Beer Dilemma! HELP A BREWER OUT

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WiscoMan

WiscoMan

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I brewed an IPA and started it in the primary. NO PROBLEMS

I transferred it to the secondary 8 days later (I know Revvy this was very early), threw in 1 oz of hops and a small amount of light oak chips.

I do not want to have the IPA resting with hops and oak chips for more then 7-10 days so WHAT DO I DO?

I have read a lot of people really don't promote tertiary vessels but I just want it out of all that crap to clear for a little bit longer.

Should I go ahead and do that or just bottle it? :confused:
 
WiscoMan said:
I brewed an IPA and started it in the primary. NO PROBLEMS

I transferred it to the secondary 8 days later (I know Revvy this was very early), threw in 1 oz of hops and a small amount of light oak chips.

I do not want to have the IPA resting with hops and oak chips for more then 7-10 days so WHAT DO I DO?

I have read a lot of people really don't promote tertiary vessels but I just want it out of all that crap to clear for a little bit longer.

Should I go ahead and do that or just bottle it? :confused:
Click to expand...

7-10 days for oak and dry hop is plenty of time and it should clear during that time as well so let it finish and then bottle
 
I agree, you should just bottle it instead of racking to a tertiary. If you used a verly low floc strain, then maybe a cold crash is in order (if you have the capabilites). Worst case scenario is you end up with a little more sediment in the bottles. Not a big deal if you pour it right and leave the sediment behind.
 
Cold crash for 2-3 days minimum after it's been secondaried for 3-5 days. Then bottle it. IPA's are fabulous young, so long as you hit terminal gravity, which I'd check a few days apart at this point and look for stability.
 
+1 to the above. And I'd like to comment that 8 days may or may not have been too early. The only time to rack to secondary is when the primary fermentation is done and the yeast do not use a calendar. That said, many people forego a secondary and in that case 8 days is "probably" too early to bottle.

RDWHAHB and get excited for your beer!
 
Homercidal said:
+1 to the above. And I'd like to comment that 8 days may or may not have been too early. The only time to rack to secondary is when the primary fermentation is done and the yeast do not use a calendar. That said, many people forego a secondary and in that case 8 days is "probably" too early to bottle.

RDWHAHB and get excited for your beer!
Click to expand...

Agreed with this. A lot depends on fermentation temperature. If your fermentation temperature is at 70F or above, chances are the full fermentation was complete well before 8 days (albeit with some fruity off flavors). If your fermentation was below 60F, 8 days might be too little. Ultimately, the best way to figure it out is gravity readings.
 
Also, secondary at a slightly warmer temp than your primary ferm was, say room temp if it's in the high 60's or low 70's. This will encourage whatever yeast are left to clean up the beer some.
 
Thank you for all the responses!

Tonight will be the 4th full day being in the secondary. I think this weekend I will attempt to cold crash it by fitting as much of the secondary in my mini fridge. I'll leave it there for a day and then siphon into the bottling bucket.

Here are some photos I just took. You can see there is a ton of hop mess everywhere in the beer. I don't want to get any of this into my bottling bucket.

** It is a small batch about 3.5 - 4 gallons

IMG_0710.jpg


IMG_0711.jpg
 
That is a ton of headspace. I'd be very careful about doing things like this in the future, you're asking for an infection.

EDIT: Another note, when you are ready to rack over, sanitize some panty hose or some other fine mesh "sock" and put over the racking cane, it'll really minimize the extra floating stuff passing to the bottling bucket.
 
twistr25 said:
That is a ton of headspace. I'd be very careful about doing things like this in the future, you're asking for an infection.

EDIT: Another note, when you are ready to rack over, sanitize some panty hose or some other fine mesh "sock" and put over the racking cane, it'll really minimize the extra floating stuff passing to the bottling bucket.
Click to expand...

I was going to say this as well. Use a twist tie and a paint strainer bag/muslin bag and just siphon slowly. You should see a lot of that gunk filter right out.
 
You can put something over the racking cane, although a good, long, really cold crash will drop the beer pretty darn clear.
 
I do have a large walk in fridge here where I'm living that I could cold crash my secondary in for a few days. Tonight is the 5th night with hops and oak, when should I cold crash and how long?

I only worry about getting my secondary down three full set of stairs to get to where the fridge is it. It will definitely shake things up a bit...
 
WiscoMan said:
I do have a large walk in fridge here where I'm living that I could cold crash my secondary in for a few days. Tonight is the 5th night with hops and oak, when should I cold crash and how long?

I only worry about getting my secondary down three full set of stairs to get to where the fridge is it. It will definitely shake things up a bit...
Click to expand...

The cold crash will settle everything out. Crash it for 3 days minimum, I say. Closer to a week and it should drop pretty darn clear.
 
The secondary has been placed in the fridge now. It was very hard to keep it still while walking down three flights of stairs but I did the best I could. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

If I do a long cold crash, will that take ALL the yeast out of suspension and prevent bottle carbonation?
 
WiscoMan said:
The secondary has been placed in the fridge now. It was very hard to keep it still while walking down three flights of stairs but I did the best I could. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

If I do a long cold crash, will that take ALL the yeast out of suspension and prevent bottle carbonation?
Click to expand...

No. Never had an issue bottling. Just be patient, as always, and give it 3 weeks plus ample fridge-time afterwards.
 

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