question about krausen

I've got my 2nd batch in the primary. It's been there one week today and is still bubbling at the rate of one bubble every three seconds. I'm wondering if I should rack it to the secondary or let it sit for a couple more days.

After doing a search, it seems that most people think its ok to rack as long as the krausen has fallen. Does "fallen" mean that's it has settled back from its high point or mostly gone?

Any other advice on this situation is greatly appreciated.

Fallen means fallen to the bottom, from what I understand. A bubble every three seconds seems pretty active to me.

Tommy

I wait until it's fallen. The "krausen ring" around the side will still be there, but when you are looking at it from the top you don't see any sort of krausen.

If you are using a plastic bucket, I would not recommend opening the bucket a lot just to check. If you are using a glass carboy or better bottle, you should be able to see by looking at it from the outside.

Perfect - thanks!

I'm using a glass carboy, and I go and look at it several times a day

I'll wait for it to fall before moving it to the secondary. It's funny, you get to the point where you know a bunch of the answers from reading, but this is one of those things you need to see first.

Patience is the hardest thing in this hobby and about the only thing that can't be purchased or fabricated. As difficult as it is I always give my ales about 2 weeks in the primary. The krausen does tell an important part of the story, but it still is only a part of the story. Steady hydrometer readings over the course of a few days tell the rest of the story. Some people like to rack to the secondary while it is still actively fermenting in order to insure that all of the air is purged out by the resulting CO2. I am not one of them though. I find that the act of racking in and of itself is enough to cause some dissolved CO2 to come out of solution to purge the head space of air.

John