Another First Brew Announcement!

Sorry to clog the board with yet another thread, but I just racked from primary to secondary and all is looking, and tasting, good! I had very little aeration while transferring, except a little in the beginning, but it was a solid flow with no bubbles the rest of the time! My only concerns are that I rushed my sanitation a little with the syphon. When I tasted it I was expecting something bad, this being my first try and all, but it came out tasting ok, a little hint of sweetness still, but it had beerish qualities, so I hope it fermented, my airlock stopped bubbling two days after pitching... I used an amber malt but it is very light in color already, after sitting for about a week.

I have one question, how long, now, should i wait to bottle? I feel it could be bottled already, but it only has been a week since I started. So I was thinking I would let it sit in the secondary and then bottle it on friday. Is this sufficient time? Taste is the only real issue with this first try, not clarity, so I think 5 days in the secondary would be fine...

Sorry for rambling, I'm just excited, can't wait to hear some opinions, hopefully you guys can tell me I'm good to bottle in 5 or so days, I'm impatient already!

I would go 5 days minimum in primary, 10 days minimum in secondary. Incomplete fermentation leads to exploding bottles and gysers.

SkewedAle said:

hopefully you guys can tell me I'm good to bottle in 5 or so days, I'm impatient already!

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Well, I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. I'm assuming you didn't use an hydrometer, so you really don't have any way of knowing if fermentation was really done when you racked. IMHO, if you don't use a hydrometer, then you really need to give it plenty of time...at least 1 week in primary and 2 in secondary. You could go ahead and bottle in five days and everything might be fine, but on the other hand, do you really want to risk losing an entire batch of beer just to be done 9 days earlier?

If you must bottle in 5 days, then get a hydrometer and make sure the SG is at least 1.015 or lower.

Well, the reason that I feel I can bottle so early is because there was no action in my air lock for at least 4 days before I racked into the secondary last night. There was little krausen remaing on the top, meaning that it had subsided back into the beer. I really believe that fermentation is complete, but on the other hand, never can be too sure...

That all sounds very logical and well thought out...except that a lack of bubbles in the airlock (particularly if you're using a plastic bucket) means absolutely nothing. Also, the presence of any krauzen at all suggests that fermentation has not been done for 4 days.

If you want to be 100% sure, take an SG reading before bottling. If you want to be almost sure, then let it go 2 weeks in the secondary. If you're comfortable just believing with little to support your belief, then go ahead and bottle after 5 days. Chances are you will be fine...it's just that for myself, "chances are" just isn't good enough when it comes to 5 gallons of beer.