Too early into secondary?

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mezman

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I brewed last Thursday and tonight I racked my beer to the secondary. I didn't take a SG reading before starting the rack because, well, I don't really have a good reason. I guess I figured that 5 days in the primary was long enough. However, the beer has been at the bottom range of the yeast's optimum fermentation temp (about 67 degrees) so I guess it has not been fermenting as fast as I'm used to. Once I moved it to the secondary I got curious and took a SG reading. It was only 1.036!! So now I'm wondering if I took the beer away from it's lovely floating yeast mat too soon since it still has a lot of work to do.

So, now that I'm in the secondary, what am I looking at? I'll check for reforming krausen tomorrow morning, but am I in danger of a stuck ferment? Are there other problems I should be on the lookout for? Or should I just chill and let the beer do it's thing for a few weeks?

Thanks.
 
Well, depending on how big your beer was......What were the fermentables?
I rack to primary when krausen falls, no matter what the gravity is, Was the beer you tested really saturated, I mean are you sure you got an accurate reading? Did you use a starter? I think you should go 2 or 3 weeks depending on how big the beer was. Did you tast it was it really sweet?
See what the gravity is in a couple of weeks. You could try raising the temp a bit but I would'nt go past 70
 
I would re-pitch the yeast. You racked too early and there isn't much else that would get it going again.
 
It may not be as bad as I feared. I checked on it again this morning and there was already a two inch thick krausen on it.

My OG was 1.055 so it was about half way there when I racked it to the secondary. I did use a starter back when I got it going first and had activity within a few hours.

So David, should I still think about re-pitching, even though there's some decent krausen on it? Or leave it be in the secondary for a few weeks? Thanks.
 
I would just leave it as is for a couple of week, then bottle. No doubt others will recommend reracking. It is one that could go either way, and on those I like to minimize intervention in the process.
 
don't bother repitching. The yeast will finish up. Stuck fermentation just doesn't happen that often from my experience unless its a high gravity brew. Patience. :D
 
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