High SG Going Into Secondary?

[devinjames]

The roomate and I brewed our first batch last Thursday. An amber from LME and hop pellets. Simple enough. The information we had been reading was recommending racking over to the secondary carboy after 3-4 days. So this Monday being 4 days, and finding out I'll have to leave town for a funeral, we racked into the secondary last night.

Our OG was 1.034 or thereabouts. (Not around my notes now.) We pitched a rehydrated starter relatively hot, around 85degrees, so we were worried about that. And this Houston heat is keeping our fermenter around 75degrees when we're lucky. I'm also worried we didn't aerate much, but fermentation did seem to kick off pretty quickly.

While racking I measured an SG of about 1.024 which I though was still pretty high to be going into the secondary, but in it went anyway due to having to go out of town.

Everything looked fine though. Obvious signs of relatively active fermentation. A good smell and taste. Only worry is that high SG reading. I'm going to make sure my hydrometers calibrated properly when I get home and double check my corrections for temperature, but I'm pretty sure everythings right on that end.

I'm thinking I'll just need to leave it in the secondary a little longer than I was planning. Now about two weeks or so. To make sure all the fermentation gets done and bottle once it gets down to 1.015 or so.

Good idea? Anything else I should do to make sure this keeps going well? Advice appreciated.

 

[BierMuncher]

Aeration is key. Yeast need oxygen just like you do. You can have a good start, but once the oxygen (what little there may be in your wort) is gone, the yeast run out of juice.

Leave it in the secondary at this point. REally no other choice.

 

[TexLaw]

Devin, you are fine with your pitching and what happened in the primary. I agree that you did rack too early. Your beer should have been fine in the primary until you returned. However, it's no where near the end of the world.

You still had some fermenting to do, so watch your gravity before you bottle. Most likely, that fermentation will happen more slowly in the secondary, since you took the beer away from a lot of the yeast. The silver lining is that you should have had a bunch of yeast still suspended in the beer.

Because you took the beer off the yeast so early, you may have some issues with diacetyl, but that depends on your yeast strain.

Again, watch the SG carefully. For an OG of 1.034, 1.015 is pretty high for a finishing gravity. You will probably finish somewhere around 1.008. When your SG has been stable in the expected range for a few days, you are good to bottle.

You may also want to rack again, if you get a lot of sediment on the bottom of your secondary. If you are using a bottling bucket, though, you can probably just get by with racking into the bucket at bottling time.

Finally, come by a Foam Rangers meeting or the Dixie Cup if you want to talk more about all this stuff!


TL

 

[TexLaw]

I missed the part about the potential lack of aereation. If your lag time was short, though, you may have been fine there.


TL

 

[devinjames]

Finally, come by a Foam Rangers meeting or the Dixie Cup if you want to talk more about all this stuff!
TL

Thanks for the help. Lots of remember to do next times as expected, but this batch seems like it'll turn out pretty well.

I'll be extra careful around bottling time to make sure my FG's right. And rack off to a bottling bucket like you mentioned.

And yeah, I've looked over the Foam Rangers site and Dixie Cup stuff, I'll try to make it down sometime if I can find the time.

Thanks,
Devin

 

[devinjames]

Finally, come by a Foam Rangers meeting or the Dixie Cup if you want to talk more about all this stuff!

How's the Dixie Cup for spectators? Have nothing to submit, but the roomate and I are talking about trying to make it down.

 

[Bobby_M]

I missed the part about the potential lack of aereation. If your lag time was short, though, you may have been fine there.


TL

Just one quick correction. A quick start is actually a sign of either extremely high cell count or low dissolved oxygen. In my aeration experiment, the highly oxygenated wort was the last to start but attenuated the most. In any case, I'm sure it's fine because the topup water likely carried just enough O2 in to get the cell count up. Those high 70's ferment temps have got to go next time though. Use a water bath with an icebrick.

 

[devinjames]

Those high 70's ferment temps have got to go next time though. Use a water bath with an icebrick.

Yeah, that's the plan. Thanks for the help.

 

[malkore]

never rush things. any off flavors in this beer, chalk it up to beginner mishaps and lack of experience. don't let your first batch (good or bad) determine your future outlook on homebrewing.

beer can sit in primary for several weeks with no issues.

 

[devinjames]

An update.

Checked the SG last night before MNF and got 1.015. Slowed down, sure, but things look like they're going fine. I've brought the temperature down with a water bath and a wet towel (and the occassional frozen 2 liter). It's staying pretty consistent in the low 70s.

Figure I'm waiting a little more for the SG to drop, but went and cleaned half the bottles during the game to be ready.

Things are looking good. Thanks for the help, guys.

Devin