Secondary Fermentation

Should I be seeing any activity in the airlock? Taget gravity was reached in primary.

Not really. Secondary fermentation is pretty much a misnomer. It is more for settling and melding of flavors then it is fermenting.


loop

The secondary should not be underestimated, just because nothing is apparent. It makes a hell of a difference in your final brew. Things are happening beneath the airlock--you just can't see it.

gaelone said:

The secondary should not be underestimated, just because nothing is apparent. It makes a hell of a difference in your final brew. Things are happening beneath the airlock--you just can't see it.

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Absolutely true. I did about 7 or 8 batches before I used a secondary and it was probably the biggest improvement I ever made to my extract brews.

Interesting. My extract kit doesn't call for a secondary fermentation (true brew red ale). I brewed friday night and by sunday night I was getting few bubbles through the airlock. Should I move this to a second carboy for the remainder of the week or does that not get me anything?

alfista said:

Interesting. My extract kit doesn't call for a secondary fermentation (true brew red ale). I brewed friday night and by sunday night I was getting few bubbles through the airlock. Should I move this to a second carboy for the remainder of the week or does that not get me anything?

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If you just started getting bubbles last night, then you for sure wouldn't want to move it to secondary yet...you don't want to do that until your fermentation is near complete.

Most recipes say to leave it in the primary for at least a week. You can leave it in longer if you're still seing lots of activity. At least 4 - 5 bubbles a minute. Just don't let the beer sit on the trub for more than 24 days or so. After you see all the signs of complete fermentation rack it into another carboy. You can let it sit for a couple of weeks. I'm doing a Belgian dubbel right now. It was in the primary for 12 or 13 days, now it's sitting in the secondary. I'm going out of town, so it's going to sit there until at least the 25th. Then to the bottles where it will sit for about a month before I sample it. Some people have told me that it should bottle condition for up to 4 months.

alfista said:

Interesting. My extract kit doesn't call for a secondary fermentation (true brew red ale). I brewed friday night and by sunday night I was getting few bubbles through the airlock. Should I move this to a second carboy for the remainder of the week or does that not get me anything?

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yeah, most instructions for beginners don't make any mention of the benefits of secondary conditioning/fermentation. Or some of the pass the "Bottling" as secondary. But the beer really will age better as a "whole"... it's such a simple way to make such a marked improvement in your beer.