Under gravity but still fermenting??

So last weekend I brewed a Liberty Cream Ale (extract) from Midwest Supplies. My original gravity was dead center of what the instructions said it was suppose to be (I don't have my notes in front of me so I don't remember what my OG was, but I know I was spot on). It sat 7 days in the primary and I wanted to transfer it to a secondary. I know I know, 7 days isn't long enough and the use of secondaries is an ongoing argument. But the reason I would like to do this is because I am going to add 2 vanilla beans and let it sit in the secondary for another 2 weeks.

Here's my problem. As of yesterday, the airlock activity had slowed quite a bit to where I would stare at it for a minute plus and wouldn't see anything. I know, a hydrometer reading is the only way to know if your beer is done. But I popped the lid off and there were still some CO2 bubbles I could see floating to the top. So I took a gravity reading at that time and I am sitting at a 1.009. My estimated FG is suppose to be a 1.010-1.012. So by the instructions, I'm below my final gravity, but with the presence of bubbles, should I leave it in the bucket still? Would I be OK to transfer it to the secondary so I can add my vanilla since the gravity is already as low as the instructions say?

check your gravity in a 2 more days and see if it's the same.that's the only way to be sure fermentation is done.

any reason you're against just tossing the vanilla into the primary?

dcp27 said:

any reason you're against just tossing the vanilla into the primary?

Click to expand...

No.......

But kind of. I only have two fermenting buckets. Both are full so if I put my Cream Ale into the secondary to add vanilla, then I can brew more beer! That sounds like a good enough excuse to me!

IMO, thats the only good excuse to secondary. well that and long-term aging. I'd wait til you plan on brewing before racking to give it as long as possible (you could even just pitch the new beer onto the yeast cake). with that said, older suggestions were to actually rack towards the end of primary so that the little bit of remaining fermentation would purge any headspace in secondary, so if you really wanted to rack today, it'd be ok to do so.