks for clearing this up guys.
aleks