Fermentation

So I boiled my first batch. Brewers best extract iPa. Put it in the primary at 6pm last Saturday. Bubbler was working hard from Sunday night until yesterday(one bubble per second). Today I'm seeing one bubble about every 15 seconds. When should I rack into secondary?
Thanks in advance

Do you need to rack to secondary? I.E. are you dry hopping? A lot of people will argue and say secondary fermentation isn't necessary. I've read many threads on here promoting a 30 day primary and bottling/kegging after 30 days.

Any time I dry hop I do 1 week in primary, 7-10 day dry hop and bottle condition for 3 weeks. All but a couple of experimental batches have turned out excellent..just my 2 cents.

Leave it where it is for at least another week. leaving it on the yeast allows the yeast to clean up some undesirable flavors they created during fermentation such as diacetyl, and acetaldehyde (butter and apple flavors).

If you move the beer off the yeast too soon it can take a long time to clean up and might not at all.

Calder said:

Leave it where it is for at least another week. leaving it on the yeast allows the yeast to clean up some undesirable flavors they created during fermentation such as diacetyl, and acetaldehyde (butter and apple flavors).

If you move the beer off the yeast too soon it can take a long time to clean up and might not at all.

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Exactly, leave in primary at least 2 weeks regardless if you are dryhopping or not, I assume you are if you brewed an IPA

Not dry hopping but most people I talked to said primary until bubbler goes quiet then secondary for three or four weeks to clear the brew and get better taste. Made sense to me because racking to secondary would leave trub behind. I am thinking of keging because I have all the equipment except for korny so I won't need to bottle condition.

Don't go by the airlock. Things are still happening while there aren't any bubbles. Don't do anything until 2 weeks

You will hear different opinions on this matter, but I think you'll find the majority of people on this site will tell you it's completely unnecessary to employ a secondary unless you are dry-hopping or something along those lines. If you aren't, it's really just extra work and one more opportunity to infect your brew, for no perceivable benefit.

If I don't rack to secondary will I lose any volume. Also, my home brew store owner said when I rack to secondary, fill to five gallons with water. Any thoughts on this?

bel said:

If I don't rack to secondary will I lose any volume. Also, my home brew store owner said when I rack to secondary, fill to five gallons with water. Any thoughts on this?

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You won't lose any volume. As far as adding water, that is the last thing I would do. What is the reasoning behind that?

Don't add water! If you do make sure you boil and let it cool however no real reason to do that. Sure it would give you more volume but It makes that volume thinner and adds unneeded risks.

I like to use a secondary to allow the brew to settle out. Plus if you get busy and can't find time to bottle/keg the secondary allows for more flexibility of when you do it since a majority of the inactive yeast has been removed.

Good luck!

I dont understand why people havnt mentioned it but you know when or when not to rack by measuring the specific gravity. If you bought a kit it should have said that and give you ranges for start and finish. People who talk about infection by going to a secondary worry WAY to much. If you sanitize there shouldnt be a problem. By that point youd have to almost try to infect it. If anything oxidation would be the big concern. I transfer to a secondary so i can use the primary for something else really (that and i like getting things pretty clear so leaving things behind from the primary is nice). I wouldnt top off after fermentation but thats just me (risk infection a bit more and youre just watering down the beer at that point). Im kind of surprised someone from a homebrew shop would recommend that actually.

bel said:

If I don't rack to secondary will I lose any volume. Also, my home brew store owner said when I rack to secondary, fill to five gallons with water. Any thoughts on this?

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Absolutely not! This is not good advice, for several reasons: It will thin the beer, lower the OG and alcohol, possibly introduce bacteria, definitely introduce oxygen...enough said.

You will lose more volume by transferring to a secondary, as well as all the risks others have already mentioned. The only real advantage of going to a secondary is that you may clear the beer a bit more. If you do this, it's best to cold condition it.

Good luck. Feel free to talk/chat to me about this tomorrow right here.

bel said:

Also, my home brew store owner said when I rack to secondary, fill to five gallons with water. Any thoughts on this?

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My thought is, whatever he tells you, ask about it here before you actually do it.

I've got a batch of Northern English in the chamber right now from an AG brew session 5 days ago. Pitched rehydrated Windsor in it and set it to go at 67*. It bubbled like mad the first 36 hours and then slowed to no bubbles by day 3. I intend to leave it alone for another 15-16 days in the primary then bottle after checking FG.

Don't add water. Let it ride 3 weeks in the primary, siphon it into the bottling bucket, batch prime and bottle it. Wait another 4 weeks, chill for 2-3 days and enjoy.

I agree with above post on freeing up the primary, allowing a bigger window of opportunity for bottling and clarity. I have used a secondary on all my batches and have yet to run into infection.

Thanks for all the good advice. Sounds like primary/secondary is more of a preference than anything else. This is all new to me. I have read a lot of material on home brewing and was actually shocked how simple it has been. I think I will wait a while longer and then rack to secondary for clarity purposes. Plus. Primary is plastic and I'd like to see my brew. Once again thanks for all the input. I'll be back with more questions I'm sure when its time to keg.