Can I move a fermenting Brew

Most of my questions are usually answered by searching thru the forum, but I haven't come across this one.

I miss calculated days.

I have a Wheat Stout Ale that is about a week in primary fermentation. I won't be able to secondary it until at least 2 more days. The problem is that I am moving 14 days from now to a new house. I won't be able to bottle a few days prior to that.

So what should I do? Should I bottle it only a week into secondary.
Or is it safe to move the carboy and let it ferment further?

Thanks for help,

jt

Hi JT

Don't bottle it until at least a week after fermentation stops (or take your FG reading to see if it's all fermented out).

You may want to let your beer finish fermenting in the primary for another week. Then skip the secondary fermentation and bottle it next weekend.

Cheers,
Awfers

Thanks for the quick response. What about moving it in the fermenter to the new house? Is that too much disturbance?

If you really have to move it, then you can "gently" move it to the new house.

When I say gently, I mean that putting the yeast back into suspension by gently swirling the fermenter is generally considered ok (breweries and home brewers do this to kick-start a stuck fermentation. We used CO2 to gently blow yeast back into suspension, after removing the bottom half of the yeast cake with all the sludge, from the bottom of the conical on a stuck fermentation, worked a charm)

I would try and avoid driving on bumpy roads that will "shake" your beer a lot.


A couple of worries:

If you are racking to secondary and then moving immediately, flood the secondary with CO2 to avoid aeration / oxidation when you move.

Light

Temperature changes

Beer spilling out of the airlock



Safest bet : stop worrying and bottle it

I doubt there would be any problems if you bottled only 1 week into the secondary. A lot of home brewers skip the secondary and bottle from the primary (me included in the summer months).


Cheers,
Awfers

Thanks. I think i will check the sg a few days prior to leaving and decide from there.