racked to secondary too soon?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
Boston, MA
I just racked an IPA to the secondary, may be too soon... I pulled the cover off the plastic bucket and there was about 3'' of crap stuck to the side , but a good amount of froth still on top of the brew, I racked to the secondary, but i wonder about what effects this may have on the final product. OG 1.08, been in primary 6 days at 65 F :confused:
 
I'm relatively new at homebrewing, so take my advice at your own discretion...it sounds like you may have racked to secondary a bit early (sounds like your fermentation wasn't quite complete), but you should still be OK. What kind of activity were you getting in your primary's airlock? I would wait for things to calm down in the secondary, then rack it to another carboy/bucket (to get it off of any yeast cake or trub that might be sitting in the bottom of your secondary) and let it sit for a while (until you get little or no activity in your airlock). Once you're there, you should be good to go for bottling. If anything, the additonal conditioning should help your brew clear up some more and allow more time for your trub to settle to the bottom. As they say, Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Home Brew

Just some advice from your friendly neighborhood noob...if anyone has a better idea or if I'm way off here, feel free to correct me.


-Josh
 
Long Live Liver said:
I just racked an IPA to the secondary, may be too soon... OG 1.08, been in primary 6 days at 65 F :confused:

Youll be alright. you might have more trub in the secondary then normal but your beer should be fine. Just dont bottle too early! give it id say at least 4 weeks in the secondary.

i was just reading about how one English brewery drops thier beer 24 hours after the yeast starts to ferment; i.e. mid-primary!. They also purposly aerate the beer which gives it a certain "character" (whatever, i dont recomend doing that!)

you could use a tertiery or third vessel to clear the beer after a few weeks, but i dont think thats necessary.
 
Sasquatch said:
You'll be fine... but why did you rack when you did?
Spent 1 hour sanitizing everything, getting ready, etc, can't see in the bucket till I pulled the lid off... It had been 6 days so I thought it was ok, till i saw the thick foam still on top, decided not to turn back at that point:mug:
 
did you still have airlock activity?
fwiw, i would've cracked the bucket open (or just looked through the airlock hole) BEFORE sanitizing all that equipment to avoid that problem... but i bet you've figured that out by now
 
You can actually see inside a bucket if you take a reading lamp and put it directly on the lid of the bucket for a few minutes. It takes a minute or two of studying but you can differentiate between kreusen and wort/beer.
 
Back
Top