A small head of krausen in my secondary

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biggben

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yesterday i just racked my winter warmer into my secondary and had some sediment get into it as well some bubbles that were caused by my siphon pulling out of the wort.
my question is today i came in to check on it and noticed that there was a small head of foam or krausen in my secondary is this normal?
this is my second brew ever and its got a high over all gravity of 1.071. also it was still bubbling a few bubbles a minute when i racked it.
 
It's still fermenting it sounds like. How long did you leave it in primary? Secondary is only somewhat useful if you let it ferment completely and settle in primary, then rack to secondary to help clear it more. Many people, including myself, only primary. 2-4 weeks in primary, then off to keg or bottles. I hate how directions tell you to primary for a few days then rack to secondary. That is pointless.
 
the recipe said to primary for 7 days so i just did as the recipe read. the only other one that i have done was a wheat beer which was done fermenting it seemed pretty quick. this one on the other hand after a week was still chugging about 2-3 bubbles a min. also recipe said it should be 7% but my readings were 1.073 before yeast and after the seven days it was 1.013. is a week to early?
 
It depends on a lot of variables. Sometimes it can be done in a few days, sometimes it may take a couple weeks or more to finish fermenting completely and settle out. 1.013 sounds about right for that though, but it could go a little more (I don't know all the variables). Since it sounds like it was near done fermenting, it could just be CO2 coming out of solution as smizak said. Regardless, I still think primary should be 2 weeks minimum.
 
If it is a new krausen then thatm means fermentation was complete before you racked it over. You racked too soon. You can't brew based on what someone writes as instructions. Yeast don't know how to read so they seldom follow their scripts. They dance to their own tune and its seldom 4 x 4 Time. The way to know when a beer is done when 2 consequitive hydro readings over 3 days stay the same.

If you arbitrarily move your beer, like to follow the silly 1-2-3 rule, you will often interrupt fermentation. Because sometimes the yeast won't even begin to ferment your beer until 72 hours after yeast pitch, so if you rush the beer off the yeast on day 7 then you are only allowing the yeast 4 days to work, and that is really not enough time to get the job done.

Actually taking it off the yeast too soon prevents some much needed cleanup (and the true secondary fermentation period) from happenning. That's why many of us have opted for LONG primary/No secondary. Instead of rushing the beer off the yeast cake before the job is done. The yeast are very tenacious creatures, and if we actually leave them the heck alone, and not move them too soon, they will actually clean up after themselves, and remove their own waste/by products of fermentation, and actually will lead to cleaner, clearer and fresher tasting beers.

Moving it during fermentation more often than not has led to stuck fermentations.....And off flavors. Or extra krausens....

You'll find that more and more recipes these days do not advocate moving to a secondary at all, but mention primary for a month, which is starting to reflect the shift in brewing culture that has occurred in the last 4 years, MOSTLY because of many of us on here, skipping secondary, opting for longer primaries, and writing about it. Recipes in BYO have begun stating that in their magazine. I remember the "scandal" it caused i the letters to the editor's section a month later, it was just like how it was here when we began discussing it, except a lot more civil than it was here. But after the Byo/Basic brewing experiment, they started reflecting it in their recipes.

Next time if you do opt to move to secondary, take 2 reading over 3 days and if they are the same then move it. I usually don't advocate taking the first reading til the 10th day. But if I do rack, I don;t rack til it's been in primary 2 weeks.
 
1002987.jpg
here is a picture of the head that has formed in my secondary.
 
so does this mean that it will be allright? its at 8.3% abv and its still fermenting! yikes it taste okay though lol
 
okay i tried that site and it says that its at 8% exactly. but it is still bubbling not very much though like 1 a minute now
 
ok so i tried the link you gave and it says that its 8%. but the recipe says that it should be 7% i wonder why the difference
 
Whoops, i put in 1.071 from the first thread, my bad. Did you adjust for temperature? If so it just might have been a smaller volume or extra fermentables that caused the additional ABV. Whatever the case, a week is too early to go into the bright tank most of the time, and that would be why you're getting the second krausen.
 
ohh well it should be fine in a week for bottling then huh? i think i might have to change the name from first frost to jack you up frost lol
 
Well, I would wait a minimum of 4 weeks to bottle, give the yeast time to do their work. Patience is a must in brewing. That said, yes, you technically could bottle in a week, but it will still be a green beer for a while. Usually it is better to give it the extra few weeks in primary (which is what you still have even though you racked over to a "secondary") then to have to wait the extra month or two it will take a bottled beer to reach its prime. It's a winter warmer, so I say let it sit for another 3-4 weeks, maybe even 5 because of the higher ABV, and then let it bottle condition another 3, probably 4 or 5 weeks (again, higher ABV = longer time to bottle condition). Then it'll be ready in time for December and the winter, and you'll have a far better beer to show for it.
 
ok i will do it thank you for the advice so i guess ill be drinking this around christmas lol thanks for all the info im excited about this batch
 
ok i will do it thank you for the advice so i guess ill be drinking this around christmas lol thanks for all the info im excited about this batch

SInce you moved it early, and it is still fermenting, you don't want to bottle it right away. You want to give it time to actually finish, AND the yeast to clean up after itself. That's primarily why we leave our beers in primary for 3-4 weeks. So that after the yeast is done fermenting, it has time to clean up all those byproducts of fermentation they produced. They like a clean house, so if you let them, they will remove those very things that cause off flavors in our beer.

Making great tasting beer is not a race, unless you are the tortiose. My beers are about 8 weeks from grain to glass. That's 4 weeks in primary, then another 4 weeks bottle carbing and conditioning. And that makes for mighty tasty beers.
 
Revvy, you always give great advice. I've learned a lot from you in every post you make... Keep on keeping on my friend!
 
huh forgot to update my final result with this recipe; ok, well it turned out fine. no problems just transferred to soon.
 
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