Lager Question

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slinn

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I bought AHS's Spring Maibock, it was in the primary at 50ish degrees for it's 10 days as the instructions state. After these ten days, I raised the temps to between 60 & 65 degrees for their suggested three days (or at least tomorrow will be three days). AHS suggests moving to a secondary for several weeks after this initial fermentation period. My original gravity was 1.052, it is now sitting at 1.020. The instructions state that the final gravity should be around 1.013, so I've got a little farther to go. This finally brings me to my question - if I go ahead and rack to a secondary, will there continue to be fermentation there, or should I keep this in the primary until I get closer to the final gravity? I am getting bubbles at about a rate of 1 every 12 - 15 seconds, and that's pretty much the way it has been going since fermentation started. Thanks in advance!
 
There's no absolute right or wrong here, but the three days is generally meant to be at the end of the active fermentation, so the yeast will process any diacetyl flavors and so the warmer temps will cause the yeast to fully complete fermentation. IMO after 10 days the beer wasn't quite ready for the warming up. Our beers don't always obey the rules!

If it were my beer I would leave it fermenting at the 50ish until the fermentation gets very slow and then put it back in the warmer temp again for a couple days, then rack to the secondary. I'm afraid if you rack to the secondary now you won't get full attenuation.
 
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