Secondary questions

How does this look for secondary? It was in primary for a week and tomorrow will be one week in secondary. I plan on bottling tomorrow. My question was does this look like a normal secondary that ready to bottle?

It looks right but only the gravity will tell for sure.

What kind of brew? whats the abv? I would not recommend bottling anything that is younger than 3 weeks old regardless if its been on the primary yeast cake or racked to a secondary vessel. 3 weeks I believe is about the minimum and higher bigger beers would be even longer. Unless you are doing some Hefe that should be drank young and early.

To answer your question... yes it looks normal

Also, I'm sure you are not but be careful with exposing your carboy to light. I've heard beer can skunk in a matter of minutes.. just fyi

It's not how it looks or how long, but how it measures. Have you checked the specific gravity? You need to check it then wait at least two days and check it again. If the gravity does not change between the two readings and it is about where you expect the final gravity to be, it is ready to bottle.

JonK331 said:

It looks right but only the gravity will tell for sure.

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Awesome I didn't get good gravity readings. It's my first batch so I made a few mistakes.

BradleyBrew said:

What kind of brew? whats the abv? I would not recommend bottling anything that is younger than 3 weeks old regardless if its been on the primary yeast cake or racked to a secondary vessel. 3 weeks I believe is about the minimum and higher bigger beers would be even longer. Unless you are doing some Hefe that should be drank young and early.

To answer your question... yes it looks normal

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It's an autumn amber from mwb I'll wait another week to bottle.

I soaked all my bottles in oxy clean then through them in the dishwasher on sani cycle. My plan was to throw them through again on sani just prior to bottling. Does that sound ok?

BradleyBrew said:

Also, I'm sure you are not but be careful with exposing your carboy to light. I've heard beer can skunk in a matter of minutes.. just fyi

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The carboy is in a temp controlled refrigerator I only opened it up for the pics.

Chuckabrewski said:

It's an autumn amber from mwb I'll wait another week to bottle.

I soaked all my bottles in oxy clean then through them in the dishwasher on sani cycle. My plan was to throw them through again on sani just prior to bottling. Does that sound ok?

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I'm not sure what "sani cycle" is on a dishwasher, but I think for good sensitization, you need to use a sanitizer like StarSan or Idopor (sp?). I sanitize my bottles just before bottling, put a very clean towel over the top of the case, and then turn the case upside down to drain them while I get set up to bottle.

Chuckabrewski said:

It's an autumn amber from mwb I'll wait another week to bottle.

I soaked all my bottles in oxy clean then through them in the dishwasher on sani cycle. My plan was to throw them through again on sani just prior to bottling. Does that sound ok?

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I do the dishwasher sanitize with heated dry. I've also just done an easy clean rinse with bottles previously cleaned and that has worked too. I like to shoot the easy clean in with a spray bottle, let them sit while I prep and then dump out the no rinse cleaner just before filling each bottle.

Chuckabrewski said:

Awesome I didn't get good gravity readings. It's my first batch so I made a few mistakes.

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You don't need to know the starting gravity. Just take two or three readings over a few days and if it's steady then you can consider bottling.

JimTheHick said:

You don't need to know the starting gravity. Just take two or three readings over a few days and if it's steady then you can consider bottling.

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Ok I'll do that. Is there a way to determine my abv if I didn't get a starting gravity?

You do need the starting gravity to estimate your ABV. But if you derived a large chunk of fermentable from extract and have the appropriate volume now in your fermentor odds are you can assume the estimated OG is pretty close. I know, it's not very gratifying but I screwed up my first gravity reading too.

Just round up to the nearest whole number!

I run my bottles through my dishwasher's "hot" cycle, no sanitize option on mine. Then I have a Vinator I got from Northern Brewers. I spritz all the bottles with Starsan and put them back on the dishwasher rack. Then I proceed to bottle. Everything is then within easy reach.

Chuckabrewski said:

How does this look for secondary? It was in primary for a week and tomorrow will be one week in secondary. I plan on bottling tomorrow. My question was does this look like a normal secondary that ready to bottle?

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It looks great. Nothing to worry about there.

I stay in primary for three weeks then bottle or keg.

-TK