Moving and HAVE to take my primary along...help!

Has anyone had to do this before? I just didnt think through the timing and I have a Black IPA in the primary and I have to move next weekend. It will have been in the primary for almost two and a half weeks, and I'm really worried about too much sloshing. I know that it probably wont ruin it, but how much will it really mess with the resulting beer?

Any suggestions on the best way to situate the carboy to reduce agitation?

If it's been in primary for 2.5 weeks and you're moving next weekend, might it be finished fermenting by then? If so, I'd rack it over to a 5 gallon carboy and try to fill it right to the top, then close it up with an undrilled stopper just before you head out. No head space = no sloshing. Probably want to crack the stopper now and then just in case, but it should work. Make sure you keep it well covered so light doesn't get to it either.

A keg would probably be better if you have that capability.

I generally like to wait around 4 weeks on an IPA but in your situation, I'd make an exception. You could just bottle/keg it at the 3 week mark, or somewhere close. You're still gonna end up with a great beer.

I'd bottle or keg it. You want it sealed in an airtight environment where there is nothing but beer and co2 present. I wouldn't even trust it in a carboy.

i just moved 10 miles. had to take 2 five gallon batches with me. i have no reason to believe that the beer has been affected.

I'm curious... did you know you were moving before you started the batch?

Not very fond of the carboy idea either -they aren't designed to hold pressure and there WILL be dissolved CO2 in that beer -I'm not sure how much pressure it would actually generate, but a failure would be catastrophic (not just to the beer -though that IS the most important thing- but to whatever the carboy is near when it lets go or cracks). If you can't put it in a keg, rack it to another bucket and seal it if its not ready to be bottled.

i knew i was moving, but had to brew while i had the chance (my job gets in the way). plus i had false belief that i could finish both of them in time.

p.s. the carboy will not explode. the top would blow off if that much pressure built up, but an airlock prevents pressure build up.

I moved with a beer that had been in my primary for about 2 weeks and then my secondary carboy for 3 weeks. I too wanted to brew and bottle before moving, but life didn't work with my plan. On top of that, it was quite a long move - 2 days from NC to TX. It was a golden belgian oat ale that turned out fantastic. Let this ease some of your worry, I think your beer will be fine.

I moved a few months ago. With me came 2 primary buckets both with 5 gallons in them and about 8 cases of beer. One thing I wish I had done was transfered to 2ndary.
One turned out fine but the other wich was a BlackIPA has just now cleared in the bottle. Both had reached final gravity before I moved but I also had no timeto bottle before moving. I'm not the slow, steady driver so they got adgitated but only the BIPA was really affected. Very cloudy at bottling, it was named Mud by a friend of mine

P.S. It took 1 whole truckload for all of my beer, beermaking equipment

If it has been in the primary for 2 1/2 weeks it is probably done. Check the gravity and bottle it before you move. That would be the best solution IMO.

I favor the bottling option.

Great excuse to buy a corny if you're not already kegging.

I'm also gong to vote for the bottling or kegging option. If you do keg, put it in keg today, carb the whole week, then you'll have homebrew the first night at your new place.

I'm in the "bottle it" group! If the beer is nearly three weeks old, why not bottle it?

Yooper said:

I'm in the "bottle it" group! If the beer is nearly three weeks old, why not bottle it?

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Thanks for the replies everyone! The problem with bottling it (I do not keg yet) is that I wanted to dry hop it for about 10 days before I bottled it. Maybe I can rack to secondary and dry hop it today and bottle on Friday or Saturday next week (I move on Saturday). Transporting I think would work if I left it in my carboy with the airlock on, but it just makes me nervous.

Dang, why didn't I think this through better? A day off work and supplies called my name too strongly.

andrewcoopergt said:

Thanks for the replies everyone! The problem with bottling it (I do not keg yet) is that I wanted to dry hop it for about 10 days before I bottled it. Maybe I can rack to secondary and dry hop it today and bottle on Friday or Saturday next week (I move on Saturday). Transporting I think would work if I left it in my carboy with the airlock on, but it just makes me nervous.

Dang, why didn't I think this through better? A day off work and supplies called my name too strongly.

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So another part of the equation...it's really more of an Imperial black ipa...OG about 1.085. So I'm worried about it really being vey done at the almost three week mark.

More thoughts? Thanks all!

Even if you bottle, do you ever secondary beers? Do you ever want to keg? Do you ever need somewhere to put 5g of beer between primary and bottling?

If you said yes to any of those, buy a keg. Even if you don't ever see owning a draft dispenser, you'll find multiple uses for the keg in your brewery.

Rundownhouse said:

Even if you bottle, do you ever secondary beers? Do you ever want to keg? Do you ever need somewhere to put 5g of beer between primary and bottling?

