First brew and i need some help!

[franks160]

I just moved my American ipa from plastic primary to Carboy after 7 days. The brew was bubbling good for 4 days and slowed and stopped on day 5.

Day eight I moved to the Carboy. That was about 12 hours ago and and all the hops and etc. are settled at the bottom and no bubbling.

Is this normal? How long should it stay in secondary?

Thanks

 

[worksnorth]

Probably normal. Did you happen to check the specific gravity as you transfered to the secondary.
At this stage you may not get many bubbles out of the airlock. Best indication what stage the fermentation is at now is by using a hydrometer.

 

[franks160]

I did not check the gravity. Can I check that now or is it to late?

 

[FishNChips]

You won't get any bubbling once your yeast are done fermenting. There shouldn't be any fermentation going on in your secondary.

If this is your first time brewing....just so you know...you don't have to transfer to secondary vessel unless you are planning on dry hopping or adding some thing to your beer. You can just leave it in your primary fermenter and let the secondary "fermentation" take place in there.

 

[duboman]

I did not check the gravity. Can I check that now or is it to late?

Yes you can but it really isn't important as you already moved the beer. Next time make sure you verify fermentation is complete BEFoRE moving it to dry hop. You may get some additional fermentation so don't be concerned.

Before you decide to bottle be sure to take a gravity reading twice over a couple days, if the reading is the same you can then bottle. I'll assume you plan on dry hopping for at least 7 days.

 

[franks160]

Ok good. I was reading some of these post and my head started to spin! So I assumed I F'ed up. So I assume you don't put any of the stuff that sank to the bottom in the bottles. Thanks for the help!

 

[kapbrew13]

Keep it simple and don't move to a secondary unless adding stuff ( dry hop, fruit, oak etc)

Even if bubbling stops, yeast are still working.

If your patient, leave it up to 3 weeks. If not, take gravity readings. When you get the same reading 3 straight days, go ahead and bottle.

 

[Whut]

Yup, you want to leave the trub in the bottom of the carboy. But don't worry, you still made beer. Cheers!

 

[rifraf]

Ok good. I was reading some of these post and my head started to spin! So I assumed I F'ed up. So I assume you don't put any of the stuff that sank to the bottom in the bottles. Thanks for the help!

The first few weeks that I started reading this forum, the 1st lesson I learned was how little I knew!

The best thing you can do is read How to Brew by John Palmer. The 1st edition is available online at www.howtobrew.com, or you can buy the most updated 3rd edition. Either way, it's full of TONS of easy to digest info, and walks you through a typical brew day. Once I read that, everything started to make more sense on this site and I also felt like I could take a mildly educated side on some of the hot topics (need to secondary or not, etc).

The 2nd lesson I learned is that despite how many people sweat 1 or 2 degrees during fermentation, .001-.004 points on their hydrometer reading, it's very difficult to completely eff everything up. Remember, at the end of the day the worst case scenario is that you've made beer ! RDWHAHB!

 

[duboman]

The first few weeks that I started reading this forum, the 1st lesson I learned was how little I knew!

The best thing you can do is read How to Brew by John Palmer. The 1st edition is available online at www.howtobrew.com, or you can buy the most updated 3rd edition. Either way, it's full of TONS of easy to digest info, and walks you through a typical brew day. Once I read that, everything started to make more sense on this site and I also felt like I could take a mildly educated side on some of the hot topics (need to secondary or not, etc).

The 2nd lesson I learned is that despite how many people sweat 1 or 2 degrees during fermentation, .001-.004 points on their hydrometer reading, it's very difficult to completely eff everything up. Remember, at the end of the day the worst case scenario is that you've made beer ! RDWHAHB!

Well spoken!