Bpm ?

Hey all, just a quick question about my hefeweizen... It has been in primary for over a week now and its still chugging along at one bubble every 15 seconds. Should I rack to secondary or let it hang out a few more days? Also, I am putting puree in half and leaving half plain when I rack over. Is there any harm in splitting the batch into two seperate 5 gal. carboys?
Thanks much!
Carl

421Brew said:

Hey all, just a quick question about my hefeweizen... It has been in primary for over a week now and its still chugging along at one bubble every 15 seconds. Should I rack to secondary or let it hang out a few more days?

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I'd let it sit a little while longer. There is no hard rule, but I don't rack to secondary until it's bubbling less than once every 2 minutes. You really can let it set in there for 2 or 3 weeks before the yeast start eating each other and producing off flavors.

421Brew said:

Also, I am putting puree in half and leaving half plain when I rack over. Is there any harm in splitting the batch into two seperate 5 gal. carboys?

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You have to be careful about oxygen getting to your beer. There will be a lot of air in a 1/2 filled carboy.

I've never added puree to my beers before, so the half that you do this to will probably kick off a good bit of fermentation (hence a good bit of CO2) and will push the air out of the airlock. No problem there.

However, for the other half without puree.....

You could throw a chunk of dry ice into the carboy when you rack. That will definately displace any air with CO2 and keep your beer insulated.

Then again... maybe you SHOULD rack to secondary not while you've still got a good bit of fermentation going on. Then you wouldn't need to worry about air trapped in the carboy.

Just suggestions and thoughts....

Thank you for the always prompt reply! As you suggested the oxygen factor is mainly what I was worried about when filling two carboys only half way. Im so new to home brewing yet, maybe I will just add an extract to the second half during bottling and not risk destroying half a batch...real fruit just sounds so much more fun! If I were to do a half and half in carboys, is the fermentation going to be rough enough to require a blow-off tube even in a half filled carboy?

421Brew said:

Im so new to home brewing yet, maybe I will just add an extract to the second half during bottling and not risk destroying half a batch...real fruit just sounds so much more fun!

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That plan will definately work, but I agree that real fruit sounds better. I've use the extracts before and they taste great, but I've always wondered of it could have tasted BETTER with real fruit. I've just never tried it before, but I am considering it for my upcoming wheat.

421Brew said:

If I were to do a half and half in carboys, is the fermentation going to be rough enough to require a blow-off tube even in a half filled carboy?

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I would be shocked if you generated enough foam to full up 2.5 gallons of secondary carboy space. But.. since I've never used real fruit, I can't be certain.

I'm sure someone who HAS used puree will chime in with their input.

happy brewing.
-walker

Oh.. and really consider the dry ice. It's cheap and safe and will definately push the air out of the vessel.

-walker

Haha, it would be a heck of a show to see 2.5 gal. of foam coming out on the top. I was pretty sure that wouldnt happen but, better safe than sorry I suppose! I think I just might try your dry ice technique. It sounds like a very logical idea, and it'll look cool too! How do you think a nice blueberry puree would taste in that other half?
Thanks again for your help!

If I am going to put fruit in a beer, it's always berries or cherries. I think the blueberries would be great (and that's actually what I plan to make next month.. blueberry wheat.)

Let me know how it turns out, then I can make my final decision about whether to use fresh fruit or just go with the extract.

-walker

I just racked my cherry wheat off 8 lbs of cherries in the secondary (10 days) and into the tertiary. Not sure how long to let it sit there...Anyways, I dropped from 1.054 to 1.008 prior to adding cherries. The tasting at 2nd racking is crazy cherry-alcohol (think Cherry 7Up with alcohol flavor). This one is going to need aging. Blanching a getting the cherries into the carboy was no fun. Made the mistake of putting them into a grain bag in the carboy...had a blast trying to remove it. Wound up slicing the bag then dumping them out of the carboy. Lesson learned. The aroma is amazing though.

1.054 to 1.008 is about 6% abv. That's probably strong enough that you didn't need to bother blanching the cherries in the first place. The alcohol in the beer would have killed anything living on the cherries.

(I am assuming you blanched them to sterilize them.)

Do you have any idea what the gravity was when you racked to the tertiary?

You've got one whopper of a strong beer going there, Gaelone!

-walker

I wish I had checked the gravity at second racking. How long should I keep it in there? I have never used a tertiary, but figured it'd be a cleaner final product. Glad I did a starter on this one!

(Hope I didn't hijack this thread...just wanted to chime in on real fruit.)

gaelone said:

I wish I had checked the gravity at second racking. How long should I keep it in there?

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Absolutely no idea. At this point (tertiary fermenter) you are just aging the beer, so you can leave it in there for a week, a month, a year, or a decade.

I would just taste it every now and then, and when it tastes really f**king good, bottle it.

If I lived closer to you, I'd offer to come by and sample it, because it sounds goooooooood.

-walker

I'm really low on bottles so letting it age in the carboy isn't a bad thing...

I'll let you know how this thing comes out...hopefully by Christmas! If it makes me proud, I'll send you one for x-mas.

Is that one of the brews you forgot to give me a couple of weeks ago?

Anywho...how about my Kilkenny Irish Ale? Any critique yet?

What are your thoughts on juicing real fruit and adding it to the wort? I have a fruit juicer, and I think it would just release a lot more of the flavor with less pulp. Perhaps I'll try it with a blueberry wheat. That does sound tempting.

I didn't end up with much pulp, but I used a grain bag to hold the cherries. Came out a bit clearer than I'd expected.

HB99--I just put your ales in the fridge yesterday. I've been on call the past two days so Monday will have to be my soonest beer. Can't wait to enjoy them!