Need brewing advice....

Ok so here's the deal...... I just took a look at my carboy in the secondary. the beer is very clear and it looks like a good bit of the yeast has fallen out of suspension. It seemed kind of early. Just to be sure i took a gravity reading.... I'm already at my est. final gravity.... So, do i go ahead and bottle and let it carbonate and age in bottles or do i leave it in the secondary for a few more days?????

age for 2 weeks minimum then bottle. just because there are no bubbles dosn't necessarily mean fermentation is over.

Need more info. How long was it in the primary? How about the secondary? What kind of beer is it? Etc.

r3dn3ckstyl3z said:

Ok so here's the deal...... I just took a look at my carboy in the secondary. the beer is very clear and it looks like a good bit of the yeast has fallen out of suspension. It seemed kind of early. Just to be sure i took a gravity reading.... I'm already at my est. final gravity.... So, do i go ahead and bottle and let it carbonate and age in bottles or do i leave it in the secondary for a few more days?????

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Well, you should have been at the FG before you racked to secondary. So, it's good that it made it there now. Sometimes racking to the carboy before you've reached FG can stall the fermentation permanently, so it's good to get to the FG before you take it off the main yeast cake.

The purpose of "secondary" is to clear and condition the beer. This is called the "bright tank" in breweries.

I don't use secondaries very often, but when I do, I leave the beer there for at least a couple of weeks. Otherwise, what's the point? Just to move it for the sake of moving it would be a big PITA if it wasn't going to spend some time there conditioning. I usually only use a secondary if I'm dryhopping or adding something after primary.

Anyway, if it's been less than 2 weeks in the carboy, I'd leave it alone. Especially since it just reached FG- even though it's seemingly pretty clear, more stuff will flocculate out after the fermentation is finished.

TipsyDragon said:

age for 2 weeks minimum then bottle. just because there are no bubbles dosn't necessarily mean fermentation is over.

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Unlike having a steady hydro reading over 3 days, which does mean that fermentation is over.

primary for about 3 weeks...... secondary for about a week..... Imperial Stout with Brown sugar...... the LHBS guy did tell me that the yeast that i used would have less of a fermentation time than the typical yeast used in the recipe..... he was out of the yeast called for in the recipe.....

ok i'll leave it in for a while longer and keep checking gravity over the next few days......