How long should I keep in 2nd stage...

Brewing a Red Ale, WLP007 yeast, and I racked to 2nd stage this morning and gravity is reading 1.010 (OG 1.052). It is ~82% attenuation now. I initially planned on fermenting in 2nd stage for 5-6 days. Would this be too long considering the beer is pretty much done?? Any info is appreciated.

Griff

tgriff00 said:

Brewing a Red Ale, WLP007 yeast, and I racked to 2nd stage this morning and gravity is reading 1.010 (OG 1.052). It is ~82% attenuation now. I initially planned on fermenting in 2nd stage for 5-6 days. Would this be too long considering the beer is pretty much done?? Any info is appreciated.

Griff

Click to expand...

When the gravity reading doesn't change any more over the course of at least three days, it's done fermenting. I usually bottle a beer once it's been at FG (final gravity) for at least 5 days or so, and when the beer is fairly clear.

A cloudy beer will clear in the bottle, leaving more crud in the bottle, so I usually wait until the beer is clear before bottling. That may be just a few days after it reaches FG, or it may be a week or two.

I usually let me beer sit in primary for 2-3 weeks. Then if I am dry hopping or need my main carboy for another batch I condition in the secondary.

There will be little to no fermentation after racking from primary. When you transfer to a 2ndary its more for longer term conditioning, clarification and getting the beer off the yeast cake.

I would not worry about your gravity doing much of anything after primary unless you are adding more sugar to it in secondary like fruit or something.

How long was it in primary? Anything over 10-14 days I would say your pretty much done fermenting.

tgriff00 said:

Brewing a Red Ale, WLP007 yeast, and I racked to 2nd stage this morning and gravity is reading 1.010 (OG 1.052). It is ~82% attenuation now. I initially planned on fermenting in 2nd stage for 5-6 days. Would this be too long considering the beer is pretty much done?? Any info is appreciated.

Griff

Click to expand...

It won't hurt to let it sit for a bit. I only brew, bottle, or keg on weekends. You could definitely wait until then. Purists will tell you to check a gravity reading 3 days in a row to document it is stable. I never do, too much work and small risk of getting something in there that doesn't belong. I check OG on brewday and FG on Kegging or bottling day.

Thanks for the info... ImperialIPA it was in primary 6 days 17hrs. I will check it this Saturday and see how it is doing. Is it safe to shine a lit to see if it has cleared. It is pretty dark sitting in the carboy. I'd prefer a clean beer from the bottle. On that note, would it be okay strain thru a nylon strainer from the bottling bucket to the bottle??

tgriff00 said:

Thanks for the info... ImperialIPA it was in primary 6 days 17hrs. I will check it this Saturday and see how it is doing. Is it safe to shine a lit to see if it has cleared. It is pretty dark sitting in the carboy. I'd prefer a clean beer from the bottle. On that note, would it be okay strain thru a nylon strainer from the bottling bucket to the bottle??

Click to expand...

6 days in primary is pretty short. I'd be inclined to leave it alone for two weeks or so, and then dryhop (if dryhopping) and then bottling a week after that.
You don't want to rush it.

You don't want to strain it at all. Once fermentation has started, you want to protect the beer as much as possible from any chance of aeration. That means gently siphoning from the secondary (more properly called a clearing vessel or "bright tank") into the bottling bucket without stirring or splashing the beer at all.

If you let it sit until it's clear, and then rack from above the trub gently, you shouldn't get too much sediment picked up. The key is time.

The recipe calls for it to bottle for 3 weeks with ~a week in the 2nd stage. Which is better longer 2nd stage or bottle ferment. I'd assume longer 2nd stage is better..

I think people are finding that bulk aging for anywhere from 1 - 4 weeks and then bottling improves the beer. The variation in length is style dependent. Generally, the higher the OG, the longer you might want to age before bottling. Plus age lagers longer than ales.

Some of us with pretty good pipelines will let the beer age for even longer, partly out of laziness and we already have plenty of beer on hand. However if you are out of brews and just itching to get this in a bottle, if the gravity is stable, then bottle it. I'd wait until it clears, but if you just can't resist, bottle it. No harm will come from it