2nd fermintation

Reviewing my instruction from my beer kit, I noticed an optional step that I believe I will try. First my batch has been in the 1st fermenter bucket for 1 week. Tonight I believe I will siphon from fermenter 1 to fermenter 2 leaving behind much of the settled ingredients behind. This step is supposed to improve the clarity of the finished product.

So my question is, when I siphon the batch from 1 to 2, should I aerate it again or just transfer it as it will? I would think that since I am still in fermentation, the extra aeration would / could still help.

Thoughts?

No aeration! No aeration. The phrase secondary fermentatin is kind of a misnomer. You should only move to a secondary if fermentation is 100% complete. You do not want to shake or otherwise aerate your brew once fermentation is pretty much done (which it should be after a week). Many of us don't even bother with a secondary anymore. Leave it in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks and the beer will be as clear as if you used a secondary.

DO NOT AERATE! Once you have pitched yeast, you should never aerate! When transferring to secondary, make sure to keep the hose in secondary under the beer to make sure it doesnt aerate it that way either.

OK, got it. I am having fun, the kit came with 2 buckets and 1 carboy. What the heck is the carboy for? I ask from my limited understanding but if I do not use a 2nd fermenter stage, then the whole think would only use one bucket or possibly 2 buckets, correct? I figure the last bucket would be when I add the fermented beer and sugar for carbonation.

mlail said:

OK, got it. I am having fun, the kit came with 2 buckets and 1 carboy. What the heck is the carboy for? I ask from my limited understanding but if I do not use a 2nd fermenter stage, then the whole think would only use one bucket or possibly 2 buckets, correct? I figure the last bucket would be when I add the fermented beer and sugar for carbonation.

Click to expand...

The carboy is for secondary since it is smaller and is only 5 gallons. The bucket with the spigot is for bottling. You add the priming solution to the bottom of the bottling bucket, siphon out of secondary to bottling bucket until full, and then fill bottles from the bucket via a bottling wand.

So basically one bucket is your primary vessel, the second bucket hopefully has a spigot? That would be your designated bottling bucket for the bottling process. The carboy is a secondary vessel assuming it is only 5 gallons size. Unless you are oaking or adding fruit you really won't need to secondary. If it is a 6 gallon carboy you can certainly use it as another primary fermentation vessel.

As stated though, do not aerate once the beer has fermented and do not move the beer off the primary yeast until final gravity has been reached.

duboman said:

So basically one bucket is your primary vessel, the second bucket hopefully has a spigot? That would be your designated bottling bucket for the bottling process. The carboy is a secondary vessel assuming it is only 5 gallons size. Unless you are oaking or adding fruit you really won't need to secondary. If it is a 6 gallon carboy you can certainly use it as another primary fermentation vessel.

As stated though, do not aerate once the beer has fermented and do not move the beer off the primary yeast until final gravity has been reached.

Click to expand...

If it isn't a 6 gallon carboy but is only five gallons you can use it to ferment a cider or a mead since these don't raise a krausen like beer.

RM-MN said:

If it isn't a 6 gallon carboy but is only five gallons you can use it to ferment a cider or a mead since these don't raise a krausen like beer.

Click to expand...

very true, nice catch

Maybe this is strange but the hydrometer has not changed at all. Seven days from the start of fermentation and the reading is 1.042 @ 63F. The instructions suggest this will continue for up to 16 days.

I also noted somethings. Starting with carbon dioxide is still being released. Taking a reading was challenging because the CO2 bubbles make a foam at the surface and these act like magnets to the hydrometer. So this kind of tells the story and I need to wait a while for the activity to stop or slow down. Still I expected more foam at the surface but there was only the released CO2 bubbles that eventually are released and go out the air lock.

Simple question. Is the batch still called Wort while it is fermenting? The book described Wort as before fermentation. After fermentation I guess it can be called uncarbonated beer?

Once fermentation has started it is creating alcohol and is beer.

If it truly is the same gravity as at the start, then the yeast didn't work. However, since you are getting CO2 coming out of solution (bubbles), then it is working. Maybe it was slow to start since it was cool. 63 is fine for most yeasts, but it is too low for some. Do some research for the right temp for your yeast.

Yes, the bubbles will hold the hydrometer up and give a high reading, you really need them to go. Unfortunately if it is fermenting, it will continually create bubbles. Try spinning the hydrometer, which will throw the bubbles outwards, and read it quick. Do it a couple of times.

The tricky part of using the hydrometer is when you spin it, it tends to bob up and down. Once it stops bobbing up and down, it also stops spinning and the bubbles attack

I guess it is a wait and see process. I will check it every other day to see when things start changing.

For those that helped by answering my earlier question. Here is the latest update. The gravity has dropped to 1.010 (finally) and the air lock has reduced CO emissions to one bubble per 30 seconds. It was one bubble every 10 seconds and a gravity of 1.042. Nice to see the gravity decreasing. I'll check it again tomorrow... until it stops dropping. Then I can transfer to the bottler bucket...

Crossing my fingers that everything turns out OK.

Once the yeast is pitched, it's called beer.

Silly and obvious thing to bring up, but make sure the hydrometer is floating.

The beer is now in the bottles waiting on the carbonation process to complete. Then we can say cheers!

Thanks everyone for your support and guidance.

Happy Holidays