When to rack to secondary?

This is my first brew - a hefe-weizen - and I boiled it up Sunday before last. After the boil I stupidly poured the wort, trub, and all right into my primary fermenter. I now know I should have left as much of the trub as possible in the kettle, but didn't. So now it's been fermenting for eight days. Real active fermentation didn't begin until Wednesday, and Saturday it started to slow down.

During active fermentation I was getting maybe one bubble every two seconds through the airlock. Now, on the eighth day since the boil, I am getting a bubble every twenty or thirty seconds. The big krauesen is gone and most of the surface is bubble-free, but maybe 30% is still covered with CO2 bubbles.

My question is, is it time to rack to secondary or wait for the bubbling to appear to have completely stopped? Is that the trub fermenting and I need to get it off of there as soon as possible? Since it's sort of screwed up anyway should I just let it go in the primary all the way to the end? Help!!

In case it matters, primary is a 6.5 gallon carboy and I would be racking to a 5 gallon.

Thanks,

Hucko

I wouldn't bother with a secondary for a hefeweizen. Secondary is just for clearing the beer and doing some bulk aging. Neither of which is desirable for a hefe. I just do two weeks in primary and then right into the bottle.

And don't worry about getting all that trub from the kettle in there, lots of guys do that. Next time try pouring it through a sanitized kitchen strainer, that will get most of it.

You need to check fermentation with a hydrometer. When you get the same reading three days in a row, it's time to rack. As far as dumping everything into the fermentor, it's nothing to worry about.

Thank you both. I know about three consecutive days with no change in hydrometer reading, but I figure it doesn't pay to even take the first reading until bubbling completely stops, is this right? And in this case, when that happens I imagine I would rack straight to the bottling bucket and into the bottles, correct?

Also, how much corn sugar to use for a hefe? 3/4 cup boiled for a 5 gallon batch sound about right?

Thanks Again,

Hucko