Transferring to secondary

So, I brewed my first batch in a couple of months a week and a half ago. The recipe is from Clone Brews and started out as the Bass clone. Since my LHBS didn't have Northdown hops, I used Northen Brewer (hey, it had "north" in the name) and I substituted WLP001 for Wyeast 1098. The directions are fairly clear with the recipe to transfer from primary to secondary "in 4-5 days".

My question: is it ever reasonable to expect a beer to finish in the primary that soon or are they telling me to transfer it intentionally early? I say early because the gravity is around 1.02 at this point probably and more to the point, it is bubbling every 8-9 seconds through the airlock.

Should I transfer now (day 10) or wait until the bubbling gets to the every 15 second mark? Does it matter?

Here is the recipe if anybody is interested:

Basstard Clone (sorta)

OG = 1.051
FG = ?
ABV = 5%

14 oz 40# Crystal Malt

Into 1.5 gallon water 160 degrees for 20 minutes. Sparged with 1/2 gallon water post boil.

6.0 lbs Muntons DME
1.0 oz of Northern Brewer (60 min)
1 tsp Gypsum (60 min)
.25 Challenger (15 min)
1 tsp Irish moss
.5 oz Northern Brewer (10 min)
.25 oz Northern Brewer (1 min)
White Labs WLP001

I just let mine sit in the primary for 7-10 days and then rack to secondary. All of my blow-off bubbles have been few and far between by day 10 (like one bubble every 2 minutes).

I'd say you're fine to transfer as long as your airlock is not going crazy, but I'm still pretty new to this and someone else will correct me if I'm wrong.

I asked that same question a few weeks ago. Everyone told me the smae thing. Let it go and transfer when the bubbling happens every minute or so and not before. I transfered some pumpkin ale two weeks ago, and it was still bubbling about every minute.

Since I transfered it to the secondary, there has been no activity at all.

I will bottle it Sunday, so hopefully, it will turn out. The concensus was very clear. Keep it in the primary until the bubbling is at least one minute. Im relatively new at this, so I am just passing along the advice that was given to me.

Joe

All those times are guidelines, each beer will behave differently depending on your unique conditions. Rack when it's ready, not when some guide tells you to.

TheJadedDog said:

All those times are guidelines, each beer will behave differently depending on your unique conditions. Rack when it's ready, not when some guide tells you to.

Click to expand...

I agree. You should learn to use your hydrometer to identify when the brew has fermented to about 75% of it's OG then it's ready...(1.050 / 75% = 1.012)..for racking.

I had an unusual thing happen last batch. It sat in primary for 2 weeks (just waiting to get around to it), and I'd never noticed any significant bubbling in the primary. I just assumed I wasn't really paying attention. When I racked to secondary, it seemed a bit sweet, and there wasn't much trub, but it's a new recipe. 3 days later, I'm downstairs looking at something totally different, and I notice it bubbling. I watch and count, and it's burping about every 10 seconds or so. I'm not panicing or anything, but it occurs to me that I may end up racking it again in a week if it seems to have a heavy, new trub working. Should I worry about this, or just bottle?

Sounds like it was stuck and you re-energized it by racking...looks like you are having a second primary...you'll have to rack again before bottling.

Oh, well...

Yeah, oh well. I'm still newb enough that I enjoy most aspects of this grand ol' hobby, even the ones I know I'll hate later. At least I know it's still gonna be beer.

Life is good.