Very Slow Fermentation

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Micah

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Jan 20, 2010
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Orlando,Florida
Ok. Ill be honest i had a little too much to drink the other night and some friends were over and i decided to rack my nut brown ale to the secondary no problem there except that i was only 4 days from start it dis stop blowing off and had slowed quite a bit. but now its really slow 1min 50+ seconds between bubbles the temp inside my house was about 68-ish and dropping in the low60's high 50's at night. what should i do i dont think its done but why so slow should i add more yeast?
Thanks
 
First off, you should be using a hydrometer to check your beer and not relying on the airlock. That thing is the devil. Remember that.

Now...some beers just take awhile to ferment. Have you tried checking the gravity? Four days was definately rushing it. As a rule of thumb, you should leave all of your beers in primary for at LEAST two weeks.
 
I know I should have waited I almost always give it about two weeks but... After something like 10 dunkelweisens it seemed like a good idea. No I usually don't test got gravity until I bottle where I live in Florida we have excessive humidity and that means mold so I don't even mess with it untill it looks ready is this something I should practice as I have never tested gravity between primary and secondary?
 
You should always be taking a gravity reading. If you're concerned about the humidity, then should buy a wine thief. Either way, gravity readings are, in my opinion, the most important piece of information you can have about your beer. Plus, it'll get you away from using secondarys. Secondary is a waste of time and space unless you're adding fruit/coffee/bourbon/etc. or have a big beer that needs extended aging.
 
I have a thief ill give it a shot. I thought the whole secondary fermentation thing was a common practice, I didnt do it at first but started to do it pretty regurally now and kinda like the results i get a much cleaner beer and its also more clear with less sediment in the bottle.
 
That same clearness can be had by letting your beer sit in primary for 4 weeks and cold crashing for 24 hours before bottling. Try it, I think you'll find it's a lot less work.
 
Oh im sure its less work ill give it a shot with something cheeper next time it will just be hard to kick the habit. the tempature in Florida is pretty high the origional batches i brewed early on kinda had brothy sort of not quite off flavors but since ive been doing the 2ndary thing it seems to work for me i actually did a test on a batch of cream ale it was pretty indistingusable and at the end we were drunk but did have a favorite.
 
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