Fermentation started up in the secondary after 2 weeks, please help!

Maybe this should be posted in the beginner forums, terribly sorry if that is the case.

OK, first full five gallon batch, using a 5 gallon carboy as a secondary. Belgian Wit with Safbrew T-58. The first week was spent in the primary (Bucket) and it has spent 2 weeks in the secondary.

The second day in the primary I had a steady stream of bubbles that tapered off on the third or fourth day. Transferred to secondary on day 7 and a big yeast pellet and lots of krausen were left behind. It has sat for two weeks with very little activity (dare I say none). I went down to look at it today (day 20) and I have bubbles on the surface, small period-sized yeast colonies and one bubble every minute through the air lock.

Since this is a beer that can be finished in 4-6 weeks I want to bottle it tomorrow. Or not. I plan to take a hydrometer reading tomorrow. Before I do, are there any suggestions or experience with this? Maybe wild yeast infection? This is my first time using a secondary (and thus the secondary was new and sanitized thoroughly before use by me).

Thank you in advance!

Most likely you transferred the beer too early. You said 7 days primary but there was probably at least a day or so of lag time time which translates I only a few days of actual active fermentation.

Did you take a gravity to confirm complete fermentation before transferring?

The beer will be fine just allow the fermentation process to compete

If you did verify stable gravity and transferred and everything was fine for a few days and then started up again there may be an infection to consider....

Rely on your hydrometer, not what you see in the carboy. Like duboman says, take a gravity reading and let it stabilize for a few days before you bottle.

Many things can make an airlock bubble. More fermentation, change in atmospheric pressure, change in temperature, infection and probably more.

The only way to know if fermentation is still happening is to take hydrometer readings.

I would wager you have some yeast rafts and some off gassing and that everything is OK and you are ready to bottle.

This is all good advice, I will take my hydrometer readings and leave this a bit longer. Future batches will spend much more time in the primary. Thank you for your timely responses.

Joekxp said:

This is all good advice, I will take my hydrometer readings and leave this a bit longer. Future batches will spend much more time in the primary. Thank you for your timely responses.

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Just keep in mind that you cannot judge anything by a number of set days, your hydrometer is your best friend and should be used when making all decisions regarding what your fermentation is doing and where it's at. All beer will ferment differently, some may take week, some may take screw days and some may take longer