If you said yes to any of those, buy a keg. Even if you don't ever see owning a draft dispenser, you'll find multiple uses for the keg in your brewery.

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Yeah I see what you mean. That's something I'm going to have to look into.

While it would definitely be easier to bottle now, I just wanted to chime in. I recently moved 500 miles with beer in glass carboys (my kegs were full, and I was too lazy to bottle). However, everything survived just fine. Just be careful with excessive sloshing around. One of mine was even a sour beer and it has yet to show signs of acetic formation - but only time will tell. Yours is an IPA, so drink it quick.

Rundownhouse said:

Even if you bottle, do you ever secondary beers? Do you ever want to keg? Do you ever need somewhere to put 5g of beer between primary and bottling?

If you said yes to any of those, buy a keg. Even if you don't ever see owning a draft dispenser, you'll find multiple uses for the keg in your brewery.

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If buying a keg, you're also going to need to buy the CO2 and the regulator so that you can purge and seat the lid. May not be an investment he wants to make right now.

PseudoChef said:

If buying a keg, you're also going to need to buy the CO2 and the regulator so that you can purge and seat the lid. May not be an investment he wants to make right now.

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Why do you need to purge a keg but not a carboy? Just to seat the lid? Is a keg lid going to seal worse than a rubber stopper in a carboy? I guess you can jam a stopper in until its the sword in the stone, but you can also bend the feet on a keg lid to get a tighter seal, use keg lube, etc.

No doubt if he's got a 5g carboy and solid stopper already, then you can argue that a keg is not a necessary investment. And you can definitely argue that even if all he's got is his current primary set up, his beer may be fine. But I don't think there's much argument that a corny keg is a superior 5g container to a 5g carboy, and if he's looking for a better solution than what he's got, buying a 5g carboy and a stopper is probably not as good as buying a 5g corny.

a corny wouldn't cost much more than another carboy, and if you factor in a more or less guarantee that a rather expensive batch of beer is going to make it there fine, I think it would be a justifiable purchase. Worst case scenario, buy a keg, transport the beer in that, then bottle it once you get there and sell the keg

I put a 5 gallon carboy of dubbel in my passenger seat, strapped it in with the seatbelt, and drove the 3 miles to my new house. bottled it up a few weeks later, drank them a few months later, everything was fine.

BenjaminBier said:

I put a 5 gallon carboy of dubbel in my passenger seat, strapped it in with the seatbelt, and drove the 3 miles to my new house. bottled it up a few weeks later, drank them a few months later, everything was fine.

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Well this has been more than helpful. I went ahead and dry hopped today and I will more than likely bottle before I move next week.

Sounds like a corny would be a good investment in the near future but will have to wait a bit bc of moving expenses.

The one hard part was walking it to and from the car, about 50 yards plus stairs. it was sloshing around more walking than during the drive.

My physicist buddy suggested walking a little irregularly, do a little stop/start or a little side-step every once in a while. it will break the natural rhythm that makes the old sloshy slosh. I tried it and it seems to work.

Rundownhouse said:

Why do you need to purge a keg but not a carboy? Just to seat the lid? Is a keg lid going to seal worse than a rubber stopper in a carboy? I guess you can jam a stopper in until its the sword in the stone, but you can also bend the feet on a keg lid to get a tighter seal, use keg lube, etc.

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Purging a keg is just insurance against oxidation. You want to purge the keg because it's full of O2, and racking into it can cause oxidation (which is also another argument against racking to secondary fermentors/bright vessels unless you have a method to purge those as well). You don't need to do this with a carboy because prior to fermentation you want oxygen, but the actual fermentation itself is going to get rid of all that oxygen, giving you a CO2 rich environment.

Dogphish said:

p.s. the carboy will not explode. the top would blow off if that much pressure built up, but an airlock prevents pressure build up.

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That is true dogphish, but they were talking about SEALING up the carboy, not using an airlock -and THEN it COULD generate a bit of pressure. Or did I misunderstand?

PseudoChef said:

Purging a keg is just insurance against oxidation...

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No, I got all that, I'm just saying that some people are telling him to transfer to a 5g carboy, and I'm pointing out that it's basically an inferior 5g container to a keg. If he's going to transfer the beer at all, might as well package it, whether that be in a keg or bottles.

Rundownhouse said:

No, I got all that, I'm just saying that some people are telling him to transfer to a 5g carboy, and I'm pointing out that it's basically an inferior 5g container to a keg. If he's going to transfer the beer at all, might as well package it, whether that be in a keg or bottles.

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Ah, gotcha.

I was suggesting the carboy because I figured he'd have one already. I agree that a keg is better. Especially if he can purge it with CO2. But most of us don't have those things and when you're about to move, the last thing you want to do is buy stuff.