Help! Did I totally screw up?

So I'm following this recipe here, and I just racked from primary to secondary. I took a hydrometer reading, and It came out at about 1.043 (it was 1.074 when I went into the primary). It's been in the secondary for a few hours now, and there's nothing happening, no bubbles in the airlock at all. It seems that everything has stopped at about 42% attenuation!

What should I do? Most people said they only get about a 2-3 point drop in their secondary, which would leave me at 1.040 (not much improvement!)

Should I wait and stop freaking out? Should I pitch more yeast? Did I go to secondary too soon? Why did the bugs stop fermenting?

Help! If anyone can give me any answers, that would be greatly appreciated.

You might get the gravity to drop a little in the secondary. But the fact is, you took the beer off of the yeast, therefore not allowing it to ferment to where it should have.

How long was the beer in the primary? With a gravity that high, I would have let the beer sit until my hydrometer read 1.012 (at least), especially if that recipe called for a FG of 1.010. As far as I understand, the purpose of a secondary is not to let the beer ferment. It's to allow the beer to clear. You remove the beer from the yeast cake and allow the rest that is still in suspension settle out. It will (according to believers) give you clearer beer. You may see some action when you transfer from primary to secondary because you have stirred up the yeast and caused them to become active again. However, the purpose of secondary is simply to clear the beer, not to ferment it like in the primary.

I'm not really sure what can be done at this point as I've never really dealt with this issue. I would say maybe pitch more yeast, but I'm not sure if that would be the best option. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer that.

I don't use hydrometer readings...
just let it clear as per the 1 2 3 method and yuo'll be golden...


***BTW 1 2 3 is a minimum for clearing.. if it needs finishing let her cook....

just keep light out of the carboy and keep the airlock full... oh yeah do the obligatory sniff-sniff every day... it'll all be good...

and what temps where you fermenting at, what type of yeast did you use, can we see the recipe, and how long was it in primary...these things are usually good to give so people can help ya out

I just think that the main issue is that even if he lets it sit in the secondary for two weeks (following the 1-2-3 method), the gravity is only going to drop a few points, right? So if it only drops to 1.040, 1.038 at the most, there's no way he can possibly bottle without pretty much guaranteeing bottle bombs...maybe I'm missing something though?

Recipe

update: So it's bubbling at about 8 bpm (bubbles per minute), whereas it was only going at 6 bpm the last day it was in the primary. It's seemed to pick up pretty nicely, so I think I'm just gonna let 'er sit...

If it stops after a few more days i'll consider re-pitching, but seeing as how its fermenting just fine now, I think i'll put my faith in the 1-2-3.

AgoristBrewer said:

update: So it's bubbling at about 8 bpm (bubbles per minute), whereas it was only going at 6 bpm the last day it was in the primary. It's seemed to pick up pretty nicely, so I think I'm just gonna let 'er sit...

If it stops after a few more days i'll consider re-pitching, but seeing as how its fermenting just fine now, I think i'll put my faith in the 1-2-3.

Click to expand...

1-2-3 has been pretty much discounted as a good standard for homebrewing. Read up on fermentation time. If your beer is still fermenting in primary, you don't want to move it. Your beer will be seriously under-attenuated.

I agree with the bad advice comment.

timgman said:

I don't use hydrometer readings...
just let it clear as per the 1 2 3 method and yuo'll be golden...

***BTW 1 2 3 is a minimum for clearing.. if it needs finishing let her cook....

Click to expand...

How do you do one without the other? Bad advice.

1-2-3 is not something that any serious homebrewer follows. The simple truth is this:

Leave the beer on the yeast until it's done, then give it a few extra days for the yeast to clean up fermentation byproducts. Usually, that's anything between 10 and 21 days.

Then, if you want, you can transfer to a secondary, but unless you have a good reason to do so, that's optional. Leave it there however long you want (usually, until the beer is nice and clear).

Then, bottle and leave the bottles alone for 2-3 weeks so that they can carbonate.

So...

I guess I really did screw up by transferring to the secondary, but the question is "what do I do now". Can I salvage this in any way? Should I re-pitch?

There's more fermentation going on now than there was in the primary. If I leave it alone until that fermentation stops, I should be pretty well attenuated, right?

P.S. Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I've really learned a lot from these forums.

How long was it in primary before you racked it off? Was there a layer of yeast on the bottom of the fermenter? What temp are fermenting at? Can you warm it up a little? I would add more yeast until you let it sit and figure out where the gravity is. When in doubt, leave it alone.

Eastside