Too soon to rack to secondary?

I made a honey wheat last Saturday based off Palmer's recipe the three guys weiss. It started fermenting Sunday. I want to rack it into two 3.0 gallon better bottles.

Is it to soon to rack if its still krausening?There is about an 1/2 inch still.

I have to reasons for wanting to rack it. 1) free up my primary so I can brew an IPA this weekend, and 2) I want to add blueberries to half, and cherries to the other half.

Second question, would adding a pint of fruit for 2.5 gallons of beer be ok?

Even when making fruit beer I still let primary fermentation finish before racking, just as I would with any other beer. There will be plenty of yeast in suspension to digest the sugar in your fruit.

Also, I have used up to five pounds of fruit in five gallons of beer and it's a big crowd pleaser. It's mostly about your personal taste though. Honestly if your recipe is anything more complicated than Budweiser, you may find that a pint of fruit will hardly be noticed. But if that's what you're going for, go for it. Also keep in mind that depending on how ripe the fruit is you will get more or less flavor. I suggest a pound of fruit per carboy. YMMV.

If you want to brew more, buy more carboys!

No problem to rack now. We generaly dont rack our wheat beers so you may have a little fermentation left but it wont cause you any trouble.


I will pass on the second question.

Let it go. I used to rack out of primary after 7 days or so. Then I started letting batches go 14-18 days in primary. The beer clears way faster and easier, and reaches its taste peak much much faster, since the yeast cake cleans everything up and ages the beer faster. You'll have a clearer, smoother tasting finished product much, much faster if you leave it for a bit longer.

IMO you should leave your beer in primary at least as long as it takes to hit your final gravity. If you mainly want the empty fermenter, buy another, they are liek $12.

for berries, I have been pleased with 40oz/5gal (I have done Raspberries and Blueberries) and waiting until your beer hits final gravity seems to be the ideal time to transfer to secondary, there will still be plenty of yeast in suspension to attack the berries, and you will likley get more fruit flavor.

CFuggles said:

I made a honey wheat last Saturday based off Palmer's recipe the three guys weiss. It started fermenting Sunday. I want to rack it into two 3.0 gallon better bottles.

Is it to soon to rack if its still krausening?There is about an 1/2 inch still.

I have to reasons for wanting to rack it. 1) free up my primary so I can brew an IPA this weekend, and 2) I want to add blueberries to half, and cherries to the other half.

Second question, would adding a pint of fruit for 2.5 gallons of beer be ok?

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Ok, I've never added real fruit to beer -- but my understanding is that if the yeast is still good (which it is at this point in your ferment), it'll keep going and eat up some of those fruit sugars and dry the beer out more -- which is a good thing.


So because you are adding fruit, I think now would be a great time to move it over, as it'll give a little kick to the end of your ferment. Watch the activity -- if it starts to slow, take a quick hydro reading and if it isn't near your Target FG, raise the temp a degree or two to help it finish out. Should be tasty!

Also, remember that the sugar of the fruit will add to your OG -- there are probably site on the net that you can find out how much sugar per weight in the fruits you are adding. Or you may not care what your OG is, and that's all good too.

I was more than 2/3 to my final gravity and the krausen was a thin layer by today so I racked 2.75 gallons on 3 pints of pasteurized blueberries/huckleberres

2 pints were local NJ blueberries and the other pint was a combo of wild highbush blueberries and huckleberries I picked from my yard this morning. I put them all through a strainer to remove seeds and pulp.

This beer has an OG of like 1.055 with a 3 pound honey addition at flameout. The guy at the homebrew shop started to lecture me about honey. He was like "what people don't realize is you go and throw 3 pounds of honey into a brew and you raise the gravity by like 10 points, you give someone two of those and thats a DUI"

haha who said I'd be driving anywhere