What should beer look like in secondary

I transferred yesterday and expected a frothy layer or something going on near the surface... It was in primary one week and transferred after I made sure the fg was reached and not changing...now it's completely calm with nothing really going on in there, this is my first batch and i'm not sure if thats normal...

charles

charlesnj said:

I transferred yesterday and expected a frothy layer or something going on near the surface... It was in primary one week and transferred after I made sure the fg was reached and not changing...now it's completely calm with nothing really going on in there, this is my first batch and i'm not sure if thats normal...

charles

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thats why most of us don't even bother with secondarys. There is really no purpose for it other than may be long term cold crashing for fruther clarifying/lagering. With every transfer you just introduce risk of oxidation/contamination. Ditch the kit instructions and read this forum daily.

Yes normal. A second fermentation doesn't occur in the secondary fermenter... it's just called a secondary fermenter cause it's the second one you move the beer into.

i only did it so i could free up the bucket for some st pattys day stout

Next time buy a new bucket, they're cheap. But a beer put in secondary should be calm. It's to clear the beer, so there shouldn't be much if any action, although if you move too soon without waiting til fermentation was truly over than there could possibly be a new krausen forming. But at the most you might just see some yeast rafts floating on the surface; yeast that gets buoyed to the surface by co2. Nothing to worry about.